It's been an interesting week in Ophthalmology...not exactly exciting, but, well...eye opening. I just finished seeing a guy with a corneal ulcer, that's gotten worse. Because he doesn't have the money to buy the antibiotics he needs. Because he can't work until his vision improves. Catch-22. Excellent. I'm working in an eye clinic that's essentially free to the patients, but we still can't cover all medication costs. Health care reform is in the air and can't get here soon enough...what form it takes, we'll just have to see. If nothing else, isn't there an economic imperative to keep healthy young people in working condition so they can contribute to society?
I digress...so far my ophthalmology experience has been pretty chill. All clinic, no surgery...so much for my surgical subspecialty rotation. I can't really complain because the hours are great and it was my top choice. Ophthalmology is the first thing I've done all of third year that I'm actually considering as a career. Which is why it's kind of a bummer that so far it's been a non-event. Essentially the other med student and I are work horses that do the patient work-up and vision exam, a job several rungs below the techs. I don't even do any actual eye exams which is the one thing I really wanted to learn since I thought it'd be useful in future practice no matter what.
The residents are nice and when you have the time to follow them you can learn something, but since most of them don't have teaching scopes, even that is limited. The indirect ophthalmoscopes are pretty awesome, I had the best view of the retina I've ever seen in my life. Unfortunately, unless I actually become an ophthalmologist (we'll see how the rest of this rotation goes) that's one gadget I'll probably never use. This weekend I desperately need to review some of my Español because at least a third of our patients speak nothing but Spanish. One woman didn't even know the alphabet...we had to use pictures. I can muddle through an exam ok, but I need to use the interpreter phone to be sure I'm not missing out on any critical history stuff. I've got a lot of studying to do in general between the ophthalmology test and our general surgery test. Gah. But enough complaining, I think I just have to be proactive about this experience...shadow residents as much as possible and do my own covert eye exams.
Every passing minute is a another chance to turn it all around.
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