T.S. Ernesto

Well, hello and welcome to my blog. I intended to start this blog about two months ago when I started my clinical rotations for medical school, but I some how never got around to it... I would like to think it was because I was so busy saving lives, but it may have more to do with my new found desire to spend as much time as possible at the beach. Either way, both activities have been thwarted today by the arrival, or at least the predicted arrival, of Tropical Storm Ernesto. Ernesto is our first big storm of the season here and, so far, (knock on wood) he has not been impressive; hopefully we'll have a quiet night.

The impending arrival of Ernesto hastened the end of my second clinical rotation which was outpatient pediatrics. Pediatrics definitely has its pros and cons. While I don't feel like peds is my calling, I had a fabulous time working with my attending, Dr. P, and his almost entirely Spanish speaking office staff and patients. Despite the name of this blog, I am not fluent in Spanish, so this past month has presented a huge learning opportunity for me in both medicine and Spanish!

I think the most important thing I learned on this rotation (besides the Spanish word for butt - nalga) is that kids are really, really, really, really fat. Not all of them, of course, but some of them are huge. I spent so much time counseling kids on how they can lose weight through diet and exercise only to look at their morbidly obese parents and realize how little I can do to help them. It amazed me how oblivious parents can be to their children's health issues because they suffer from the same condition themselves and simply don't see it as a problem. Wow! Okay, I'm off my soapbox now. The experience really emphasized how important it is for parents to set a good example for their children - thanks Mom and Dad!!

Overall, I had a very positive experience in peds - tons of cute kids saying funny kid things (if only I could have understood more of them!). Today, I was doing a physical on one little girl and I asked her to draw a picture of a person. She drew the perfect stick figure and then added long hair. When I asked her who she had drawn, she pointed at me and said, "Doctora." That might be enough to make me want to do peds...