Geri geri bo berry banana fana fo ferry me my mo merry... geri

-atrics... is over!

My four day rendezvous with this specialty is over (for now). I love the patients, but the doctor I was with the most didn't let me do ANYTHING. NOTHING! Poo! I think I listened to a couple of hearts but that's about it. Either way, I still learned a lot from him.

Old people are pretty cool to work with. So sweet and old and tired and wrinkly, some so close to death, they're all so full of... LIFE. They've been around for a while, they've reproduced and their progeny has reproduced and, in some cases, that spawn of their spawn has reproduced. It's crazy. I love listening to their crazy stories. Especially the old guys at the VA hospital.

As I leave this rotation, I think about the possibility of being a Geriatrician. The problems are complex, and some patients are so difficult to deal with, particularly any patients with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. The career involves dealing with death and dying, as well as working with the patient's family members- which can be quite challenging. It seems like a career with a lot of sad cases, and I do cry a lot, but... I kind of like that intensity. I imagine I might stop being a big baby if I dealt with the stuff on a daily basis.

Speaking of sad, today I watched a woman score a 3 or 4 (out of 30) on the MMSE- Mini Mental Status Exam. A score below 20 means severe impairment. The test includes all kinds of simple questions that assess attention span, thinking, memory, language, and something else that I can't remember right now (maybe I need to take an MMSE). She didn't know the day of the week or where she was, she could only repeat 2 of 3 words, then she could only recall 1 of those words when prompted later. It was remarkable. She seemed like a regular sweet old lady when we walked in the room, but her brother told us about her memory issues and with a simple test that we learned in our first year of medical school, it became painfully clear that this woman was suffering from Alzheimer's diseae and that that she was on her way to progressive decline. It was so sad. It was also quite touching to see that her brother was with her, taking care of her, making sure she ate properly and didn't hurt herself.

This rotation has, above everything, shown me the value of family and the harsh reality that is lonliness in old age. I think for good measure, I'll make sure to have at least 5 or 6 children, in the hopes that one of them will take care of me when I'm old and gray (just in case my siblings fall through).

Next up, 3 weeks of Neurology in beautiful Jacksonville. And by "beautiful" I mean "potentially beautiful but I don't actually know because I hide at the dorms for fear of my life." No, seriously, you hear gunshots right next to the hospital. Miami feels like a warm safe nest compared to this place!