Last week at High Point but the end is not quite here

I finished my last at High Point last week. I was able to focus on oncology and rehab patients all week, which was definitely a treat given they were the patients I most enjoyed working with. It was a bit of a slower week, so I was encouraged and able to spend more time with each patient. Mostly, that meant spending time listening to them tell me about their lives and histories whether it had to do with their eating habits or not. It was great, and I loved every minute of it! One patient spent spent over 45minutes telling me stories from his WWII days in Europe. Not only was it fascinating, but low and behold I learned about where some of his eating habits came from! I am more convinced than ever that the power of listening has the ability to heal...or at least make people feel a whole lot better.

I start a one week rotation this week at UNC tomorrow focusing on inborn metabolic disorders. I feel like it will be a complete change of pace in many ways yet should also be very interesting. I am looking forward to it!

goodbye CMC Union

I left to go out of town the day after my clinicals finished, so I didn't get to write my last post until now. My last two weeks at CMC Union were a very good experience for me. I was on staff relief both weeks, and it was the first time that I really began get to know the patients on the floor. Before I just usually went with whichever dietitian had the longest list, so I rarely followed up on the same patient that I had already seen. Staff relief was a great way to see the parts of clinical dietetics that I enjoyed and the parts that were not my favorite.

I was sad to leave the dietitians on my last day because they were very good to me all summer. One of my favorite parts of the summer was interacting with them every day. Overall it was a great summer!

Ending on a High Note

My last week of staff relief definitely had its ups and downs, and I was pretty much exhausted for most of it, but it was a great week in the end. I followed several patients over the course of the week, and it was great to get to know them and help them. I did a lot of instructions, and most of my patients were remarkably receptive, making the experiences really positive. (However, I did learn that you should NEVER calculate someone's energy needs on the fly because it is way too easy to make a mistake, and then you have to go back looking like an idiot.)

I heard some interesting food beliefs from several people: 1) when you add salt during cooking instead of at the table, it doesn't add sodium to the food, and 2) sea salt has less sodium and is better for you than table salt.

The exception to my feeling of being able to help everyone was my very last case: a woman with a h/o severe hyperemesis gravidarum. As I dug into records from previous admissions, it became clear that there isn't much we can do for her - jejunal feedings and TPN have both failed in the past, and she ultimately had to terminate a pregnancy. I spoke with her briefly to let her know that the RD's would follow her and give her all the help possible, but really, this woman just has some tough choices in front of her.

Overall, this has been a really challenging but educational and rewarding. I will really miss the RD's at Rex - they were so helpful and fun to work with. They've all been very supportive, including Lyn (the demanding clinical nutrition manager), who went out of her way to compliment me on Thursday. I'll take that as an H.