What happens when the Dr becomes the patient?
I'm sick. Acute Bronchitis; Asthma; Lower Respiratory Tract Infection; the Flu; Chest Infection. Call it what you will, I'm just sick.
Not dying, I need to come to the ED call and ambulance or see a Dr kind of sick...but the kind of sick where you look and feel like crap and everyone at work has been saying for the past 2 days..."why are you here? Why don't you go home?, Do you need, steroids? a nebuliser? What about a chest xray? No? How be we intubate then?"
These are the benefits of working in an emergency department....I can get everything I need. Well almost.
I got sent home early from work last night...I was happy about it too, my patients had been testing me and I wasn't feeling good about being a Dr.
I get home...Mr Awesome cooks me some dinner, listens to my chest offers some doctorly advice and then remembers he is not MY Dr and what I actually need is a good old dose of TLC.
Sometimes that is all our patients need, to talk, to feel listened to, to feel important, understood and cared about.
I may not be able to cure everyone but if I can make all my patients feel this way then I'm not off to a bad start.
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