Sorry for my long hiatus, but I’ll try to catch you up.
On Call with OB-GYN
From my title, you can see that I’ve partially lost my love for the field of OB-GYN. I really did take the initiative; I signed up for the OB-GYN interest group at my school. At one of the meetings, I signed up to be on call with an OBGYN doc at one of the Kaiser hospitals near by. I was so excited…elated really. I ironed by white coat and my scrubs, brought a notebook, and drove to the hospital with another male classmate of mine interested in OBGYN. The hospital was actually pretty amazing in that they deliver like 420 babies every month. But of course, the day we got there, it happened to be the slowest day in months. They had like 4 women on the board that were induced, but that probably wouldn’t give birth until 14 hours later. We were told to go home and eat, and come back in a couple of hours when the patients were closer to delivery. And of course, one patient delivered (unexpectantly) while we were gone.
So we came back and waited from 1 p.m.; just hoping that one of the patients would hurry up and pop a baby out. That’s all we wanted to see; we wanted to experience that joy of new life. Witnessing this event would have surely solidified my desire to deliver babies for the rest of my life. So 5 hours later, we are still in the hospital, waiting for another patient to give birth while we are there. The nurses are laughing at us, exclaiming that we bring them good luck because no babies are born when we are there. I’m determined though to see a delivery, as well as my classmate. Suddenly, the attending we were shadowing shoots up and runs out the door to deliver a baby. We race after him, anxious to experience the entrance of a new life into the world. As soon as we enter the room, the patient yells, “I don’t want any residents in the room (pointing at us)”. The male attending sadly tells us that we will have to exit the room. We leave, with our heads lowered, but we are sure that there is still hope. So 5 hours later (almost midnight), the female resident on call that night shoots up because her patient is about to deliver. We follow her, anxious for one last chance to see a delivery before we have to go home. By now, even the nurses are rooting for us, because we stayed so long, anxious to see a delivery, to experience the beginning of life. We enter the room with the female OB resident, and the stand around, waiting for it to happen. 30 seconds later, the mother realizes we are in the room (I guess since we are the only guys in there besides her husband) and she asks us to leave. SO AFTER BEING ON CALL FOR 12 HOURS, WE WERE REJECTED TWICE AND WERE SUCCESSFUL IN WITNESSING ZERO DELIVERIES.
I’m sure that this could have just been one bad experience. and I’m sure people will write saying how I should keep at it. But in the 12 hours I was there, I witnessed what might possibly be my life as an OB….REJECTION. I couldn’t imagine going through 4 years of medical school and 4 years of residency just to be told by my patient (whom I went through all this to treat) that she doesn’t feel comfortable with me in the room. For now pregnant woman, vaginas, and babies are out for me.
Asian Stereotype
During my horrible on call time, I met a Korean nurse who I hope doesn’t typify the average Asian parent. Since we had no deliveries to observe, the nurse noticed that we were medical students and started talking to us about her daughter. She told us how her daughter scored a perfect 2400 on the SATs (which I believe is pretty impressive). We were really generally happy for her daughter, and I asked her if she knew what her daughter wanted to major in. She told me that actually her daughter is looking into B.S./M.D. programs in California. She began to ask us what we thought of those programs. We both told her that they are good programs, but we also exclaimed how much we grew in college and enjoyed the experience. We told her about the long lasting friendships formed, and the opportunity to figure out what you really love in college. I told her how her daughter may find out that she really likes art in college, and she may change her major and end up being a world famous artist. Who knows…but the possibility for her to find herself is always there. The mother responded that her husband wanted her daughter to do the B.S./M.D. program because he didn’t want her to have the chance to change her mind as to whether she wanted to be a doctor or not. They figured that if she did the combined program, that she would definitely be a doctor (what they wanted) and not something else (possibly what she could want). The mom admitted that the husband was a little too strict and that she wouldn’t mind giving her daughter time to decide (she said this after we described the rigors of medical school). I don’t remember the rest of the convo, but I felt so bad for the daughter. I know not all Asians are forced by their patients to go to medical school, but this girl definitely was. If I didn’t really want this, I definitely wouldn’t want to go through all this crap to get an M.D. Its just not worth it.
