Maybe I'll be smart enough to catch up this weekend, but if not... since my last post, I moved to Houston where I am now staying in the nicest apartments I have ever had the pleasure to occupy. I have constructed a blanket fort in the bedroom and created a little work space in the corner (the desk was already built into the apartment).
I have completed the second day of my first core rotation in pediatrics. What inspired me to actually begin to write was the most shocking thing to me about my rotation thus far (aside from how kind and pleasant my supervising doctor is): children get diagnosed with serious things when they are really young. Our encounters are brief, and I have only seen so many, and all were already established patients, but it seems as if the most fun children, the ones that I liked most at a glance, have been diagnosed with ADHD. One patient today was especially amazing, as he and his sister, who had too much energy for their mom, were doing cartwheels in the waiting room and making fake phone calls with me through the window. They were smart and funny for their ages, at least without the medication. Another one was quiet throughout the visit, but apparently just cannot handle his emotions when something bad happens; despite the mood swings, he was making 100's in class and his teachers used him as an example. The pediatrician would end up adding conduct disorder (which seemed an extreme diagnosis to me) for lack of a better understanding of what exactly was going on.
My mom never used those medications and did not take us in for testing either, and I think I am the better for it, even though my attention span has never been what I could wish. I just wonder, if the parents of these children could spare the time and energy, whether this medication would even be necessary.
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