Today started off as an interesting day for me.....it was one of those days when its hard to focus for some reason. I don't know if you guys have those days, but I just wasn't feeling it. But, I pressed through and prayed my morning to get to the hospital to learn more and when I got there I realized the patient they were working with was a very serious patient. He was a 75 year old man and his son was in the room with him. The patient's legs were shaking, he had an oxygen mask because his oxygen saturation was low, his heart rate was fast, his blood pressure was low, and his lung x-ray showed a lot of infiltration. They also suspected he may have a tumor in his abdomen because they felt a huge mass. I knew he was very ill when the doctors asked me to close the door (which they never do) and they closed the curtain. Watching them take care of this patient was kind of disturbing. I saw one doctor draw blood without washing his hands before or after and with no gloves. I saw them completely undress the patient and have him pee in a container without asking him if it was okay if a woman was in the room. I didn't know if I should stay or leave. I saw them not talk to the son who was obviously very worried about his father. When I had sometime alone with the patient and his son, I introduced myself to the son and talked to him a little. I could just tell he wanted the doctors to give him some kind of information and he kept looking at me but I did not know how or if I should give him information about his father. I wondered if the patient courtesy we learn at BU should be the way medicine is practiced everywhere or is what I saw today acceptable because it is their culture's way of doing things.
After spending a lot of time with this very ill patient we rounded on other patients. After rounds were over at the nursing stations one of the doctors I had been following started talking to me in Spanish. I had already asked him to speak slowly so that I could understand, but he did not. As a matter of fact he laughed at me when I said "despacio por favor". So, he started asking me questions and I tried to understand and answer, but I just couldn't. After a while everyone around started laughing...and I realized that I had just been the butt of a joke due to the fact that I do not speak Spanish very well.
Now, how should I respond to this? It was very hurtful to be in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people who I had to trust to respect me despite my language limitations. At that moment I felt very disrespected. Sure, I wanted to laugh a long...you know keep my sense of humor...hahaha that's funny. I mean I'm sure they didn't say anything too bad and it probably was funny. But if I'm honest with myself it made me feel really bad that the doctors who were suppose to be teaching me were laughing at me. I really wanted to run home and cry...but I held back my tears and attempted to continue observing. My response: 1) Pray 2) forgive 3) move on.
Fortunately I was able to go home early because they were done seeing patients. So now I can enjoy the rest of my day! I think I will relax, prepare for class tonight, and enjoy meal times with my family. There are now two other students living in the same house as me. Of course there's Adrienne from BU and now there's another student from Korea who is a Tae Kwan Do instructor. Meal times with all of us trying to speak Spanish can be very fun!
Hasta Manana!
EP<3
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