Turning chaos into something...

Another Thursday afternoon. Another battle.

I'm really not taking a liking to my new clinic...

It's chaotic. Period. My preceptor is chaotic. The setting is chaotic. The files are chaotic. The patients....

Well I guess the patients are always right.

... hardly...

Immediately after I showed up at the clinic, before I even put down my bag and my coat, Boss went, "oh, you're here. I didn't know you were coming. Here, see Eric over there".

... did I walked into an Emerg? Although it really felt that way.

And then of course the first patient was classic.

42 yo. Diabetic. Upper respiratory tract infection. Likely viral. Too late for Tamiflu. But not doing so well. Thought I would do a CXR to make sure no secondary infection.

"You want me to do an X-Ray??? I'm too tired to go!! Can't go today!!"

Ok. Do it tomorrow then. Go home and rest.

"What? There's nothing you can do for me now? I'm so ill!!"

No. It's viral. Go home and rest. Do the xray and if it's positive we'll talk. See me again in a few days to see how you're doing.

"Why did I come all the way here today? You can't do anything for me!!"

Great way to start the afternoon. Next time I'll remember the magic pill that everyone wants. Everyone just wants a quick fix.

Just another day in the battle field. Actually, it's a good training ground.

Patients come in all shapes and sizes.

They have all kinds of expectations and demands.

Some realistic. Some unreasonable.

But they all have to be met.

The trick in family medicine, and they don't teach you this in textbooks, is to somehow, in what little time you have, find a way to satisfy all your patients.

Make all of them leave happy. Leave satisfied. That it was worth it for them to have made the trip here, waited for you, and wasted almost an entire day for your opinion.

I have to make that opinion worthwhile, no matter how trivial it seems.

That is what I have to learn now.