can you believe it's december already? seems like just last week that i landed in pearson airport. my elective has already come to an end.
i had a really great time. the placement was so much more than what i had initially expected. i leave the elective with opened eyes and a serious consideration to sexual health and women's health as a career in the future.
i want to share with you a few things that i have learned over the last 4 weeks. some of them are quite obvious, but seeing & experiencing first hand, the message has really struck home.
1. STIs don't discriminate. fat or skinny. tall or short. male or female. rich or poor. regardless of skin colour. regardless of age. regardless of sexual orientation. 1st sexual encounter or 1000th. it all doesn't matter. anyone and everyone is a potential carrier. don't think in stereotypes. just cause she's smoking hot, works at a law firm and wears manolo blahniks doesn't mean she's STI free!
2. ladies: get your PAP tests regularly. in ontario the rule is: once a year for 3 years (starting 1-2 years after first sexual activity). if all 3 of those PAPs are normal, you can then move to once every 2 years. a PAP is basically useless if you get it once every 10 years or even 5 years. it needs to be repeated annually and regularly so that the changes in your cervix can be monitored.
3. ladies. HPV vaccine - gardasil. i think you should get it. especially if you're under 26, are sexually active, have ever had an abnormal PAP and (perhaps most importantly) have a medical plan. the vaccine requires 3 injections over a 6 month period. each shot costs ~$150. so it ain't cheap. but seriously. talk to your doctor. do your research. get vaccinated.
Showing posts with label elective. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elective. Show all posts
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
bananas for bananas.
i had my first banana today in like 10+ months. bananas in australia were so ridiculously expensive. if i remember correctly, they were like $12/kilo at one point.
i must've looked like a bit of a fool though. i think i had this huge grin on my face as i ate it.
something else i've noticed about food... i can't eat spicy food anymore. after spending basically all of 2007 eating bland, non-spicy food, i feel like my capacity to handle spicy food has diminished considerably. i first noticed it when i went out to eat some kimchee tofu stew out in k-town early last week. my lips started burning and i couldn't even finish the my whole meal. today i put some hot sauce on my chicken teriyaki for lunch and i couldn't handle it. i've become such a wussy.
in other news...
having a great time with the elective. i feel like i've got a good grasp of what's going on. i don't feel as overwhelmed and lost as i did during the first couple of days.
one thing that i have had some difficulty with is finding patients that are comfortable with a "male med student". i'm kind of divided on this topic. from the "male med student" persepective, i think it's unfair. first of all, that's reverse sexism. secondly, patients know that they are coming to a teaching hospital and they should expect to have med student (male or female) conducting/performing parts of the exam or at the very least just simply observing and learning - which i'm totally fine with.
however, i can totally understand and empathize that if i were a woman coming in for a pelvic exam or a termination, the last thing i need/want is an extra set of eyes looking at my private parts.
so where do you draw the line between being polite & letting patients have their privacy and being slightly selfish & looking after your own education? i mean what if i, as a male med student actually really wanted to study obs & gyne? how am i supposed to learn if patients aren't willing?
what we (the staff and i, the staff by the way, have been incredibly accommodating) find to be the best method is for me to take the patient into the room first by myself and take down their history - of course at this point i let them know that i'm a med student and that a "REAL" doctor will be joining us shortly. this gives the patients a chance to get to know me just a little bit - this is where i need to work my magic. i then report to one of the supervising physicians. we then go back into the room together to complete the physical exam. some docs ask the patient if it's alright if i stick around. others just introduce themselves and then re-introduce me as a medical student and just carry on.
i must've looked like a bit of a fool though. i think i had this huge grin on my face as i ate it.
something else i've noticed about food... i can't eat spicy food anymore. after spending basically all of 2007 eating bland, non-spicy food, i feel like my capacity to handle spicy food has diminished considerably. i first noticed it when i went out to eat some kimchee tofu stew out in k-town early last week. my lips started burning and i couldn't even finish the my whole meal. today i put some hot sauce on my chicken teriyaki for lunch and i couldn't handle it. i've become such a wussy.
in other news...
