Don't Give Up

Ever since the FMEC Conference, I've felt a heavy weight on my head. I can't think about health care without feeling overwhelmed with the hugeness of trying to hold all the social determinants of health piled in our arms, wondering how to begin building a clinical and community health foundation with our hands already full and while balancing on the tiny point of band-aid high-tech medicine that is currently, precariously, keeping most of us alive for 70 years or so.

Tonight, though, I read my first clinical blog from September, and was reminded of another patient.

Clinical Reflections

Yesterday, I injected steroids into a woman’s shoulder with no help. I diagnosed her, offered her the injection, verbally consented her, re-read about how to do the procedure, and mixed the steroid and anesthetic myself. She was so hysterical at the sight of the needle I had to have the PA I work with hold her hand and head and we tried to lie her down. But in that position, I couldn’t get the needle in the right space. It was stuck in the tendon and only hitting bone, so without taking the needle out, we sat the panicky patient back up and I repositioned until the milky mixture went in smoothly.