Little People

(written halfway through Pediatrics)

I was not excited about starting Peds. On my first day, my first patient – a 1-year-old at the height of his stranger-anxiety - screamed the whole time. I looked at him empathetically. You and me both, buddy. By the end of the first week I had concluded that peds was not for me because I cannot work in a field in which:

A) I have to use falsetto every day
B) I have to utter the phrase “poopy diaper”
C) In the first week, I catch a stomach virus that makes me throw up for the first time in 13 years

But get this: pediatrics is growing on me. It turns out that most of the kids don’t scream, and I’m really pretty good with them. The parents – the reason many people give for not pursuing the specialty – aren’t that bad, either. I seem to get along pretty well with them, and a few of them have even complimented me on how I handle their kids. It’s even interesting academically; there’s a whole set of different disorders that happen in kids, so there’s plenty new to learn, which is exciting. I actually enjoying reading my review books at night and then shouting, “Hey! That’s so cool – I saw that in a kid today!” (I don’t know if Tay enjoys that part.) And of course the timing of my rotation schedule was perfect, giving me a week working in the newborn nursery immediately following my bout of illness, and the adorable, itty-bitty little babies completely made me forget about being sick the week before.
What about the sad stuff, the kids who can't be fixed up or cured? Well, I don’t know yet. My first four weeks have been outpatient, so I haven’t seen any seriously ill kids yet. Starting the week of Thanksgiving, I will do four weeks on the inpatient floor, including one in oncology. I’ll let you know how it goes.