What I didn't know would happen on January 9th.

I was assigned my first acute patient on January 9th. He's still here. I'm still grappling with overseas communication, Communist China, and some staggering cultural differences. Not to mention a heavy dose of rigidity and narcissism. I avoid/lash out at the insurance company that pesters me everyday for "updates" that don't exist because I don't know what to do, and I'm not even the person who's supposed to be talking to the insurance company. I fluctuate between thinking "a trainee should have never been assigned this case" and "there's nothing I can't handle." I finally sat down with Risk Management today, my last resort--the people who make non-clinical plans for the unforeseeable and the rare. I have learned a great deal about mental health care in Chinese culture, having spent some of my travel time to NOLA this past weekend with some light reading about suicide in Chinese adolescents. Today the attending asked me if I wanted to write up our case--how often does a teenager from Communist China try to kill themselves in the US anyway??--and of course I agreed because I am a sucker for collaboration and I cannot say no to things these days. Like the soup and bread potluck at work today? I brought the homemade pumpkin bread with the crumb topping. Major hit.

I took my 16 year old patient for a second interview today, this time to a residential facility across town. She was really negative about it, but managed to flat iron her hair anyway, and ended up having a GREAT experience. I was so relieved. I mean, I can try to sell anything if I really have to, I can be very persuasive. But in this case, I didn't have to sell anything. She was particularly in love with the "art wing" of the on-campus school. The campus really is wonderful, complete with a ropes course, indoor pool, and greenhouse. It reminded me so much of a place I worked in Waco...real trees, no cinderblock walls, no quiet rooms. I have great hope that we can discharge her next week, and then I'm going to have to grieve big time.

I am basically too tired to go on writing. The rate of learning the last three weeks has been insane. My friend Shawn asked me how I was today and I replied, "um, yeah whatever. huh?" because I lost track of his question as he was asking it. That is pretty pathetic, I must say, and maybe a new low for me!