Patients that have Impacted me in 1st Year of Medical School

Last Wed, February 16th, I went to what is called Preceptor, which is part of the program. It's a 4 hour long doctor shadowing. Every once in a while I get to talk to a patient on my own or get to listen to irregular heart sounds or abnormal lungs sounds. For some reason I had to journal about last week. I wanted to do it last week but have kept putting it off. So, I am writing about it before I go to bed. Anyways, last week my doctor was seeing a patient that had an effect on me. She was a mid fifites Hispanic woman named Eee (can't use her real name). She had multiple sclerorsis, otherwise known as MS, and it is a disease that eats away at the covering of your neurons, and gets progressively worse until you essentially become paralyzed. Ee's attidude about her disease was what had an impact on me. It's people like her that want me to be in medicine. She kept talking about how even though she has MS she is going to take every possibility to work with physical therapists to try to make its effects less.

 She kept saying how she wanted to see her sons get through high school and see them graduate even though she has MS she wants to go see them graduate and not be wheelchair bound. She knows her fate is not good, eventually she will be bound to a wheelchair, but she had will to fight it. She was in so much pain I had to help her get up from her chair to the examination table, and she winced while walking. She uses a walker to help her now. She is going to rehab to slow the progression of her disease. I have never met anyone with MS and seen its direct effects like I did that day in the clinic. It was moving. I've never seen so much courage from a patient in spite of tremendous odds against her. It's neat to see how people can have such a positive attitude.

-MD in 14