Much awaited grub! Thank you, Dr. and Mrs. Statz!
Peptic ulcer fortune + Kim's reaction
Friday, December 16, 2011
Howdy from South Dakota!
After a ridiculously long and full day of driving, the second year JOURNEES group is settled in Rapid City, South Dakota! We'll be spending our first few days here in Rapid City before heading to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where we will be shadowing in the Indian Health Services clinic, meeting some awesome community leaders on the reservation, and experiencing some beautiful Native American cultural events. The entire group is so excited to be here, and we're so blessed to be hosted by the Statz family during our stay in Rapid! A delicious heap of Chinese takeout was awaiting us upon our arrival. And apparently, Kim's been ignoring her stomach so it's biting back with a vengeful peptic ulcer...so say the wise fortune cookies they have here in South Dakota.
Heavy Stuff
You know those carnival workers who can guess anybody's weight with just one glance? I've always been amazed by those people- they make it look so easy to tell what is heavy from what is light. Outside the gates of the carnival, we normal folks must work a little harder to judge the heft of an object or the gravity of a situation. Reflecting on our first full day in Mississippi, I'm struck by just how challenging judging a weight can be in both literal and figurative senses.
We should have known that with a name like "sheetrock," the material we were about to haul was darn heavy. But the stack of white rectangles looked like they were made of coffee-cup styrofoam and I was thus convinced that carrying the 80-odd sheets across the swampy yard and into the house would make light work. The killer burn in my forearms after moving just three sheets of the stuff proved that I had sorely underestimated this weight. We spent the afternoon lauging about how the wind turned the big, heavy boards into parachutes, pushing us into mud puddles with every pass. Though some of the more dexterous and strong-armed among us kept their feet dry, I ended the afternoon with soggy shoes. And more importantly an appreciation for the weight that puts the "rock" in sheetrock. Tomorrow we start hanging it on the walls!
From the beginning of our time at Pritzker, we doctors-in-training have been learning skills to help us handle "heavy" situations. Our practices will often put us in situations defined by suffering, death, and dying. Our patients will often carry heavy burdens with them into our exam rooms. Today, I had the incredible privilege of shadowing Sister Doctor Anne Brooks at the Tutwiler Clinic. I learned more about physical diagnosis, patient care, and the life of a physician in a rural community than should have been possible to learn in four short hours. The most important lesson Dr. Brooks taught me regarded lightening heavy situations. I watched again and again as Dr. Brooks brought smiles to the faces of her patients. These were patients facing not only difficult diagnoses but also a myriad of factors that affect their ability to manage their conditions. Dr. Brooks described how when she meets with a patient, it's her goal to get them out of "sick mode" so they can stop fixating on some of the heavy stuff and begin to believe in their ability to get better. It's hard to put the magnitude of her skill and her caring into words. I can so easily imagine that the burden of 30 years of practice in the face of such obstacles would amount to a burden too heavy to carry. But while Dr. Brooks fully understand the gravity of the situations of the patients she treats, she practices as if there is no burden at all, as if that sheet of drywall is just as light as it looks.
We should have known that with a name like "sheetrock," the material we were about to haul was darn heavy. But the stack of white rectangles looked like they were made of coffee-cup styrofoam and I was thus convinced that carrying the 80-odd sheets across the swampy yard and into the house would make light work. The killer burn in my forearms after moving just three sheets of the stuff proved that I had sorely underestimated this weight. We spent the afternoon lauging about how the wind turned the big, heavy boards into parachutes, pushing us into mud puddles with every pass. Though some of the more dexterous and strong-armed among us kept their feet dry, I ended the afternoon with soggy shoes. And more importantly an appreciation for the weight that puts the "rock" in sheetrock. Tomorrow we start hanging it on the walls!
From the beginning of our time at Pritzker, we doctors-in-training have been learning skills to help us handle "heavy" situations. Our practices will often put us in situations defined by suffering, death, and dying. Our patients will often carry heavy burdens with them into our exam rooms. Today, I had the incredible privilege of shadowing Sister Doctor Anne Brooks at the Tutwiler Clinic. I learned more about physical diagnosis, patient care, and the life of a physician in a rural community than should have been possible to learn in four short hours. The most important lesson Dr. Brooks taught me regarded lightening heavy situations. I watched again and again as Dr. Brooks brought smiles to the faces of her patients. These were patients facing not only difficult diagnoses but also a myriad of factors that affect their ability to manage their conditions. Dr. Brooks described how when she meets with a patient, it's her goal to get them out of "sick mode" so they can stop fixating on some of the heavy stuff and begin to believe in their ability to get better. It's hard to put the magnitude of her skill and her caring into words. I can so easily imagine that the burden of 30 years of practice in the face of such obstacles would amount to a burden too heavy to carry. But while Dr. Brooks fully understand the gravity of the situations of the patients she treats, she practices as if there is no burden at all, as if that sheet of drywall is just as light as it looks.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Smooth Sailing
Cars. Check.
