I’m feeling more and more like Dory these days. I just keep swimming on and on through my rotations. Since my last post, I finished my ambulatory rotation, spent two weeks in radiology, and two weeks in orthopedic surgery. That brings me to the current rotation (well, tomorrow is the last day) which happens to be dermatology. I’ve been rather surprised with how I’ve felt about the rotations I’ve taken lately. The most surprising part was how much I liked orthopedic surgery. It has a reputation of being a tough rotation that it truly deserves; I think I had one day that was less than twelve hours. What made it a fun rotation were the intake days. I love seeing clients and juggling a bunch of tasks. I love trying to guess (in my head, of course) which clients will choose which surgeries. I love working with residents and clinicians who like to teach. While it’s never been my goal to become a surgeon of that caliber, I did get to place a bone screw in a TPLO plate and that was pretty amazing as well.
I met some fabulous clients and some not so fabulous clients while on ortho. That brings me to my real reason for posting today. Some may think that this is a touchy subject, but I’d love some input from those who have been around the sun a few more times than I have. I am always surprised at the things that clients will say in the exam room. I had one woman that constantly called me ridiculous pet names (“oh, do whatever you need to do, honey”, “we don’t mind waiting, dear”, “thanks for taking such good care of Fluffy, sweetie”). It made me laugh more than anything…she sounded like a grandmother.
I would now like to contrast the aforementioned experience to one I’ve had with a few older, male clients. None of them make me laugh when I get comments like “I don’t know why Rover isn’t cooperating. It’s not every day that he has a pretty girl examining him”, or “Wow, Rover has a bunch of female doctors? Lucky dog!” I don’t understand the reasoning behind making comments like these, and I’m having a hard time thinking of an appropriate way to respond. For the first quote, I was alone in the room with the client so I kind of shrugged it off and kept going with my exam. For the second quote, the resident and an intern were in the room and the resident gracefully redirected the client to talking about the surgery itself. I’d love to say that there was some sort of generational gap, but I’ve seen clients of all ages make comments like these and it really makes for an awkward experience. I have the urge to ask if they talk to their own doctor that way…or their lawyer, or pharmacist, or dentist. I just know that over the course of my career, I’m going to get lines like these (or worse) and I’m going to have to come up with some good strategies for dealing with it so I can avoid the whole awkward silence afterward. I would just like to know why people think that it’s appropriate to make comments about someone’s looks in the exam room. I’m sure the answer is hiding somewhere with that magic injection clients keep asking for that will cure any illness.
Aside from my current deep thoughts, I’ve been spending my days on dermatology. I made some treats to take in tomorrow for the last day of the rotation. We get to wear jeans and I am crossing my fingers that we get let out early. I’m also hoping that I have time to go visit my wedding dress. It arrived in the store the other day and I just haven’t had a chance to get over there to try it on. I’ve done a ton of wedding planning lately and I think putting my dress on will be a nice change from endless internet searches and phone calls to vendors. This whole wedding thing is a lot of work.
On that note, I should get to bed so I am rested and refreshed for the last day of derm. I’ll try to post more regularly now that I’m more comfortable with the flow of 4th year. :)
