gyn/onc
My current rotation is oncology. I thought I would really hate it, but truth is I love it. It's not nearly as depressing as I thought, and since the patients stay in the hospital for longer than 2 days we get to know them pretty well. They can be difficult and high maintenance at times, but if you had metastatic cancer you would be difficult, too.
One patient is this 68 year old woman with metastatic cancer and no one knows where the primary cancer is. The chemo won't start until they have some idea what they are treating so that they can choose the most effective agents. Until tumor cells are identified, she will just be waiting. She and her daughter are full of questions, and they ask the same questions every day.
Q: "What is the plan now?"
A: Same as yesterday.
Q: "What are we waiting for?"
A: The final pathology, same as yesterday.
Q:"Should we get a second opinion?"
A: If you like, but you might want to wait until there is enough information to give one. You don't have a first opinion yet.
Q: "When will I be able to go home?"
A: I don't know.
And so on.
I really like this patient. She reminds me of my mother. One of the residents on the service is named Watson, and she can't resist saying "Dr. Watson, I presume" when she sees him. My own dear mother would say something corny like that, as will I if I'm lucky enough to live as long.
It's fun dealing with older patients. Until this point, the vast majority of my patients have been reproductive aged women. Older women are cute. They are formal and polite and they love to talk. One of them insists on calling me "Brenda" (not my name) and after correcting her a few times, I stopped trying. It's kind of funny. She even introduced me to her husband as "my friend, Brenda" and I just smiled and shook the man's hand like that was what my mother named me. Hey, she's old and she has cancer. She has enough to think about without trying to remember all the resident's names.
Overall I enjoy the mature patients, but that is not to say there are not a couple of cranky old birds in the bunch. One surgical patient with vulvar carcinoma in situ took one look at me and insisted that residents not be involved in her surgery. My race paranoia flared, and I had a hunch what that request was about. I assured her that the attending doc would be doing her surgery. She then looked me in the eye with hostility and said emphatically, "GOOD!". Naturally the residents ended up doing it anyway. I told the attending doc about her request, and he said that because he was directing the whole thing it was the same as if he did it himself. It was a simple, partial, skinning vulvectomy, something that her husband could have done at home with a knife and a local anesthetic.
One patient is this 68 year old woman with metastatic cancer and no one knows where the primary cancer is. The chemo won't start until they have some idea what they are treating so that they can choose the most effective agents. Until tumor cells are identified, she will just be waiting. She and her daughter are full of questions, and they ask the same questions every day.
Q: "What is the plan now?"
A: Same as yesterday.
Q: "What are we waiting for?"
A: The final pathology, same as yesterday.
Q:"Should we get a second opinion?"
A: If you like, but you might want to wait until there is enough information to give one. You don't have a first opinion yet.
Q: "When will I be able to go home?"
A: I don't know.
And so on.
I really like this patient. She reminds me of my mother. One of the residents on the service is named Watson, and she can't resist saying "Dr. Watson, I presume" when she sees him. My own dear mother would say something corny like that, as will I if I'm lucky enough to live as long.
It's fun dealing with older patients. Until this point, the vast majority of my patients have been reproductive aged women. Older women are cute. They are formal and polite and they love to talk. One of them insists on calling me "Brenda" (not my name) and after correcting her a few times, I stopped trying. It's kind of funny. She even introduced me to her husband as "my friend, Brenda" and I just smiled and shook the man's hand like that was what my mother named me. Hey, she's old and she has cancer. She has enough to think about without trying to remember all the resident's names.
Overall I enjoy the mature patients, but that is not to say there are not a couple of cranky old birds in the bunch. One surgical patient with vulvar carcinoma in situ took one look at me and insisted that residents not be involved in her surgery. My race paranoia flared, and I had a hunch what that request was about. I assured her that the attending doc would be doing her surgery. She then looked me in the eye with hostility and said emphatically, "GOOD!". Naturally the residents ended up doing it anyway. I told the attending doc about her request, and he said that because he was directing the whole thing it was the same as if he did it himself. It was a simple, partial, skinning vulvectomy, something that her husband could have done at home with a knife and a local anesthetic.
posted by babydoc @ 8:56 AM
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