i've officially been working in my office for 4 months. hard to believe. you know i come home with tons of stories. life stories, disease stories, katrina stories. i like listening. and doing that sympathetic touch on the arm that says, 'yeah, im right there with you.' in the time, i've managed to pick out some of my favorite patients. i really like considering them "my" patients - as if i'm the one treating them. they are the ones that recognize my voice on the phone or will ask for me or the ones that can say their first name and i know EXACTLY who it is.
today, one of my patients called. it was weird because i had talked about him at dinner last night - he was a bartender at the restaurant we went to, so i looked for him. obviously, i mentioned this to him on the phone. i could instantly tell he was very out of it. i made an appointment for him for the afternoon. now, he had started coming in only 3 weeks ago, and in those three weeks, we had seen him maybe 5 times. robyn pulled me aside one of the times and says "he's telling him he's got HIV" jeez. what news. he had been put on a drug regimen for the HIV, but he was also losing weight very very quickly.
HIV and AIDS are diseases that are "trendy" - everyone seems to want to support finding a cure/vaccine. patients get a lot of support. and with all of the current drug regimens for HIV/AIDS, people aren't FRIGHTENED of the disease. up until about 10 years ago, the treatment consisted of the AZT cocktail, and patients were taking a bunch of pills a bunch of times a day (and the side effects weren't very tolerable either). now, they are down to 4 pills a day on average. the time it takes for the virus to become resistant to the meds has been extended.
i think it's forgotten that there are more dangerous epidemics out there (malaria kills the most people every year - a disease spread by mosquitoes - damn buggers). but until you see someone deteriorate the way this patient did in THREE WEEKS, you can't understand how scary this disease really is.
so the patient came in. kc sent him for a chest xray. by the time i was ready to leave for the day, the radiologist called us to tell us that he didn't even know how to interpret the xrays. basically, he need to be admitted to the hospital ASAP. i had to call kc at home, he wanted to let him know, and he even met him at touro's ER. (reason number 472 why i love kc and want to be him when i grow up)
i can't get it out of my head.
today, one of my patients called. it was weird because i had talked about him at dinner last night - he was a bartender at the restaurant we went to, so i looked for him. obviously, i mentioned this to him on the phone. i could instantly tell he was very out of it. i made an appointment for him for the afternoon. now, he had started coming in only 3 weeks ago, and in those three weeks, we had seen him maybe 5 times. robyn pulled me aside one of the times and says "he's telling him he's got HIV" jeez. what news. he had been put on a drug regimen for the HIV, but he was also losing weight very very quickly.
HIV and AIDS are diseases that are "trendy" - everyone seems to want to support finding a cure/vaccine. patients get a lot of support. and with all of the current drug regimens for HIV/AIDS, people aren't FRIGHTENED of the disease. up until about 10 years ago, the treatment consisted of the AZT cocktail, and patients were taking a bunch of pills a bunch of times a day (and the side effects weren't very tolerable either). now, they are down to 4 pills a day on average. the time it takes for the virus to become resistant to the meds has been extended.
i think it's forgotten that there are more dangerous epidemics out there (malaria kills the most people every year - a disease spread by mosquitoes - damn buggers). but until you see someone deteriorate the way this patient did in THREE WEEKS, you can't understand how scary this disease really is.
so the patient came in. kc sent him for a chest xray. by the time i was ready to leave for the day, the radiologist called us to tell us that he didn't even know how to interpret the xrays. basically, he need to be admitted to the hospital ASAP. i had to call kc at home, he wanted to let him know, and he even met him at touro's ER. (reason number 472 why i love kc and want to be him when i grow up)
i can't get it out of my head.
posted by Catherine at 9:52 PM
1 Comments:
damn. that's crazy. and i imagine hard to watch.
you're right, it is super-trendy. when i'm doing prospecting for grants, i can't tell you how many are out there for HIV/AIDS research. one of our clients is BRG, and they told us not to send them any more grant opportunities for HIV/AIDS because it's not their thing. but that's probably what 60% of the health-related grant opps out there are for.
not only is it trendy--it's still a little bit hot. as in some people still aren't too willing to deal with it.
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