Personal Narrative: The Field Of Medicine

My interest in public health emerged when I recognized how much the health and well-being of an individual affects a community. From a young age, both my parents have struggled with their health; my mother having diabetes and my father having hypertension. I have seen how their health has affected them on the day to day basis and how it has affected those around them at a community level. As I continue to learn more about public health I am beginning to understand that many of the health problems, like the ones my parents face, can be prevented through lifestyle adjustments. Also, I have learned the most effective way to prevent diseases in a community is through advocating healthy habits to avoid health problems from emerging in the first place.

As I exit the locker room, I strap on my black cleats and tighten my gloves. I grab my silver helmet with the lightning bolt logo, touch the sign that says “Play Like A Champion Today,” and walk into the tunnel. Finally, we hear our team’s name, and we run onto the field ready to defeat the fear of losing embedded in our minds. The opportunity arose, and whether we seized it or not, this would be my last game. We took away from that day more than just a win, or a loss. As somber as I was to let this moment go, I knew I had not let my team down. There was no anguish, no agony. These lessons from football have carried over in my journey to become a physician. I knew I wanted a career in healthcare, and football has better prepared me for that.

Imagine a connected healthcare interface where your medications are linked to your smartphone, smart pill bottles remind you of when it’s time to take your medications, and prescription medications or surgeries are customized towards your individual genetic and physical needs. This is the future of healthcare - we just have a long way to go before we get there. As you look at startups in the healthtech space - many of them are well on their way to having one piece of the puzzle - AdhereTech with smart wireless pill bottle to TalkSpace with customized online mental health counseling. To create that integrated network I believe the buy-in will need to come from some of the largest healthcare companies currently, such as Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal

Last summer I wanted to work and earn a little cash and distract myself and not be home all summer. I didn't know where to apply so I applied everywhere I was even open to working in the fields my parents told me that the fields were the last place they ever wanted me to work. My mom and step dad Raul always told me that field work wasn't easy and that it was not for me but I didn't listen.

Well this year was a hell of a year. I mean, i didn't pass any of the semesters but i did observe a ton of stuff that went on in the class. The class in general was pretty lit. Every day went by and i honestly did some work. The class was ready to learn as mrs g was ready to teach. I mean yea we had some days were we didn't want to learn anything and there were also days when mrs g didn't want to teach. But ima be honest, doing the work we did wasn't in my best interest. Most of the projects we did in class i worked on, but at the end i didn't end up liking how i did it so i wouldn't even bother turning anything in. like the obituary we had to write about ourselves. I liked the meaning behind this but honestly i didn't want to work on that because it just brought back memories of my friends that were killed.

I was born on September 20th, 1997 on the coast of Virginia Beach. Now living in South Carolina I am 19 years old and living a very healthy and eloquent lifestyle. As I filled out the Real Age questionnaire I encountered many questions that made me think if my diet and health were flawed, while other times it seemed as if I was the pinnacle of health. I found at the end it had me down as a 16-year-old teenager. This three-year difference in what my age and what Real Age had put me down for really opens my eyes about how well of a healthy lifestyle I am living, and motivates me to continue living it to the best of my ability.

A few months ago at a free clinic for recovering drug addicts, a 19-year old female came seeking treatment for her active heroin addiction, and reported her addiction had progressed over the previous six months, paralleling her boyfriend’s, moving quickly from use of oral opioid painkillers to intravenously injecting heroin. The day she came to clinic, make-up barely concealed an injection site on her neck, which she reported, was where her boyfriend injected her with heroin, as she did not know how to inject herself and the veins in her arms had collapsed. The addiction specialist I shadow decided to treat her in the clinic and asked her to return in one week to monitor her transition from heroin to buprenorphine. This patient struck me, as she was so young and overwhelmingly consumed by her disease. However, I was not able to follow up with her case as I began my current position at UCLA. As a shadow, the inability to follow patient’s care as much as I desired, along with knowing I did not have enough experience or knowledge to care for the patients, was incredibly scary and frustrating, although it was simultaneously

The sharp scent of chlorine fills my nostrils as I crane over the microadjuster, determining whether my Platinum/Iridium wire tip is done reacting. Waving away the fumes, I observe the bubbles fizzling out, turn the voltage off, and twist the tip out of the machine. At 163 nanometers wide, it’s the sharpest tip I’ve etched this summer.

My biggest challenges to applying to medical school came from finding a balance between working to afford school and having enough time to study as well as coping with the fact that my parents moved to Germany and I wouldn't be able to afford to see them. These two problems on top of the normal stress of starting college took a toll on my first year and a half and is something that I'm reminded of every time I look at my grades from those semesters. During this time what helped me the most was my determination and my willingness to seek help when I needed it. I have never been one to take defeat and I refused to let these set backs keep me from trying to achieve my dreams. While overcoming these challenges have not been easy I'm grateful for

I was able to make connections between the clinical and the lectures. I was able to apply the knowledge I learned from lectures and our assigned textbooks, readings, and videos to clinical. Over the course of the semester, I became much more comfortable being on the floor at the psychiatric hospital. I was able to see the symptoms the patient presented with and make connections as to what their diagnosis was. as well as the as well as see the therapeutic effects of the medication they were taking. My clinical provided me with exposure to patients with borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, eating disorders, and bipolar disorder. I was nervous about clinical simply because I didn’t know much about mental

Scared, nervous, anxious my emotions were all over the place. I didn’t know the interview was going to be a group interview? “Great!” I said to myself, now I have to deal with making myself stand out more. I thought to myself I need this internship so I can be able to look at different careers in the medical field. I need to calm myself down now the interview is about to start. Each time it came to my turn I felt so nervous that I couldn’t get the right words out of my mouth. Nine questions went by and the interview was finally done. I shake hands with both interviewers as I step out the door I felt intimidated by the other applicants. I don’t even know if I aced the interview or completely bombed it.

Hi doctor. I'm wondering if I need to be concerned. I keep getting what seems gas. The mild/dull pain is always in a different area. It bothers the most the most when lying down. Therefore, sleeping at night has been a challenge, leaving me unrested. It also bothers when pain is around the groin, it sort of feels like if I had an urine infection, but I'm urinating okay. I've been taking the Omeprazole, thinking it might help. But it has not. What do you think?

The first thing that comes to my mind about this clinical experience would be exhausting. I had only three hours of sleep because I had forgotten I had a prior obligation later in the evening, so was unable to leave Alamosa until 2100, so I did not get home till 2330. I had to get up at 0400 to then go to SCCF. Four hours asleep, while sick was not a good idea. It was an extremely tiring day that I feel like I am probably missing something in this journal.

This experience is one of the most meaningful and supporting experiences I have had in regards to my decision to apply to medical school. While delivering medical supplies and cleaning rooms I have the opportunity to connect with current doctors and nurses as well as their patents. As I built relationships with the medical staff, I was allowed to observe some of the treatments and later have the reasoning behind said treatments explained to me. This opportunity allowed me to further increase my knowledge of the medical world. It also continues to make me more and more curious as time goes on. Connecting with the patients not only reinforces what I have learned in the past but also gave me new insight as to what it takes to be a doctor.

The initial path that really influenced my decision to go to medical school was learning about autopsies while taking Anatomy and Physiology in high school. From that course, I learned about how doctors must be detectives in order to come up with the right diagnosis. This was very interesting to me and I decided that is what I want to do for a career.