the beginning of inadequacy.

today i took my first complete history on a real live patient who actually had problems.

...lots of problems.

congestive heart failure. renal failure. high blood pressure. osteoarthritis. fibromyalgia. hepatitis. seven different surgeries. ten medications. life in america. church. grandkids. everything, including the kitchen sink.

to give you an idea, the following is a short excerpt taken from the interview not long after i'd listened to the details of all her surgeries with no mention of any transplants....

me: 'yes, well i'm originally from pittsburgh...'

patient: 'oh, really? that's where my kidney's from!'

me: '.....................okay! let's talk about that!'


this was definitely unlike anything we'd rehearsed last year: "chest pain", "back pain", "headache".

and trying to present my chaotic plethora of notes to the preceptor was pretty much....a disaster.

hi, i feel dumb.

:::sigh:::