The past week, while doing my Clinical Pharmacology elective in Internal Med, has been a week of many firsts. I did my first paracentesis while being observed by my supervisor. This procedure involves inserting a needle into the side of the belly to drain ascitic fluid - fluid that commonly builds up in patients with liver disease. I was so nervous because it's not a procedure that many med students get to do, but we managed to help the patient symptomatically, and there were no complications. It went pretty well! Later on this past week, I also got to do my first thoracentesis, which similarly involves inserting a needle catheter into the pleural space to drain fluid which has built up. Things went pretty well and there were no complications either.
The most difficult part of this past week though was a phone call I had to make to a family. After reflecting on the situation, it was one of the most difficult phone calls I've had to make in my life - I had to call a family to let them know that their mom might not make it through the weekend. She was an elderly woman, and her health was slowly declining, but as I've said before, nothing can totally prepare someone for when a loved one dies. I explained the situation as best as I could, as factually as I could, but I found myself still stumbling when I came to the dreaded words "We feel your mom may not survive through the weekend". It stuck like a lump in my throat. The family was understanding and thankful that I had called to let them know. Still, it was the most difficult phone call I've had to make in a long, long time.