having a great time with the elective. i feel like i've got a good grasp of what's going on. i don't feel as overwhelmed and lost as i did during the first couple of days.
one thing that i have had some difficulty with is finding patients that are comfortable with a "male med student". i'm kind of divided on this topic. from the "male med student" persepective, i think it's unfair. first of all, that's reverse sexism. secondly, patients know that they are coming to a teaching hospital and they should expect to have med student (male or female) conducting/performing parts of the exam or at the very least just simply observing and learning - which i'm totally fine with.
however, i can totally understand and empathize that if i were a woman coming in for a pelvic exam or a termination, the last thing i need/want is an extra set of eyes looking at my private parts.
so where do you draw the line between being polite & letting patients have their privacy and being slightly selfish & looking after your own education? i mean what if i, as a male med student actually really wanted to study obs & gyne? how am i supposed to learn if patients aren't willing?
what we (the staff and i, the staff by the way, have been incredibly accommodating) find to be the best method is for me to take the patient into the room first by myself and take down their history - of course at this point i let them know that i'm a med student and that a "REAL" doctor will be joining us shortly. this gives the patients a chance to get to know me just a little bit - this is where i need to work my magic. i then report to one of the supervising physicians. we then go back into the room together to complete the physical exam. some docs ask the patient if it's alright if i stick around. others just introduce themselves and then re-introduce me as a medical student and just carry on.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
bedside manner.
yesterday was the first day of my elective.
i won't go into too much detail about it here. let's just say that there was plenty of estrogen around - from the nursing staff, doctors and of course to the patients. then again, that probably shouldn't have suprised me considering it's called the *** Centre for Birth Control!
was exhausting, but had a great time.
did you know that abortions in canada are completely LEGAL at any point in the pregnancy? that surprised me. i knew they were legal but not that there's no real set cut-off.
having said that, the large majority of clinics won't perform a termination after about 14 weeks. i'm told that after roughly 14 weeks, the fetus becomes too big to be discarded in the biomedical wastes bin and requires it's own casket and burial which is - to quote - "a pain in the ass".
i was also surprised by the types of people coming in for an abortion. i was naive to think that it'd be all 14 or 15 year old girls. actually they were probably of the minority. the youngest i saw was about 17 i think. there were a lot of middle-aged women coming in that just didn't want another baby. simple as that.
funny how there are thousands if not millions of women out there that spend heaps of $$$ on ART (assisted reproductive technology) and yet here are these women that are just looking to get rid of their unwanted baby. isn't life so unfair and cruel?
on a perkier note: i had the opportunity to (among other things) take a patient history. i was a little nervous but the first one went quite well. i had a patient who was really easy to talk to. she was the perfect lady to "pop my cherry".
;)
she actually even commented on my bedside manner! well, at least UQ seems to be teaching something right!
i won't go into too much detail about it here. let's just say that there was plenty of estrogen around - from the nursing staff, doctors and of course to the patients. then again, that probably shouldn't have suprised me considering it's called the *** Centre for Birth Control!
was exhausting, but had a great time.
did you know that abortions in canada are completely LEGAL at any point in the pregnancy? that surprised me. i knew they were legal but not that there's no real set cut-off.
having said that, the large majority of clinics won't perform a termination after about 14 weeks. i'm told that after roughly 14 weeks, the fetus becomes too big to be discarded in the biomedical wastes bin and requires it's own casket and burial which is - to quote - "a pain in the ass".
i was also surprised by the types of people coming in for an abortion. i was naive to think that it'd be all 14 or 15 year old girls. actually they were probably of the minority. the youngest i saw was about 17 i think. there were a lot of middle-aged women coming in that just didn't want another baby. simple as that.
funny how there are thousands if not millions of women out there that spend heaps of $$$ on ART (assisted reproductive technology) and yet here are these women that are just looking to get rid of their unwanted baby. isn't life so unfair and cruel?
on a perkier note: i had the opportunity to (among other things) take a patient history. i was a little nervous but the first one went quite well. i had a patient who was really easy to talk to. she was the perfect lady to "pop my cherry".
;)
she actually even commented on my bedside manner! well, at least UQ seems to be teaching something right!
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