smirkingatyou

Over 12 hours in the hospital today. I'm dog tired and very glad to now have my shoes off. My day was a parade of minor victories and defeats. That's the way of it. I learn what I can and move on.

One of my patients speaks no English. Neither does her husband. I know how to say "How much to make the mattress squeak?" in Spanish, but that hasn't come in handy yet. One of the doctors taught me the word for "pain." That combined with gestures has accomplished more than I expected. When we need to communicate more complicated information, I call for a translator. This system works as well as it can. The downside is that, at best, it slows the process of patient-provider interaction to a crawl. At worst, something important can be missed. I think about that a lot.

I've gotten a reputation as "the breastfeeding guy." I talk to all of my patients about it. If i find out any patient (even the ones that aren't mine) indicates that she intends to bottle-feed at all, I ask her why and try to talk them out of it, especially for the first few weeks. We're lucky to have a breastfeeding specialist in the hospital. I keep her busy, but she seems very happy that I'm concerned.

My other pet project is birth control and family planning. So far, I haven't let anyone stay more than a day without choosing some form of birth control beyond condoms. I know this is a touchy subject. Hormonal contraceptives can have some nasty side effects, but so does an unplanned pregnancy too soon after giving birth.

Tomorrow, I spend the morning with a midwife. It should be interesting. Llona may get an email full of questions when I get home.