I finished my last day at Harborview on Wednesday of this week. It's the fastest and slowest 6 weeks of my life :). I am so grateful for such an incredible first experience. I met a ton of incredible physicians, a great number of wonderful patients, all with very unique stories. I feel sad to leave. It's funny how far I have come. When I was approaching my first day at Harborview I was terrified, intimidated by the very idea of working at a place like Harborview. Now, I don't want to leave and am so glad that I had the opportunity that I did. There are med students across the country that do everything they can to earn a rotation through there, and I got placed there kind of by chance. Without getting too particular, I wanted to give a glimpse of the types of things that I saw while at Harborview.
I took care of patients with:
I took care of patients with:
- Tuberculosis affecting the lungs, adrenal glands and brain
- Alcoholic cirrhosis
- Cholelithiasis (gall stones)
- Neuro-syphilis
- Syncope of unexplained origin
- Stage 3 HIV with severe complications
- "shock liver"
- Hyponatremia (low sodium)
- end stage renal disease, dependent on dialysis
- suicide attempt with HIV medications
and much much more.
I have no pictures from my experience at Harborview, except this one. We were getting training on how to appropriately put on/take off personal protective equipment for infections. This particular session was prompted by the concern for the Ebola virus which is insanely scary. But, we took a scary thing and turned it into something fun by covering the chief resident in ketchup and then seeing if he could remove the protective gown without getting it all over himself (which is easier than not getting the virus on you because at least you can see the ketchup). There's a whole process underwy for WHEN the ebola virus makes it to Harborview, not IF. It's hard to believe...
About 4 weeks in I had a "golden weekend" where I got two full days off in a row and those days happened to be on a weekend. This is a rare occurence in the 3rd and 4th years and I took advantage and met up with some fellow med students for a hike.
We all joined together to hike up to Melakwa lake, a glacier lake near Snoqualamie pass.
It was about 9 miles round trip and a wonderful escape from the hospital.
Since I last posted, one other big thing has happened--Tom came home from Atlanta! He surprised the heck out of me and made it home one day sooner than he was slated to come home! I couldn't have been more surprised or more happy!
Since he's been home we've both been insanely busy (as usual) but we've tried to soak in our short time together. We enjoyed the pre-season seahawks game
Shakespeare in the park
Home made pizza and movies in the park (Jurassic Park!)
And gelato to celebrate the end of some things and the beginning of other exciting things
The last few days I've been putting all my life-details in order that I've neglected for six weeks and started packing up for the big move to Olympia. I will send out an email or facebook message with my address so you all know where I will be. I transition to Olympia for 6 more weeks of internal medicine but this will be in the clinic setting rather than in the hospital. I'll post more details on that later, but for now, I am soaking in the last few moments with Tom and I in the same household and the fact that i am still across the street from our garden (which has been loving the rain by the way)
I'm excited and ready for some new adventures in Olympia!
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