Thyroid

Here is a reason why I love ICM. Before I give the reason, let me explain that ICM stands for Introduction to Clinical Medicine, a 6-month-long course in which each of us is paired with a physician preceptor/mentor. Throughout the next 6 months, we will spend almost every Monday afternoon with our preceptors, learning how to interview patients by actually interviewing them. I've been fortunate enough to be paired with Dr. Katz, an internal medicine physician in a small practice in Englewood, NJ. (Yes, I drive to New Jersey every Monday.) He, along with the other physicians in the office, is friendly, energetic, and interested in making Monday afternoons a great learning experience for me. Plus, he is a graduate of Einstein, so he's always eager to chat about classes, instructors, housing, the Bronx...

So here is why I love ICM. This afternoon, between the first and second patient appointments, Dr. Katz and I were in the central common area, where he was jotting down a few notes from the previous patient as well as explaining to me what the patient's different medicines were for. One of the other doctors waltzed over, looked down at me and asked, "You wanna feel a really big thyroid?" I raised my eyebrows, shrugged, smiled and said, "Sure!" Less than a minute later, I was walking into the exam room, where sure enough, there was a woman suffering from hyperthyroidism; she will soon have surgery to remove it. She had no objections to me using her as a learning experience (although I have a sneaky suspicion that most patients don't realize I'm only 2 months into medical school -- the white coat is tricky like that), so I was able to gently press on her throat, feeling around the edges of the butterfly-shaped organ.

After I thanked her, I left, and the rest of the afternoon was "normal": I interviewed a patient with a painkiller addiction, helped dress a diabetic patient's leg sores, listened to a heart murmur, and studied chest X-rays. I'm learning so much every Monday, not the least of which is the fact that I picked the right career. All the studying and reading and classwork may often be tedious, but the Monday experiences are a good reminder of what I'm really here to do. I love science, and I'll learn what I need to learn to practice great medicine. But in the end, medicine is about people, and that's that.