It's ironic that it's just dawning on me now, but being in health care is a bit of an emotional roller coaster. One second you're laughing with a patient, the next you're comforting someone who is struggling with making changes in their life. And that was just in the outpatient clinic where people are relatively healthy.
Enter the ICU- intensive care unit. Most patients are on ventilators and have multiple tubes extending from their bodies carrying medications for everything from blood thinners to stomach acid reducers to blood pressure supporters. Many do not leave the ICU.
So that leads me to my story from today, my first day there. I arrive there and pick up only two patients- fantastic! Except that one of them is ready to be taken off life support. So I call the palliative care team and I call the family to introduce myself. And the family comes in and we (meaning the palliative care physician) discusses taking this woman off life support. They agree that since she is very sick it's the best idea.
By the day's end I've learned how to extubate (remove the breathing tube) someone and keep them comfortable with sedatives and I've learned how not to become too teary-eyed while talking about a dying woman's final hours with other physicians. Now I understand why the doctor's of old were taught to intellectualize and not to get close to their patients. Fortunately, this woman will be out of her suffering and I'll have learned something.
And to cheer up this rather dark post I leave you with this silly photo. :)
Yes, this is what I look like post call :)
age). Beautiful! It does wonders for washing the hospital from your soul.
