Personal Narrative: I Don T Know

I have lived in only one location my entire life: Edwardsville, Illinois. A peripheral suburb of St. Louis, it stands as the rare oasis of people in a desert of corn, pinned in its own personal bubble. Due to this blend of time and isolation, I developed a natural familiarity with my hometown. But, throughout my childhood, I longed to break free from the confines of the bubble and venture outward. However, this changed last summer, as I walked through Richards Brickyard, our family heirloom, that my great-grandfather, Benjamin Richards, founded over 120 years ago. I felt these childlike sentiments slip away. The bubble that had surrounded me for so long began to vanish, and the picture that it had been obscuring was slowly revealed.

As I walked outside the morning of August 12th I noticed the clouds in the distance, they were dark and ominous; I couldn’t avoid feeling as though this was a bad sign of what was to come. Then I thought, “Just my luck, I have to drive on the interstate and it’s going to storm!” There was no getting out of this though, I had to leave, so I got into my car and started driving. Pulling onto the interstate it seemed as though I was heading right into the storm, it somehow had lined up perfectly with the road. The closer I got, it suddenly hit me, the metaphor wasn’t one of bad things to come, but of the step I was about to take in life. I didn’t know what was going to happen, just that I had to keep going. Everything in my life up to this point

I was just two weeks into my internal medicine rotation at Suez Canal University in Egypt, when I encountered a case that I still remember to this day. Ms. Rafat was an elderly diabetic patient that came into our clinic complaining of a persistent wound on the sole of her foot. Upon removing her boots, her complaint turned out to be a foot ulcer with an infection extending to the first and second metatarsal bones .Unfortunately for her, we had to break the news to her and her family that her foot would need amputation. Ms. Rafat was understandably upset but took the news in stride. Following up on her case, I learned that after the surgery, the blood flow to her leg became increasingly poor and she had to return to have a below the knee amputation. Ms. Rafat ended up dying of pulmonary embolism as a complication of her second surgery. This case stayed with me not only because it

My second clinic rotation is internal medicine and I’ve had many encounters, both with patients and colleagues, which have made me pause and reflect. One of those encounters, in particular, will still be on my mind long after I finish typing this reflective journal. The patient at the center of it all is a lady I’ll refer to from here on as “Mrs. Flowers.” Mrs. Flowers is an 81 year old female with dementia and diabetes. She arrived on our unit with a diabetic foot infection that had progressed from a simple toe ulcer to wet gangrene. Over the last 2-3 months, gangrenous changes encompassed the distal half of her left foot. During pre-rounds, our medical team unanimously agreed that we would contact surgery for a consult. At time, it was obvious

It was a cool November day, in the middle of Afghanistan. As a medic, I was sitting outside my make shift aid station with one of my buddies sharing stories about home. We hear a loud explosion right outside of the wire. I looked up and could see the cloud of smoke billowing up from about two hundred meters away. Not knowing how bad the situation was, I grabbed a few of my soldiers, our translator and my aid bag and ran straight to the smoke. When we got there, a group of civilians were huddled around a group of people who were yelling, screaming and crying. The translator found out that a group of three men and three children were walking around a field when one of the children stepped on a mine. One of my soldiers grabbed the mine

The span of this narrative takes place Thirty years prior to current time, in Two Thousand and Seventeen. At the time I was a young and well educated Osteopathic surgeon, however I had quite little experience with the field as the majority of patients came for infections in the foot rather than bone and muscle pain. I remember I had a child patient on the first week of 2017, a young man no older than 5 with a horrid infection within his big toe due to the digging of the nail. But nitrogen wasn’t able to fix it, so he had to have a quarter of his foot removed in an unnecessarily long procedure. This wasn't the first time this had happened, however I had grown tired of infection. Only people who deserved a bad condition should have it.

My right foot was put in a cast in order to help my 5th metatarsal heal. As a result I developed an ulcer and Osteomyelitis in the bone of my 3rd metatarsal and

Hello, Dr. Taft, I look forward to another exciting semester with you, and my cohorts exploring my inner and outer world. Let’s start with my family constellations it begins with my stepmother, and my father, my older brother Steven along with myself. At the time, I did not know that Ann was my stepmother, and I did not find out until I was older, and she had two sons who lived in Arizona. A few years later her eldest son Tommy would come to live with us, and the life that we were accustomed to would change the outcome of all our lives.

For my personal narrative, I have to write about a hero of mine, my hero is my best friend, Kat. Kat is my hero for multiple reasons, such as making me a better person, and a happier one. She also helps me edit and draw a lot of the time, which helps because she is super good at both those things.

The patient is a female by the name Annie. She is married to a female partner who is away working at a mining site. Her case was presented as an emergency due to the excruciating pain that she was undergoing. According to her, the pain has been there for two days where she could not sleep due to the pain intensity. Also, she was unable to cover herself as the warmth provided by the bed sheet amplified the pain. According to her, she had to raise the affected foot using a pillow to ease the pain. Her toe appears red in color with an evident swelling. Also, the toe under the pain is experiencing higher temperature than the rest of her body. According to Anne, she

It seemed as if we had only been at school for about an hour before it was time for

He elevates foot, rest it, applies ice pack, and takes pain medication to help alleviate pain. Patient is currently taking Norco. Patient is not under any form of therapy. Patient walks with a limp favoring the left leg. There is noted tenderness on the medial aspect of the left ankle, and swelling on the lateral aspect of the ankle. Patient’s last x-ray was done a year ago and revealed hard palpable mass on the rear foot at talonavicular joint which is potentially a screw placed by previous surgeon. There is 6/10 pain noted at the anterior talofibular ligament and calcaneofibular ligament. Pain is increased with plantarflexion and inversion of foot/ankle. The peroneal tendon is weak and painful along the lateral malleolus. The palpable pain is rated as 9/10. Pain increases against resistance to the peroneal muscle. There is pain noted at the lateral shoulder of the ankle mortis. Muscle testing showed 3/5 on the left ankle evertors.

I began storytelling long before I could read or write. But it was only when I began writing that I realized how much more complicated crafting a narrative was than I initially thought.

Objective: R.S. is a 56 year old, African-American female, good hygiene/well-groomed, dressed appropriately; alert and oriented x with self, time, place, purpose; noted facial grimace while talking about pain in the feet and legs. Patient takes OTC extra strength acetaminophen extra strength when in pain. Weight: 178.2 lbs Height 5 feet 2 inches; Obese with BMI 32.7. Vitals signs are: BP 144/60 with ace inhibitors

My outpatient observation hours were done at the Salina Medical Arts Building, which is Salina Regional Health Center’s outpatient hospital. I observed Physical Therapist, Gregg Root, for four hours on January 8th, 2016. After observing many different injuries and problems, the main patient diagnoses that I saw were total knee replacements, rotator cuff surgery, and back surgeries/injuries. A few of the other diagnoses that I saw included gout, hip fracture, foot fracture, and knee or leg injuries.