11th Quarter

A fresh term has been started this week.  One for the books, in fact.  In a little over two months, a large group of our original cohort will be venturing into their final term at Western States.  It is a little bitter sweet to be at this level in the program.  Often times, I find myself reflecting back to all the hurdles that were once standing before us that seemed impossible to conquer.  With only a few months left, I see the remainder of school as a small hurdle at best.

Another big deal that is happening right now is that all the interns at the CIC are from my original class!  We are running the clinic.  Six 11th quarter interns are currently treating as primary interns, which means they are finishing their required 215 outpatient visits.  This seems like a small number but it takes quite a bit of work to accomplish.  The trick is getting a rhythm with patient care and getting in-sync with the patients by communicating solidly with them.  They feel cared for and you deliver focused care.

Six 10th quarter interns arrived to the CIC this Monday ready to go.  It was quite the change from our previous environment, but thinking back, it took a little while for the previous group to get used to each other too.  There is a window of time that it takes for interns to bond and feel comfortable around each other.  There is a period of time that it takes to learn how to work with each other with efficiency.  Unfortunately, everyone has goals that sometimes get in the way of efficiency.  However, trust must be earned by the patients and the attending doctor before goals can be obtained.  Everyone has to know their roles in the clinic or else it is chaotic and way more stressful than it should be.  It is wise to be respectful to everyone.

The weird thing is that you cannot rush the process.  Even now that I have a little cohort of patients that I treat, I still have to keep each of them at the forefront of my thoughts when I am around them.  Just because I have been treating them for 3-4 months, doesn't mean I can be lackluster or too relaxed with them.  That being said, there is always time to joke around a little with them so they know you are human.  I showed a human quality to all of my patients today, which consisted of severe pain.  Who can't relate to that?

Today was a very challenging day, probably the most challenging day since I began working at the CIC 5 months ago.  My back has been causing me issues lately from doing too many long runs while I was on vacation.  All week I have had fits of back spasms in my lumbosacral region.  It was my SI joint earlier this week and after being adjusted, it felt 100%.  Today the pain started creeping up again and became a full on spasm with certain movements.  I had to grin and bear it today while working with patients and I found myself pushing through the pain. You don't realize how physical chiropractic is until you are hurt.  Most of the patients noticed and thank goodness I had a secondary in the room with me to help out.  Unfortunately, I screwed up by not telling my first patient that I was in pain.  I think this person thought I was acting funny but didn't want to say anything.  Hopefully we'll continue onward in a few weeks.  If not, oh well.

Hopefully the meeting will be made tomorrow morning.  It is now 1:30 in the morning and the meeting starts at 7:30.  

All for now