Test Week is Coming Up
This upcoming week is my last week before my 2nd test block. The days really kind of blend together when you study a lot. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t study 24/7 at all. I have time to waste on SDN, to play intramural basketball, and to watch the whole 1st season of West Wing (don’t try this at home). Anyway, the test week is coming and I feel a lot less anxious this time around. They squeezed way more information into this test block, but its definitely do able. I probably won’t post again until after the test week is done.
Ministry in the Projects
I am truly enjoying working with the kids every Saturday. Its amazing to see them come in so eager to read the bible and memorize the texts. I applaud the community programs that try to rehabilitate teens on drugs, pregnant teens, those in prison, etc. But I truly like it better when you catch them before they head down that wrong path. I can see the transformation in these kids, and I know it can only be God.
Everything Else
In order to really look like a smart medical student, I bought these two books:
That’s right folks…you are looking at a combined 5, 670 pages of pure knowledge. Any real medical student will pick up one of these babies during their leisure time just to pass the time. Personally I find it much more stimulating than reading the encylopedia like I do every Sunday :). Seriously though, these books have way more information than I would really care to know. I think their real purpose is to “pose” on your library shelf so when patients walk in, they’ll think you are somewhat intelligent.
On a final note. One thing that I have been constantly trying to keep in the fore front of my mind is what I’m doing all of this for. Is it for me, or for Christ? Is Christ leading my decisions, or am I making them and telling Him to get with the program? Its so easy to get self-confident in this field that I think its important for all of us to perform a humility dipstick test, to see how we measure up. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us to “Seek ye first the kingdom and heaven, and all of these things will be added unto you”. So if the service and honor of God are our main goals, everything else will fall into place. Seemingly complicated decisions (usually based off of worldly desires and selfishness) will suddenly become quite simple. I encourage everyone to actively seek God’s guidance your daily decisions. Consult him with all of your worries. He won’t let you down.
whats up, I’m a sophomore at SWAU, I been reading your old posts about how you got into loma linda, they have been really helpful to me, you’ re pretty much like my only role model since there is not lot of chances for minority students to network with other black aspiring docs. About your latest post, its cool you were even thinking of OB. I’ve read some of your other stuff online too, you must be pretty smart if you took o-chem and physics and the same time and got As, lol. I only took 13 credits my first two semesters and g- bio was my only science class so I feel very behind when I looked at your schedule but I plan to do summer and take 18 credits from here on out to catch up. It seems students at oakwood have an advantage when it comes to the whole black pre med thing. I’m the only black male from the states that wants to go to med school here at Southwestern so sometimes I feel i dont have enough opportunity to exploit the fact that a want to go and be involved more in doing all it takes to get there. Sorry for the long post, but I would really like to talk with you if you have time about what I need to do to have a strong enough resume to get into loma linda. Maybe I will see you there one day. God Bless
Yep, Matthew 6:33 is certainly the key and while we are at it, we could add the wonderful book of Proverb–6:3, 9. God bless you as you continue to put Him first!
Hey, I’m a 3rd year who just finished his OB/Gyn rotation; while I’m not going into the field, I really enjoyed the rotation and can definitely see why you have an interest.
As for your bad experience with rejections, I can offer a couple suggestions since I went through the same type of thing early in the rotation. What I found works is getting to know the women throughout their labor, chatting with them and checking up on them every few hours. I understand that as a first year it can be a little awkward to just go on your own, but when the patients (I hesitate to use that word, because women in labor don’t have anything wrong with them…) get to know you and see how happy and excited you are for them, they’ll want to let you share in their experience.
By the end of my rotation, I had several women (and their family members) express disappointment when they thought I was heading home (I wasn’t) or even demand that I be present when they delivered. I still had a rejection every once in a while, but they became few and far between.
So I hope you don’t get too discouraged – I think it’s a wonderful field and I wish you luck in your future OB experiences :).
Oh and one more thing about OB…
I think there’s some kind of law akin to Murphy’s Law. People don’t die during the day, and women don’t deliver during the day. Everything happens after 9 pm and before 6 am.
Another tip. When you are trying to decide which expectant mother to follow, try to pick a multipara, or a nullipara who’s at least 5 cm dilated by 8 or 9 in the morning. Those are the ones who might actually deliver before you have to go home.