this is for reals

Among the things I'm learning on rotations is the fact that everyone has different electronic medical records (EMR) systems.  Talk about confusing!  I'm a bit computer retarded too for a 25 year old (weird... I'm halfway thru my 20's?!), so it's even more of a learning curve.  But anyways, this morning I learned how to change medications, order lab studies, and schedule follow up appointments for patients all with a few clicks.  On the drive home it hit me how much power that gave me... especially the meds!  Geez, can they really entrust such important stuff to me?  As the rotations experience becomes more real to me, it's making me feel quite grown up.

Speaking of grown up, I've just begun as a Junior High Youth Group adult leader!  It's something I've been thinking about for over 6 months now, which is my cue that it's not one of my frequent fleeting interests that pans out as nothing more.  But Jr. High is really where I took off as far as my relationship with the Lord goes, and i owe a lot of that to the adults who led us and goofed around with us and loved on us each week.  So I'm really pumped to serve another group of young men and hopefully give them the kind of experiences I had.  Who else voluntarily spends time with a dozen 7th grade boys?  Yeah, I thought not.  You're welcome, society.  :-D

Update: I got to spend some time with the Swahili-speaking patient, (we'll call him Mr. G), today.  He felt better about his general situation, and was very thankful for the verses we had given him.  Praise God for that!!  He asked today for passages from Ephesians, so away I went to print off 3 chapters of the book.  It really makes me happy to do that.  I wonder if it would make me just as happy if the Bible was just another book to me... As in, I wonder if the satisfaction lies in being a provider of comfort for the patient, or if it's magnified to me since the Scripture is also a big part of my life.  Interesting.  That's the best part of psych to me, the close follow up on patients' well being day by day.  I don't know if that'll be enough to steer me towards psychiatry as a career.  Don't hold your breath, haha.  Not going to rule anything out prematurely, of course. ;-)

grace & peace