(Medina R., rope swing and rapids just downstream)
I have put off sharing something for long enough. After a few months full of making decisions and changing them, only to turn around and change them back to the original idea. After taking counsel with physician mentors, family and friends. After completing Venn diagrams comparing the pros and cons; God has finally given me peace. What is the story behind all this? Well, from November up to mid-May I had been considering doing an osteopathic fellowship at my school. It promised to be a challenging and valuable experience in teaching, research and clinical practice. But in the end of all my processing, God gave peace to let the opportunity pass and move on to 4th year activities. This issue has really weighed on me and I am so thankful for definitive movement! It also gives me peace to kind of realize that my problems in God's sight are like an ant's problems in our own.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4:6-7
Example: As our towering bodies lurch about the kitchen, a tiny ant struggles to carry an over-sized crumb to the colony and the Queen, who he loves dearly. Sweating, panting, and muttering under his breath, the ant ponders unconsciously how much further he must travel until he can drop his load and relax... Our Father says us, "there are other crumbs you could have carried, but this one will do. Keep going, I'll ensure you arrive to the place where I am happy with you; good job, well and faithful servant"
(left-right:Me, Doc, nurse, another med student)
My April rotation (OMM or osteopathic manipulative medicine) was only 1 month long and it seemed just too short. Not once did I get the feeling of comfort that usually develops eventually on other rotations, the feeling that I basically know what is common at the clinic and how to deal with it. Yet my confidence in treating people with physical/manual medicine has really increased which feeds back as good anticipation of next year. My attending was quite a special one: specializing in family medicine, geriatrics, acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and OMM! The cool thing is that all these pieces fit into a beautiful puzzle of holistic patient care, giving the doc a wide array of tool by which she approached and resolved patient problems. "Wait just a second!" You might be thinking, "Isn't some of that stuff weird? Isn't acupuncture some kind of eastern religion!?" I would answer... well yes, it is in a way, but how do we explain it's beneficial effect on non-oriental patients from various religious backgrounds? We, I don't think scientists have it figured out yet, but in the meantime, if your doctor asks if you care to be needled, try it out!
My friend Alex, from Peru (right), brought me a Qena from the Andes Mountains. It sounds great. (Meridian State Park)
And this last month's rotation was crazy, literally! The docs at JPS hospital privilege us with experiences in their inpatient psychiatry ward, dedicated psych emergency department, and on the psych consult service. Representing Jesus in this rotation seemed a bit different. I could find a patient crying in the corner of the ward, disheveled and anguished; I could figure out they were depressed or anxious about some situation and offer to pray to God to help them; But I could be completely mistaken, as the patient is actually on drugs and hallucinating or is schizaphrenic with psychotic paranormal delusions, or the patient has a life-sucking personality disorder that will latch onto naive medical students and drain them dry... Praise God and thanks to encouraging friends, despite pouring out my cup at work, I feel quite full.
My friends Abel and Evan gave me this great haircut! Short on the top and sides... longer in the back. affectionately named "Fo-Mullet" :) (Log Cabin Park, Fort Worth, TX)
WOW! I could stay up all night retelling stories of real people and their very interesting lives, but HIPPA does have some rules about patient privacy and the night is already late. Tomorrow morning I hop on over to Guatemala for a medical-Spanish rotation! I'll try to post pics or stories if possible.
Loves and Laters,
~drew
