I apologize for not giving any attention to this blog for the past 4 months. My life isn't that interesting but here you go anyways... I hope my stories brings some entertainment and passes time.
Last spring quarter I was in the pediatrics rotation in San Bernardino Community Hospital. There is an acute unit and subacute. Acute is where the patients usually stay for a couple of days, in contrast, subacute is the higher acuity and long-term stay. I thought I always loved kids and pediatrics. But it was not until I had my clinical rotation in the subacute.
There were many cases where the kids had history of physical abuse, premature, poor prognosis, that lead to their long-term admission in the sub-acute. To illustrate, there were cases of Baby Shaken Syndrome, Near-drowning, prematurity, hx of using drugs during pregnancy, CHARGE syndrome, mental retardation... the list goes on.
The cases are the ones you would see on tv, but they were right in front of me. I was able to handle very sick geriatrics patients, but not pediatrics. That experience helped me to grow a thinker skin and was able to handle seeing them and taking care of them. It's quite an experience which I think everyone should experience because we take things for granted. I appreciated life more for sure.
It also allowed me to reflect my own life and what I want if I became vegetative. So here it goes: If i'm pronounced "dead" by 3 professionals, I want you to let me go by the next week. I want to be free from pain and I most certainly don't want a machine keeping me alive. Say your goodbyes. All I ask is to please forgive me because I have forgiven you. Let's remember the good times.
What would you want?
