Surrey Office Visit #2

I am seriously estatic that I have such a wonderful preceptor and Dr. Baker has failed to disappoint. I got to do my first breast exam today. It was a little awkward at first and it was hard for me to look the patient in the eyes while I was doing the exam, but I got over it quickly. They say a lot of guy med students find it hard to contain their sexual arousal upon being exposed to a random woman's breasts. I don't think it was a huge problem this time since the patient was quite old in age. I still don't know how I'll react, had the woman been younger.

I was also fortunate to use an ultrasound to find the heart beat of the fetus in a pregnant girl. It's just like using a metal detector to look for long lost treasure. Once you find something, the small hand-held doppler instrument makes a cool swooshy noise. I know, I get off on the silliest and most trivial things. I was also given the opportunity to preform cyrotherapy (using Nitrogen to freeze off flat warts) and partake in a minor surgical procedure to remove a papule for testing.

The experience that was most profound for me was helping with a 1st prenatal visit. I realized I had made a huge assumption at the beginning, that this girl came in with full anticipation and eagerness to support the baby. I was instead confronted with a 17 year old who only recently found out she was 21 weeks pregnant. I say to myself that I have nothing against teens getting pregnant as I understand everyone has their own prerogatives and issues. However, I was quite stunned and I didn't know exactly how emotionally involved or challenging my questions had to be with her. I've only met her for a few seconds now, she's very shy and closed off, so how can I possibly without knowing her just jump into asking her whether she wants to keep the baby or not. I'm sure this is a hard skill I will need to learn as a future physician and it's probably my role to ask these hard questions. I realized my utter lack in training and experience in this realm of medicine where I gotta deal with awkward situations. At the end of the day, I was glad my preceptor challenged me and asked me to hash out the feelings and emotions that were going on inside me while I was alone in the room interviewing her. I realized first hand how important it is for me as a future physician to analyze and understand my own reaction to such issues so I can properly respond in such situatins without being simply flabbergasted. Laying it all out on the table, I realized that I wasn't as comfortable personally as I thought with teens getting pregnant at such an early age despite personally knowing a very good friend of mine get his girlfriend pregnant in highschool and going through with the delivery. I guess it's different when you're only a bystander watching things like these happen. Once you're the physician, you're thrown right into the whole thing. I defintely found the conversation to be awkward, the girl was very closed off with her body language (no eye contact, flat expression) and one-worded close-ended responses. A tough day for me and I know it must be even tougher for the patient. All-in-all a great experience for me.