yesterday my patients were:
-22y/o nonverbal (cerebral palsy, MR) with urinary tract infection
-spanish speaking only 52y/o woman with clot in the lung
-spanglish speaking 63y/o man with dizziness
-spanish speaking only 55y/o woman with stomach ulcers and kidney problems
-russian speaking mostly 75y/o woman with knee problems and thyroid cancer
suffice it to say, i struggle with communication, but the hospital has an excellent interpreter-phone service, which i try to use when i have time. also, i use spanish as much as i feel comfortable and as much as i think it's sufficient care for patients... but i don't do end-of-life conversations, or long history-taking, with my spanish. i'm totally improving though! and it's awesome! i even had dreams early in this morning that i was speaking to patients in spanish... which is sort of depressing that i'm not flying or battling monsters or traveling through time/space in my dreams, but at least i'm practicing my spanish in waking life and dreaming sleep both!
speaking of waking life, i switch to "nightfloat" starting tomorrow night, which means i sleep during the day and work 14hr shifts every night. more on this to come, but probably after the two weeks are over!
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