Christmas, Cider, and Clinic Visit

It is already Christmas. Well, that is, if you happen to be at Starbucks. While I was standing in line beside some of my dearest undergraduate friends, debating whether to order the usual overpriced venti chai tea latte or the seasonal peppermint mocha or the caramel spiced apple cider, Dr. Y asked me if I was interested in getting any dessert.

The clear glass box housed big chocolate chunk cookies, thick slices of pound cake, cheesy bagels, nutty brownies, and rice-krispy treats. All so tantalizing and seductive.

And yet, I responded by saying: "No, thanks. I just feel so guilty eating anything unhealthy after spending a day counseling patients about not eating sweet, fatty, delicious desserts."

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Earlier that day, I was seeing patients at the Shifa Community Clinic, a student-run clinic in Sacramento that offers free services to underserved patients populations. Shifa has a special place in my heart; I spent four years as an undergraduate serving patients, learning, and exploring and crystallizing my interest in medicine.

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Today, my role was different from my usual role as a clinic volunteer or monitor, where I would perform vitals, coordinate patient flow, room patients, and oversee clinical activity.

The role was completely reversed; I was seeing patients, and flying solo, interviewing each patient, performing the physical exam (good thing for passing my recent observed Physical Exam), and presenting to the preceptor and developing an action plan to help each patient.

I saw two patients and in the course of the day, I learned about everything from hypertension risk factors to ace inhibitors to syphilis to diabetes management to composing a SOAP note to viral rash presentation. I also injected my first flu shot and counseled my first patient about the numbers written on his lab tests.

Managing chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hyptertension, can be challenging. To help patients, who are at a higher risk of developing these metabolic syndromes, we encourage a healthy diet and excercise.

When I recommended regular excercise to a patient, he asked me if "sex was a type of excercise." I guess it is. I recommened a more traditional source of cardiovascular activity, like biking or walking. We'll see how that goes...

Discussing diet and excercise with patients, always make me more conscious of my diet and fitness level, a constant reinforcement of eating 5-vegetables a day, excercising and giving up the goodness that is cookies and sweets.

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There are lots of firsts. And my first return to Shifa as medical student is truly memorable. I still remember the good old clinic days, when I would see the first and second year medical students in their short white coats and stethoscopes taking care of a patient, with so much knowledge and skill, while talking to the physician in a completely different language that was filled with big medical words. Now I am one of those medical students in a short white coat with my red stethoscope.

It is hard to believe that I am now in the position. I feel so lucky to be able to return and provide my services to the patients, who contributed to my passion for medicine. And being reunited with the undergraduate volunteers I worked directly with during my time at Shifa is like the cream on top of the spiced apple cider I ordered at Starbucks.

The undergraduates are the nuts and bolts of the clinic; without them- there would be no clinic. When I was a volunteer and Dr. Y, the director and my mentor, would say this to me, I did not fully understand this meaning until I returned on the other side. I will remain a Shifa volunteer, and I hope I can return to serve future patients in clinic and work alongside such dedicated volunteers.

Happy early Christmas to anyone visiting Starbucks. And I hope you will think twice about grabbing something sweet (such as the big choclate chunk cookie, my personal favorite) from behind the glass window. Well if you do go for it, just excercise the calories off (in any activity you please :)

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For more information about Shifa Clinic (Mission, Volunteering, Donating, etc): http://shifaclinic.org/

Images: "Caramel Apple Cider." (it's too sweet for my preference). http://www.kvue.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/11-05/1122brllstarbucks.jpg