I asked five of my fellow Team Thompson team members to tell me about their most memorable patient from this week’s Faith in Practice clinic. Here are their stories.
Dr. Heather Dieperink Optholt, General Medicine
“My first patient yesterday was an 83-year-old female who had never seen a doctor in her life, and she was in very good shape. She didn’t really seem to need a doctor; there were some minor things like hypertension and some nutritional deficiencies. She probably had rickets as a child from a vitamin D deficiency. Overall, her family had taken great care of her, and she’d taken great care of herself too. My main goal was to help her continue to live a healthy life. But I thought, what a blessing it was that she was my first patient of the day, and I was the first doctor she’d ever seen in her life. She reminded me what a blessing it was to age. Yes, aging is a blessing! We should look at aging as a beautiful privilege.”
Bruce Beekley PT, Mobility Clinic
“The mobility clinic saw a young woman yesterday who had an old wheelchair which was probably older than she is, and we were able to fit her to a brand-new chair. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone so excited to receive a much-needed mobility tool. Long after the wheelchair was given to her, she was still at the clinic site having her picture taken. Her joy and enthusiasm made my day, as much as we were able to make her day.”
Dr. Betty Kung-Shen, Gynecology
“The patient who really made an impression on me was a young woman who is 24 years old. She is a new widow and has two young children and had traveled a long way with her father to be here at the clinic. She was seen for a large vaginal mass, frightened that her situation was very serious. We were able to re-assure her that there is treatment available to her and are hopeful for a positive outcome for her.
“A much more daunting story is of a 35-year-old woman, who came to us with a massive tumor on her breast. Unfortunately, she found the mass in her breast six years ago and had seen two doctors. One told her she needed surgery and the other said she didn’t. And here we are, six years later with a mass that has been growing during this entire time. We were able to send her to our referrals department and we have hope that her outcome will be positive.”
Dr. Eberle Ewing, General Medicine
“I saw a 49-year-old male patient, who looked very young. I thought he was in his 20s. He suddenly became weak a month ago, so he paid out of pocket to get a CT scan and has seen a couple of physicians. After my visit with the patient, he met with our referral department. They let me know that they will make sure that this man will get an appointment to see a neurologist next week. The story was so sad because just before he was at the clinic, his mother died. But it was so important to him to be able to come to the Faith in Practice clinic that he still made the trip, even though he was mourning the death of his mother. We don’t know what the eventual diagnosis will be when he sees the neurologist, but at the very least, we were able to give him some hope.”
Liz Junge, Ultrasound Laboratory
“An overall memory I will take from this week is how many of my patients gave me a giant hug after I completed their ultrasound. It’s just been so beautiful! My memorable moment was yesterday when I had a female patient in her early thirties who saw her baby on the ultrasound. An ultrasound in rural Guatemala is not readily available. My patient didn’t want to know the sex of her baby, but she was with her mom, and her mom did want to know, so I was able to whisper it to her mother. They were also able to hear the baby’s heartbeat. The whole experience was so sweet.”
These are just a few of the sad, joyful, tragic, and hopeful stories of our patients this week. It’s been an honor to share Team Thompson’s week in Jalapa, Guatemala.
-Ruth Lacey
