Today is Monday. President’s Day. I have the week off to transition to my last rotation site. 4th year has been amazing. I’ve have humbling experiences and have made great friends who will soon be my colleagues. Here’s a little bit about my experience during my summer rotation.
Rotation Site #1: Tulsa, OK. Earnest Childers VA
I’ve never learned so much about optometry and am so happy this was my first rotation as a 4th year. My friends Greg, Jolinda and Mai tagged along with me to Oklahoma in June. This rotation was a total of 11 weeks and went up until early August. I had 6 attendings who were all so knowledgable. I picked on their brains every time I had the chance because I knew they’d have an answer to my question.
I saw a variety of ocular conditions including: BRVO, NAION, Glaucoma, AMD, Optic nerve drusen, ERM, Morganian Cataract, PVD, Reticular degeneration, Pavingstone, NVI, Asteroid hyalosis, and the list goes on. I constantly studied every night to be up to date with all the conditions that we were seeing at this site. This allowed me to be comfortable with the treatment and management of the conditions and to be able to answer questions that my attendings may ask. During lunch break and the ride home, my friends and I would always nerd out and start discussing all the conditions we saw and how we treated and managed those patients. It was a great learning experience and to be able to share those with them made it more memorable.
My patients always made my day! 99.9% of the patients were >65 years old so they definitely had lots of stories to tell, alright. An easy IOP pressure check can lead to a 1 hour appointment because patients loved sharing their adventures. I, myself, loved hearing their experiences but it was very unfortunate that I would always have to end the conversation early because other patients needed to be seen as well.
I, however, had one of the most memorable patient. Unfortunately, I forgot his name but he was a patient that I saw in June. He came in for an annual comprehensive eye exam and during that exam I found a PVD in one eye of his eyes that wasn’t on his previous charts. He had no symptoms but we still wanted to bring him back in 1 month to re-dilate and monitor it. During this appointment, we talked a lot about food (we’re both foodies) and how I liked jambalaya. He told me a place with delicious jambalaya and recommended me that restaurant. Our conversation was going well so as he was dilating (I usually have them sit out while dilating), I let him sat in the exam chair and listened to him as I chart. He was just the sweetest man and we continued to talk about his time in war and his family and exchanged our experiences in life.
A month later, as I was going to see my next patient, Mai informed me that I had a patient that wanted to see me. It turned out to be him and I was very happy to see him again. We started talking and he asked if I have tried the jambalaya yet and regrettably, I have not. He then snuck a $20 bill in my hand and I was taken aback! I repeatedly tried to hand it back and he just wouldn’t accept it. He told me he was very thankful for my help and that I will become a great clinician/doctor. It was very rewarding to hear those words come out of one of my patients. It made my day and I will always remember my encounter with him.
Overall, my experience in Tulsa was very rewarding and I gained so much knowledge. I’m really excited and still eager to learn even more as I continue to embark in this journey.