The Undying Lady

The short (45 minutes or so) visit to the local GP was rather interesting, as was the meeting with our designated patient.

She was a 93 years old lady, moved around with just one walking stick in a very agile manner, cared for herself in her appartment, her skin was spotless, she had no problems with her heart, blood pressure, joints, when there's enough light she could read without glasses, her hands didn't tremble one bit (heck, MINE do!)... Just think of any kind of ailment that accompanies old age and she didn't have it. In fact, she didn't have any kind of health problem. She was in a hospital some time ago because she fell down and hit her hip and before that because she fell down on the street breaking her wrist and shoulder. She took 3 pills a day to dilatate the veins in her head as she was afraid of having a stroke and being left paralyzed. Born in 1915 her direct family now accounts for 20 people, 6 grand-grandsons. I liked her and her miraculous health was just stunning.

The local GP visit was only awesome to certain degree, but still quite educational. Four patients came into the office – one valetudinarian, one old lady with recently passed away husband, one aging joker with failed spinal surgery refreshing his driving licence and one lady who had to drink urological tea. I noticed that the doctor did not let any one of them speak at all, asked a question and kept talking...

I don't know if I can elaborate on this matter further, but it was interesting to see the different kinds of patients. They really were quite textbook J

 

Adam

THE Week

Tell you what, these daily regular bus rides to school could be the great opportunity for me to write blog post, sum up my previous day, think of a couple jokes (yes, that's one of them) – oh my God, my Nemesis just got onto the same bus and we saw each other...AAAWKWAAARD.

Anyway, what's so special about this week? We don't run on a proper timetable yet, instead we devote the whole week to practical medicine – basically what GPs do. Not exactly, though, because GPs (much unlike "praktičtí lékaři" or "obvoďáci") need to be quilified to care cradle-to-coffin, whereas their Czech counterparts I mentioned only specialize in adult care.

This block education will consist of a couple lectures (topics like "general practice medicine", "hospice care", "prevention", "geriatrics" etc.), several seminaries ("drugs", "videoconsultations", "blind patients"...) and most importantly a one-hour stage in an office of a random GPs we are allocated and a visit to a patient.

I'm not quite sure what should we be doing on either of the last two mentioned, honestly. Taking notes how does the GP treat patients, care for them, understand how does a daily doctor-to-patient relationship and communication work. The patient visit I consider more interesting, we should probably ask them what's up, what are they being treated for, if they adhere to prescribed medication and dosage, if they like their doctor etc.

So far I've attended the general practice medicine lecture and the blind-orientated seminary. The seminary...it took place in Tyfloservis, the place some of you might be familiar with as it's the drop-off point for the "Bílá pastelka" collection. There were two things I liked about how they introduced us into the problematics. First, when we were just lining up on the stairs so that we can be shown way to some other room we should split into, they blindfolded us and let us cope with just a minimum of help and a music playing in the room we should reach. Sitting down once we all entered was a bit of a problem as well, as when I entered most of the chairs were taken and I had to ask if anyone has a spare around. Some answered "there is one!", luckily some were clever enough to say "here" so I could follow their voice. After a while we could take the blindfolds off... The other thing was when we formed pairs, one was blindfolded again and the other one lead him through the unkown building we were in.

I like both of these experiences surprisingly much. I'm a visual type and as such would be the one to choose "deafness over blindness". But the feeling of being blindfolded, not seeing... It brought me closer to others, to those aroud me, to my surroundings. I was dependant on them, some of them were dependant on me. It was surprisingly elleviating.

Adam

Back on track

The exam period is over, the school's started once again. That means I have to wake up early yet again and ride the bus to school – and because I have nothing to revise for (yet!), I open the laptop and scribble this.

I can't say this was the best holiday ever, no. I only went skiing twice and with utmost dislike – it was cold, windy, snowing and cloudy – you know, winter in its worse aspect. After a couple of rather unpleasant events I have mostly broken up with my girlfriend, which I hope is a step towards the greater good, but so far I'm not so sure and struggle to ee it that way. My parents are, once again, sad, angry and disillusioned by me spending far too much time in front of the computer... Well, everything's the way it usually is, really.

As such I make no promises of keeping this place live and kicking, but then again I have a distinct feeling my school attendance and life in an organized and structured way supports it, so...

Anyway, you guys keep up the good work, I'll post something later today. Probably. I might postpone it a little ;)