Luggage. Check.
All 11 of us. Check.
Scones, cheez-its, pillows for the car, donuts, hershey's kisses, banana bread (thanks Joanna!). Check.
Actually leaving on time at 7 am? Yep. No big deal.
What a great way to set up our Journees trip. The tone of our group felt positive and surprisingly peppy at 7 am. Maybe we just couldn't help but be excited for our week of shadowing health care providers in Tutwiler and Clarksdale, MS, volunteering for the Tutwiler Habitat for Humanity branch building houses, and ultimately seeking to understand the differences, challenges, and context of medicine and health in rural Mississippi.
And so our 10 hour road trip began, not a problem in sight on a beautiful, crisp Chicago morning. Soon it became a Champaign morning, and then a Missouri afternoon as we cruised on the interstate. At every stop, Kiara would dance to stretch out her legs. As we got further south, it got warmer--there was Jake, keeping it casual in just a t-shirt and jeans (a welcome change from increasingly cold Chi-town). Watching Gladiator in Rebecca's car got us pumped to do some INTENSE service. In Jen's car there was conversation and thinking about rural medicine, sparked by reading an article about the Tutwiler Clinic and the wonderful Sister Anne Brooks (read about her at articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/03/nation/la-na-Mississippi-20100603-34) that we will be working with over the next week. Soon enough, we were passing through Memphis, and eating at a great neighborhood BBQ restaurant called Abe's in Clarksdale, the nearest town to our main base in Tutwiler.
And now I blog to you from home base itself--the habitat for humanity dorms in Tutwiler. Nicer accommodations than we even realized! This week is going to be too much fun. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm missing out on the furious puzzle-ing that's happening in the kitchen (we bought a 1000 piece puzzle during one of our stops)(pic attached). Thanks for your interest in our blog, we're planning on updating every day, so check back often!
Writing happily after a day of SMOOTH SAILING,
The MS1 Journees crew
Luggage. Check.
All 11 of us. Check.
Scones, cheez-its, pillows for the car, donuts, hershey's kisses, banana bread (thanks Joanna!). Check.
Actually leaving on time at 7 am? Yep. No big deal.
What a great way to set up our Journees trip. The tone of our group felt positive and surprisingly peppy at 7 am. Maybe we just couldn't help but be excited for our week of shadowing health care providers in Tutwiler and Clarksdale, MS, volunteering for the Tutwiler Habitat for Humanity branch building houses, and ultimately seeking to understand the differences, challenges, and context of medicine and health in rural Mississippi.
And so our 10 hour road trip began, not a problem in sight on a beautiful, crisp Chicago morning. Soon it became a Champaign morning, and then a Missouri afternoon as we cruised on the interstate. At every stop, Kiara would dance to stretch out her legs. As we got further south, it got warmer--there was Jake, keeping it casual in just a t-shirt and jeans (a welcome change from increasingly cold Chi-town). Watching Gladiator in Rebecca's car got us pumped to do some INTENSE service. In Jen's car there was conversation and thinking about rural medicine, sparked by reading an article about the Tutwiler Clinic and the wonderful Sister Anne Brooks (read about her at articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/03/nation/la-na-Mississippi-20100603-34) that we will be working with over the next week. Soon enough, we were passing through Memphis, and eating at a great neighborhood BBQ restaurant called Abe's in Clarksdale, the nearest town to our main base in Tutwiler.
And now I blog to you from home base itself--the habitat for humanity dorms in Tutwiler. Nicer accommodations than we even realized! This week is going to be too much fun. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm missing out on the furious puzzle-ing that's happening in the kitchen (we bought a 1000 piece puzzle during one of our stops)(pic attached). Thanks for your interest in our blog, we're planning on updating every day, so check back often!
Writing happily after a day of SMOOTH SAILING,
The MS1 Journees crew
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)