Day 13: Repeat after me

“Every sickness has an alien quality, a feeling of invasion and loss of control that is evident in the language we use about it.” ― Siri Hustvedt

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Today was going to be a familiar experience: family medicine. No matter who you are chances are that you've already seen a family doctor growing up and no matter who you shadow if the physician is passionate about their job then it will always be an interesting experience. To me, shadowing the Family Medicine practice feels the strangest because, unlike surgery, I myself have gone to a similar clinic growing up so seeing the 'behind the scenes' portion feels odd. It also showed me why the doctor doesn't always see the patient right away because there are a dozen other things going on in the other rooms and/or plenty of charts to fill out. It certainly is nonstop work with back to back patients but each of the doctors that I was able to shadow today both handled each patient with care and gave them the time and patience they needed.

First thing in the morning I shadowed Dr. Joel Amidon who had just recently graduated from the family medicine residency program at GHS and was continuing practicing there on. In the afternoon I had the pleasure of shadowing Dr. Ashmee Bacchus who was in her intern year after graduating from a medical school in the Caribbean! Sadly, she did not get to spend too much time on the beach because of her studies. Both of them had different dynamics around the office as they were on the opposite ends of the residency program. Dr. Amidon was completely independent when working with each of his patients. Dr. Bacchus, on the other hand, had to report to her attending after meeting once with the patient before she would go back and give her official diagnosis. Depending on the case as well, the attending would sometimes come back to the room where he would also have a short discussion with the patient about their diagnosis. Aside from that , however, Dr. Bacchus had complete control over her patient interaction.

One recurring theme of the day was certainly education. In many cases, both of the doctors spent a lot of time explaining to the patients all the reasons why they needed to exercise, stop smoking, stay away from certain foods and/or make certain lifestyle changes. Depending on the patient each of the doctors altered their approach to the subject even though they were sometimes repeating similar information in different rooms. Both Dr. Amidon and Dr. Bacchus had their own style of bedside manner and I find that this is some of the most valuable parts to see when shadowing different physicians.

Some of the patients that stood out to me the most were the young mother's and drug addicts seen in the clinic. For the latter, I could tell that they wanted to get better and leave their pasts behind them but they equally admitted that quitting anything is a large feat For some of them their partners also came to their medical visit and you could tell the emotional toll it was taking on them as well. As for the new mothers it really did break my heart to see some of the complications their babies were dealing with. They were so small and cute but for some of the cases all the doctor could tell them to do was to closely monitor the baby and hopefully no more abnormalities would show up where they would have to be re-admitted to the hospital.

Out of all of my shadowing experiences so far I feel as if family medicine gave me the broadest view of the patient population in Greenville. I loved seeing the relationships that both Dr. Amidon and Dr. Bacchus have developed at the outpatient clinic but I found it incredibly frustrating when it was uncertain if the patient would even follow their advice and make important changes in their lives (especially when I was told that they and the doctor had had the similar conversations on previous visits). Everyone needs to visit a doctor when they get sick or they're confused and afraid what their bodies are putting them through. I just wish that everyone also took to heart what they came in to the clinics to hear.