Speak Spoke Write Wrote

interesting day on the floor with patients today. i noticed all the cool ways i get to communicate. as much as i whine about rounding on patients the rare weeks that i have to do it, i do always learn a lot and in just a few days the relationships you establish with the patients and their families and the juicy human interactions you're part of make it not all so bad. (i guess).

firstly, i have a spanish-speaking family of a young patient who just went through major surgery. the child (the patient) translates on her parents' behalf. how helpless would you feel as a parent at the hospital when the staff is telling you important details of your kid's health and that same kid is the only one who can understand them? not to mention- this gives said kid big responsibility to not accidentally mismanage the truth in translation. ("the doctor says i will only get better if i get a pony for my birthday...yea, yea...and i should be allowed to eat chocolate cake for breakfast everyday when i get home"). i love speaking spanish and am piss-poor at it. but i feel like a total rockstar when i'm the only staff around who can do it at all. hooray for working in a whitebread hospital in the suburbs!

then, i had a patient who formerly had a trach (after they took his larynx among other neck area important parts in a series of surgeries to resect tumors -from years of smoking- just had to say it) and now has a gaping hole in the base of his neck with no ability to speak. except that he writes! beautifully! so we had a conversation like this for a good 20 mins about his time in the airforce and what it was like to be on huge ships like the one being shown on the discovery channel on TV when i came into his room. it was lovely.

amazing how you can get a feel for the personality of someone through such limited interaction. and i mused that- like the great "silent bob"- people with few words always seem so wise! the text written on the silent patient's note pads by his bedside seems so profound. even if it just says in shaky block letters "ham sandwich" or "make that damned PA girl go away and leave me alone" it carries a lot of weight.

and on that note.