Spreading the Love One Vaccine at a Time

I really can't believe the amount of trust they've instilled in medical students in the United States. A few weeks ago we had a "training" teaching us how to give flu vaccines through the shoulder muscle. New York City law has mandated that all health care workers (including med students) require both the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine or else we can't work or go to school.

Mount Sinai felt it would be best to use this as a teaching opportunity and have med students administer the vaccines. At the training, we didn't practice on each other or anything of the sort, we actually practiced on oranges. Apparently, the faculty felt that oranges had a similar skin resistance as a human being and therefore would be just as effective in teaching us how to give injections. So here I was, in my shining glory, injecting water into oranges like it was my business and then continuing to put on band-aids where I punctured the orange.

Fast forward to last Thursday, from 4-8pm. I was in the front of the assembly line, meaning I was almost non-stop for at least 3 of the 4 hours giving vaccine after vaccine. My first vaccination was miserable. I was shaking, went way too slow (which makes it hurt more), and was just all over the place. Thankfully the patient didn't ask me if it was my first time, probably since I had the white coat on. Something about that coat makes people think you know what you're doing. Don't ever be fooled, ladies n' gents. Actually, only one person showed any concern at all by saying, "I'm not too worried, you've probably done so many of these!" I continued to say, "yea, don't worry." I didn't think it was lying if I didn't clarify that I've only done a lot of those just that day. I mean she was around my 20th vaccination - that's a lot to me.

I also went on last Saturday to do some vaccines for the health department in a project in Central Harlem. The health department sponsored free vaccinations to anyone in Harlem since it's a vastly underserved community, and preventative medicine (vaccinations) would decrease the economic effect of the mostly uninsured population of Harlem. As much as people want to say its a humanitarian thing, it all comes down to cost reduction. That's a different story though - The people we encountered at the St. Nicholas Houses (left) really caught me off guard. I'd always ask myself, "Why don't these people care about their health care and start to take care of themselves instead of getting so sick that they have to go to the emergency room and waste tax dollars on something that could have been easily prevented?"

I realized after Saturday that these people care just as much as everyone else about their health care. The difference is that I generally trust the doctors I go to and the studies that suggest what treatment I should receive. Throughout the years that these people have been living in Harlem they've seen things that would make them never trust the government or health department ever again. One man told me that he wont do anything for his health that the government mandates because the government is just trying to kill off the poor people in the country as a means to reduce poverty. He actually felt his life was endangered by his own government.

Another training we had we actually did practice on one another. This time it was to practice taking blood samples, known as venipuncture. This is the one that you stick them in the arm after putting a rubber band around their bicep and hope you hit a vein, or else you do it again. I was the first to get stuck by my partner. The needle went in like butter and she actually hit the vein spot on - but as she turned to her left to grab the band aid from the box, she yanked out the needle and any blood that was along with it. My blood spattered all over the table and the floor and my arm became bruised. It looked a lot worse than it actually was though - and I think she felt really bad about it. I laughed - a lot. Here's a picture of the Dexter-esque crime scene.



Then it was my turn. Same thing went on. I hit her vein spot on, took the needle out, put the cotton in the place the needle was, and when I removed the cotton to put the band aid on she kept on bleeding a lot. Seeing the blood come out caused her to turn white as a ghost and I couldn't figure out what I did wrong. Finally a friend came over and said I left the rubber band around the arm which makes it so the blood keeps on coming out. I took of the band and everything was fine. She almost fainted, my blood was all over the table and floor - overall a great experience.


My first anatomy exam is this Friday and is causing me to have this bad taste of vomit constitutively attached to the back of my throat. I've been studying more than I've ever studied for anything before (I know I've been throwing that around a lot, but this time it's true). The supposed toughest part of the body to study is the perineum, or in layman's terms, the taint, gooch or grundle. This is a curious little area of the body that can be seen right here: The Perineum, according to Wikipedia. I can't attach any pictures because honestly I don't know what's offensive or what's not anymore. This has been the topic of my studies for the past few days. The perineum refers to the mysterious area between the anus and the vagina/penis. This is a curious little piece of skin and is often considered prime real estate. The funny thing is, I tried to study this thing and whats behind it over at the NYU undergraduate library and only realized after a solid couple of hours that the people around me were all disgusted with me for staring into this vast wonder world at the level of detail I need to in order to really know the anatomy I need to know for the exam. I finally turned around and saw people staring at me with a face that said, "what is the matter with you?" I went back to the heart and mesenteries shortly after.

Since we're starting learn the intricacies of the all the different systems of the body through anatomy the ominous question of what specialty everyone will be pursuing has become more and more prevalent amongst the first years. I've made my decision. I will be Dr. Mario and I've mapped out the next several years of my life below:

Special thanks to Romit for that one. Have a good one guys. I'll see you after the midterm.