January 9, 2008

Last night the 4 of us (there’s two more at a B+B around the corner, and John has a car) went into town to find dinner. We’ve been a little spoiled living in Cork, I’d say. Not much open in Clonmel, even at 7:00. There were a few restaurants of varying quality and price, and we eventually settled on a chipper. Why, you ask? That’s an excellent question. If you come up with an answer, please let me know. It was fine. Not great, not terrible. It was dinner, and it had protein, which were about the only criteria I was aiming for that night. Tonight will be a similar scenario. Only The Nose knows what we will find.

Today was a little slower medically. There was a different doctor there in the morning, a younger woman. She was quite friendly, and had a really calming, competent air about her. Unfortunately most of her patients didn’t want us in the exam room. My hypothesis is that younger patients are generally shyer than older ones. I doubt I will collect the data necessary to prove or disprove that idea. I don’t have any striking memories from this morning, so I guess that I’ll skip the color commentary. The afternoon was interesting. More back pain, chest colds, and the like, but also a couple of more interesting things. One was a man with a likely haemorrhoid. The GP actually had a simple proctoscope that he used right there in the office, through which he was able to see some internal piles. I was once again struck by how comfortable Dr. Lynch is at doing a number of different procedures in different parts of the body. Injections into joints, a ring to support a prolapsed uterus, injections into piles, foetal ultrasounds… I’m not sure how much all of those skills get utilized by urban GPs, either here or in The States. The last patient was a young woman of 19, on what I believe is her second pregnancy. She was grinning the whole time, which I interpreted to mean she is quite excited to be having a baby. He did an ultrasound on her, which was really amazing to see. I think it is the first time I’ve been in the room for a foetal ultrasound. At 24 weeks, we could see its limbs, heart, liver (those things are giNORmous in foetuses, by the way) and head. There may have been some boy parts, but we weren’t sure. Very cool.

Since it was raining pretty hard the secretary (or Hub, as Dr. Lynch introduced her as) gave us a ride home, which was very sweet. Just chilling at “home” now, waiting to hear back from our friends about dinner plans. The three kiwis moved out today, but I suspect we’ll see them next month at the hospital. I think the Simpsons are on. I’m Eli McKenna-Weiss and you’re not.
Here's a behind-the-scenes view of a medical student's bedside table and dresser while he's on a placement in Clonmel.