Week 3
After spending three weeks at the Mayo Clinic, I can positively say that in order to be a doctor one has to be emotionally durable. I continued to visit more of Dr. Steidley's clinic patients this week; however, two of them stood out to me that I want to talk about.
The first one was an elderly man who had recently been diagnosed with the disease I've been studying. While most physicians diagnose it four or five years after someone gets it, his physician was able to diagnose him with it in a month. I was personally happy for him since I thought that he could get a liver transplant and he could live a longer life. But he can't. Since he was too old, he couldn't be a candidate. I don't know what he can do now knowing that his only treatment option available for him was just gone.
The second one was a teenager who was around my age who had several serious health issues (again I'm being vague because of HIPAA sorry). In his case, Dr. Steidley knew that he most likely wasn't going to make it. I only got to see his patient information and I didn't even know him. Yet, I was heartbroken to see someone who had his whole life ahead of him only to be cut short. I actually saw him again when I was on break, I nodded him and he nodded right back. His family was with him also and despite the gravity of the situation, his family was somehow optimistic. They didn't let the fact that he would be gone in the near future plague them.
The two people were at the extremes in the spectrum of age, yet they were going to meet the same end soon. I'm not sure how Dr. Steidley or any of the other doctors don't get too preoccupied with these types of patients like I had been in the past few days. Maybe emotional resiliency naturally comes with the job, maybe they've gone through it too much and know how to handle that baggage. Either way, I don't know. One thing's for sure, having to interact with these two patients bolstered my resolve to become a doctor. I kept thinking to myself that by the time I get through college and medical school and residency and a fellowship that medical knowledge/technology would advance to the extent where I could save these types of patients. It might seem a little silly, but that's just something I've been thinking about that I felt I should share.
With regards to my Senior Research Project, I just started working on my hypothesis, background, and methods section for our publication. I will be meeting Dr. Mauer next week to discuss our project, what he may want, and what we can do. I'm both excited and nervous to meet him, since there's a lot riding on this. I'll update what'll happen soon.
It's heartwarming to know that your experience is only motivating you to further throw yourself down this road. I hope it continues to go well. I can't really think of a good question, so I'll just point out I did not know your middle name was Henry. So, *checks watch*, what's up with that?
ReplyDeleteThank you Ali! I thought I already told you about that? But yeah, one of my middle names is Henry.
DeleteI'm so glad to hear that you are still enjoying your time at the Mayo Clinic. It's amazing the emotional stability that healthcare workers need in order to do their jobs well. We typically only think about the happy stories, not the ones that are ending in tragedy.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, what are you planning to talk with Dr. Mauer about? What have you been finding through your analysis of the data you have?
Hello Ms. Cooney! We talked to Dr. Mauer about how there isn't a numerical quantity with the Myocardial Contraction Fraction that determines who will live and who will die from cardiac transthyretin amyloidosis. The data I have now is very limited as we have less than ten patients in the THAOS registry, and I haven't done the research with these patients just yet. However, we think that if the MCF is lower than 40% then that patient will have thicker heart walls leading to a smaller left ventricle, common in those that have cardiac transthyretin amyloidosis.
DeleteI love how you're learning to become emotionally stronger through your project on top of all the firsthand experience! Also, I don't think it's silly at all to believe that we'll one day have the technology to save people like the ones you've mentioned. Who knows? You might be the one to stumble across the next cure!
ReplyDeleteThanks Julie!
ReplyDelete