And the Story Continues..

Now that school is over for the semester, I will be spending more time at the clinic. I absolutely love this time of year, and am becoming more and more excited every single day as Christmas and New Year’s is quickly approaching!

At the clinic, we have been helping to spread the holiday spirit by decorating for Christmas, with beautiful trees and lights on every patient care floor. The trees/lights were graciously given to the clinic by a private donor, and we hope to be able to spread the spirit of generosity and of giving to patients during this holiday season.

Again, I feel completely grateful for the experience that I have had at the San Jose Clinic. I hope that I have been able to touch the patients’ lives, as they have mine. It has been incredible to see the resilience in many of the patients; the determination to battle disease and to become healthier. If this is a taste of what medicine is all about, then I know that I am headed down the right path in the years to come for a fulfilling life!

End of the Semester

Finals week is right around the corner, and with that comes the great anticipation for finals week to be over (YAY!), the ESA meeting in San Diego, MATCH results, and finally, all of the Christmas and New Year’s festivities!!

I had previously anticipated that this upcoming week would be my last week of the semester at the San Jose Clinic, but I’ve since changed my mind! I think it makes more sense now that without schoolwork to keep me busy, I should be able to spend more time at the clinic – and so that’ll be what I will be doing! In making the brochure to educate patients, I was able to gain so much more knowledge on hypertension, the second most prevalent chronic condition present in patients of the clinic.

Something important that I learned was that hypertension, as well as many other chronic illnesses, is not only treated with medication, but also takes a great deal of commitment on the patients’ parts to make the necessary lifestyle changes to better their condition. A particular lifestyle change for hypertension patients is diet and exercise. Salt consumption has to be tightly controlled, and patients are encouraged to get in at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise every single day. Furthermore, foods high in cholesterol and fat content are an absolute no. I am so proud of patients that are able to stick with their diet regimens, because it definitely isn’t an easy thing to do!