Monthly Archives: April 2021

Medicine of the Mind

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“It’s a privilege to learn their stories…really get to know people,” he said when I asked for his nugget of advice for us students as we continue our medical school journey. “In what time you think you have, try to know them [patients]…exercise your privilege.” Before we get into the weeds, let me clarify what he meant as this quote is just a piece of a longer conversation. By “privilege” he meant the honor of getting to meet patients and having the opportunity to hear their stories. By “exercise” he meant take the time to be a good doctor which includes getting to know people’s stories.

This piece of advice came from a retired psychiatrist who, as rumor has it, retired several times and each time his patients convinced him to come back to practice. The way he carried himself reminded me of my late grandfather – tall but not imposing, with straight white hair that covered just enough of his forehead, and a quiet voice. But more than how he carried himself, his curiosity caught my attention. He was an old human, an old physician at that, who the week before he gave the above advice had comfortably engaged in conversation about pronouns and transgender care. He was a physician who listened to learn when I offered a rudimentary definition of “nonbinary.” I’ve met many a young person, with far fewer years to settle into old ways, who showed less interest in uncovering the nuances of the human experience.

“Really get to know people.” His words made me hopeful because they showed that even at the end of a long career there are physicians who still have a passion for the human story as much as I do at the beginning of the Doctorhood Quest. Being only 5 weeks into working in the hospital as a medical student, I have a long way to go before I can offer advice to students. But, for now, challenge accepted good sir. Let’s see how I do in the coming weeks and years at uncovering stories while also learning labs, diseases, medications, and all the other factoids that will help me reduce symptoms and cure disease in the patients I see.

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Pull Up Your Compression Socks

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Some of my friends and family have asked how I study so much. Others just give me a funny look, shake their head, and say becoming a doctor is too much school. And, to be honest, I mostly agree.

And that’s were compression socks come in.

When I was studying for my first board exam (aka STEP 1 which is a 7-hour exam that lightly touches most topics in medicine from skin rashes to embryological development) I started wearing compression socks. Every day before sitting at my desk with mate and breakfast and before firing up my computer, I’d spend a few moments pulling on the rainbow or patterned compression socks I’d chosen for the day. I’d never worn compression socks before I started studying for STEP 1 – not while hiking multiple 10-mile plus hikes a week, not while working 10-hour shifts on my feet, and not while training for marathons on city streets.

But studying from well before dawn to well past dark did me in. The truth is that studying all day is terribly grueling in the most passive way imaginable. The body rebels against stillness, and my bodying not only rebelled but went to war. My calves became so tight I could hardly walk. They’d throb at night. They’d throb in the morning. My shoulders and back were full of knots. My hamstrings constricted to a fraction of their normal length. I have a standing desk. It only made my hips tight. And. Yet. The studying had to be done. To help get through the hours, I’d stretched when I could. My workout routine become very consistent because without it I couldn’t concentrate.

The compression socks fixed my calves. I discovered them by accident. My partner wears them at work to avoid varicose veins, and one day I tried on some of his socks. It was a game changer; I could study all day and my legs would be okay. Just okay, but okay was way better than terrible.

It seems a bit dramatic to say it feels like your body is going to turn to stone simply because you sit still too much. “How do you study so much?” family would ask me in the final weeks leading up to my exam. I never exactly knew how to answer. And now I realize why – because studying  in medical school is less about the “how” and more about the “why.”

Why do I study so much?

It comes down to the end. The goal. The reason I bothered to enter medicine at all. It is only knowing where I wish to go that makes studying so much that I must wear compression socks worth it. I didn’t come to medicine because I wanted to study all day. I entered medicine because curing diseases and helping people through sickness is the professional contribution I wish to make to our world. I had plenty of time before starting school to explore many different professions. But, the one that captivated me was medicine. Medicine combines puzzles, science, and true stories. I study so much because every piece of information about symptoms and labs and geography and humans is a tool that might help me understand what is ailing a patient. I don’t study because I like it, I study because I want all the knowledge tools I can fit into my toolbox brain so that when I meet someone’s grandmother, someone’s father, someone’s friend, someone’s brother in a moment when their health is faulting…I know how to help them heal.