So I was on call yesterday, long call, meaning I was in the hospital for 24+ hours. I can officially say that during that entire time I did not sleep one bit. I found myself in the midst of being a rough translator for three hispanic patients. I can say that I am quickly getting over my reservations of speaking spanish with native speakers. I guess when a woman is trying to push a baby out, the last thing they are worrying about is grammar lol. But real talk, I dont know exactly why, but I sometimes get the feeling that non english speaking patients dont get quite as good care as anglophones. So last night I got attached to a patient who was working on delivering her 5th pregnancy. She was having a pretty difficult time considering that with each successive child, the birthing process is supposed to ease up. I was drafted because of my rudimentary knowledge of espanol. I found that I didnt really have the time to be shy so I jumped right in as best i could. I basically was trying to be a birthing coach for this poor lady, whos significant other was not around. Not to sound like a bleeding heart, but I really felt for her, because in this very tender and personal moment she was in a room filled with people who could barely say hello in her language, much less tell her how to deliver a baby.
So i tried my best and after hours [and hours] of pushing she told me she couldnt do it anymore. I know it broke her heart to get the C-section, cause it broke mine. After all that labor and pushing, she still had to go under the knife. I just hope a lot of things, i hope that the team i worked with picked up a little more spanish so that they can help their patients that much more. In the most pure and non self serving sense, i honestly dont know how they birth people without someone in the room with some grasp of spanish [those translation phones only go so far], I also hope that this feeling never stops; the connection that comes when you are in a patients room, by their bedside encouraging and doing all you can to help. Its such a genuine and raw feeling that it pulls you in everytime. I found myself rooting for my patient, I felt invested in her. So much so that I stayed for the C-section at the end of my call [and almost passed out, but thats another story... lets just say that over 24 hours on your feet and no food dont work well in hot ass sterile garments lol]. I could never do OB, but this rotation is teaching me a lot, about this thing called medicine.
I love what I do. I am unbelievably lucky to be a part of this.
ok good night, didactics en la manana
Julian
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