July 2, 2013
Today, Erica and I arrived to the hospital right on time! An accomplishment we are both proud of. After talking with my doctor Teresa yesterday, I learned that there were no surgeries in our department today so I was hoping to check out the neo-natal department just for the day. Before heading to the administration for approval, I wanted to ask for my doctor's permission. I spent a good hour waiting around for her, and no one knew where she was. Yet, for some reason the administration told me that they called her, and I had to go find her. After an hour without luck, I gave up. Thank god because she ended up not coming to work today (something I learned at the end of the day.) That whole debacle was a little annoying, but it was okay because it led to an adventurous day.
While searching for Teresa, I met an intern named Joana who spoke perfect english and who was really trying to help me out on my search. Eventually, she asked me if I wanted to go to the ER to see if anything was going on down there, since there were no surgeries at all today. I was taken to the ER where they mostly work on patients with abdominal pain (and big accidents). Only small surgeries are done in the ER. When I got downstairs, there was a woman who has having a lot of abdominal pain, and the doctors were trying to figure out what was causing it. They suspected it had something to do with her gallbladder, and they used an ultrasound to check it out. She ended up having stones in there. This was my first ultrasound and it wasn't even looking at a fetus! It was still freaking awesome though! Originally, they were going to remove the gallbladder of the patient before finding the stones, but then they changed their minds. I wasn't around long enough to discover what their final decision was. There was nothing exciting going on in the ER, so I went back upstairs. (Note- during all of this, I had the fourth coffee I've ever had in my life. I was falling asleep and needed the caffeine. I feel like I will not be able to prevent coffee drinking any longer if I go to med school and become a doctor.)
When I got back upstairs, I met Joana again who was on her way to watch an endoscopy, which she then invited me to see. There were so many people in the room so it was pretty cramped, but I was so glad I got to be there. The patient had been having a lot of pain and was constipated for four days or so. The doctors suspected that the cause was either one of two things: 1) There were these little pocket defects that developed in the colon that became infected or 2) There was a tumor. They really did not know which, so they used the endoscopy to figure it out. Endoscopy procedures are really quite incredible. They put the tube with the camera on it through his anus, and we got to see the entire inside of his gastrointestinal track. There was so much fecal matter inside his body. The camera came up to one of the pocket defects, but there wasn't an infection seen in this one. It turns out that these defects are not much to worry about unless infected. The camera continued to search through the track, and sadly came up to a tumor. It was such a weird feeling to be in a room when it was just discovered that a patient has cancer. Until that moment, he was mostly healthy as he knew it, but now there would be a shortened timeline for him. I thought maybe that the patient found out this way (since he was conscious and also yelling in a good amount of pain) and was a bit horrified. But the doctors said that he did not know yet, and they would have to soon break the news to him. Once the tumor was reached, the camera couldn't pass any further and was removed. The surgeons then left, the head surgeon looking pretty grim, and went to discuss how to best approach how to remove the tumor.
The rest of the day in the general surgery department was paperwork, so I used this opportunity to explore the hospital. I went over to OB/GYN to see if there were any births, but none were happening. However, there was an abortion consultation going on that two of the other students went in to shadow. (I found out that they do abortions in the same department that they have births in. But, they also only do abortions up to week 10 of pregnancy, which I think is a good thing. Sadly, the doctors were also joking about the abortion for a woman coming in. They joked that she was past 10 weeks and told the father (another doctor) that they could no longer do the procedure. He freaked out. I just can't believe a doctor would be so irresponsible to impregnate a girl.) (Erica (who is in that department) and I were left out, so we did some more exploring (which technically isn't allowed by the administration.) We went to the neo-natal department and learned from the doctor there. We looked in at the pre-mature babies, and I was really happy I got to experience this. Erica and I then moved to the neurosurgery department. The doctor here also spoke great english, and he gave us an intensive lesson of brain surgery using pictures and such. However, we couldn't go into the brain surgery with him because his two interns were already there. I was glad we met him though because now he knows us, likes us, and might let us see a future surgery. He also grabbed our arms after the lesson and told us to marry rich husbands. Thanks.
At end of all of that, Erica and I went back to OB/GYN to check up on the births. They said that there would be one in 1-3 hours. We figured it would be closer to three hours because another doctor had originally said it would be 5 hours. So, we took our lunch break (finally tried Wok to Walk!) and came back, only to find out two births happened 20 minutes after we left. I was so upset!! After that, we walked home to start our adventures with Alberto.
Thoughts on Public Health Care
I believe that it is super incredible that every citizen in Portugal has access to healthcare. Surgeries, therapies, etc. do not cost citizens any money. That shocks me, but it also makes me really happy. It is horrible that in the US, people can't get a life-saving surgery done because they can't afford it... or sometimes even worse... they bust their back to afford it but it puts them in a stressful financial situation for years to come. However, it's still crazy to think that everything is completely free. This (as well as other things) has also unfortunately been part of the reason for Portugal's gigantic financial crisis. So there is a downside to it. And like I said, doctors only get paid for 40 hours a week, but sometimes work an additional 80 hours when it is really busy. They don't get paid for those ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment