Full Circle

It was my first duty as an Internal Medicine Intern, my first assignment was the Pay Wards. I just received the endorsement from the outgoing intern and was perusing the census when I arrived at the nurses' station. I dropped a post-it with my name and contact number for them to contact me when they need me. I received a message from my resident that I am to attend to one of the pay patients there who is currently hypotensive, so I went ahead to his room.

I wasn't able to ask permission to mention his name in my blog so let's just call him Mr. SG. He is around 50 years old and is suffering from uretelial cancer, and from the looks of it, at a very advanced stage.

True enough, he was hypotensive at 80/50. I carried out all the orders my resident told me to do. Fast drip. Start levophed. Start dobutamine. Monitor patient q15. Every once in a while messages would come from other wards so I would run to those stations then come back to monitor Mr. SG again.

I spent too much time in his room that Mrs. SG and I have already bonded. We found out that we have common family friends since they were from Laguna, too. We talked about many things. UP, mathematics (yes!), medicine, religion. And despite all our efforts, Mr. SG's condition remained as is, hypotensive. I received him hypotensive, I endorsed him back hypotensive.

On my second duty, I found out that they were planning on transferring Mr. SG to a big private hospital along E. Rodriguez. I checked on him, still hypotensive. I prepared his discharge summaries and abstracts then wished him good luck. Later that night, the ICU intern told me that Mr. SG will be coming back from the big private hospital, straight to ICU. I waited the whole night, but until I was relieved the next day, he wasn't transferred in.

The next day, I officially became the Service Ward intern, which made me so busy that I forgot to check the ICU if Mr. SG was transferred in. Many things happened during my week in the Service Ward (that will be another story) that Mr. SG slipped my mind completely, even if I was already the ICU intern (I was very preoccupied -- again, another story).

But then on my last day as an IM intern, I was walking from the ICU to the elevator lobby of the fifth floor when I saw that the patients' and visitors' elevator was open. I shouted "DOWN", and quickly stepped in.

Then I heard someone call me, "Doktora!"

I looked around and saw Mrs. SG smiling at me.

"Ma'am, kumusta na po? Kumusta na si Sir?" I asked smiling widely at her.

Mrs. SG's smiled wavered a little then said, "Wala na siya."

It was then that I noticed that she was wearing a black blouse. On our way down, she told me that he just stayed in the ICU of the other hospital for a day before he went. I told her that I have been waiting for him in the ICU when I heard that he was to be transferred back.

We both stepped out of the elevator, still talking about Mr. SG, and how he's in better place now, and that it's sad since Christmas is approaching. We said our hurried goodbyes and she left.

I walked back slowly to the parking lot thinking that it is this rotation that somehow affected me in more ways than I expected. Other rotations came and went, but none of them compared to this.