Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

What it means to be sick as a medical student

Jessica Gold
Education
June 8, 2011
Share
Tweet
Share

For the first time since I have been in medical training, I got sick.

Not just the kind of sick where its a cold, or you know that its stress, but the kind of sick that does not go away and randomly comes up just to make you mad when you just want to have fun (like Cyndi Lauper says that a typical girl does). This sickness manifested itself in two ways: one, a seemingly harmless allergy-like illness that would come on strong and cause me to have asthma attacks after feeling perfectly fine the day before, and the other, a “stomach bug” in which I felt fine and would wake up the next day puking for the whole day straight.

Being sick, however annoying, made me realize just how different it is to be a sick “doctor in training”, instead of just a sick “regular” student.

When my pesky little allergy-like disease chose not to go away after over a month, I finally made an appointment at student health. The minute the doctor came in to see me, instead of asking what brought me in, or what I was suffering from, his first question to me was “HOW, as a MEDICAL STUDENT, could I POSSIBLY wait for 4 weeks before seeing a doctor?!”

I paused for a second, wondering to myself if it was appropriate to say that I still had no faith in his ability to fix what I had, and that I merely thought it would “go away” as illnesses most often do. I wondered if this then meant that I had no faith in medicine to fix most everyday problems and if I, like health care policy experts often complain about the typical American health care consumer doing, use our medical system for sickness, and always in the extreme. Oh well … too late to fix this problem. Then, as if to pre-empt every question he was going to ask me, I did exactly what I hate my patients doing in clinical training, I answered all the possible questions he could ask me before he even had a chance to speak. One by one I knocked off questions on the list in my head, rattling off my symptoms, my past medical history, my current medications, and even my drug allergies. It was as if I was interviewing myself. I did not even pause to wonder what this doctor could possibly want to ask me that I did not learn to ask myself in my all-encompassing medical interview training. It appears that doctor’s appointments will never be the same again.

Besides changing my doctor experience, when it came to my second illness, the infamous stomach flu, I received a lot more doctoring than I had intended. Upon beginning conversations about “how I was feeling” or “if I was feeling better” with my friends, they flipped the switch and were suddenly transformed into doctors interviewing a patient (a trait they could not shut off even though most realized they were doing it). I was asked about my complete history of present illness, including questions about my diet, how often I throw up, and the occasionally uncomfortable questions about what it looks like and how much pain I was in. Let’s just say it took the shared information between friends up a notch or two.

One friend, while encouraging me to go see a doctor (which I again put off, as I could not possibly see what a doctor could fix for a complaint of “occasionally throwing up three weeks apart”), even asked me if it was possible for me to have C. Diff because I had taken antibiotics for my sinus infection (conclusion from doctors appointment mentioned above) and those had cleared out my immunity to other things. That kind of drastic leap, and crazy, nonsensical diagnosis, even of yourself, comes from learning medicine, but not yet knowing medicine. In fact, one friend of mine took a quiz online and convinced herself she had Aspergers. Another realized that her broken clavicle had reattached to the wrong bone when it had healed.

With all of this diagnosing going on before we even really do pathology or learn anything about disease, I can’t even imagine what sort of hypochondria is to come in the future.

Jessica Gold is a medical student.

Submit a guest post and be heard on social media’s leading physician voice.

Prev

Market demands determine whether to add physicians to a medical practice

June 8, 2011 Kevin 1
…
Next

Budget cuts to NICU admissions will have a ripple effect

June 8, 2011 Kevin 5
…

Tagged as: Medical school

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Market demands determine whether to add physicians to a medical practice
Next Post >
Budget cuts to NICU admissions will have a ripple effect

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Jessica Gold

  • To the health professionals during hurricane Sandy: Thank you

    Jessica Gold
  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    The stigma of HIV continues today

    Jessica Gold
  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    The side effects of cancer treatment go beyond losing your hair

    Jessica Gold

More in Education

  • Graduating from medical school without family: a story of strength and survival

    Anonymous
  • 2 hours to decide my future: How the SOAP residency match traps future doctors

    Nicolette V. S. Sewall, MD, MPH
  • What led me from nurse practitioner to medical school

    Sarah White, APRN
  • Bridging the rural surgical care gap with rotating health care teams

    Ankit Jain
  • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

    Hiba Fatima Hamid
  • The hidden cost of becoming a doctor: a South Asian perspective

    Momeina Aslam
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • 2 hours to decide my future: How the SOAP residency match traps future doctors

      Nicolette V. S. Sewall, MD, MPH | Education
    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • In a fractured world, Brian Wilson’s message still heals

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How doctors took back control from hospital executives

      Gene Uzawa Dorio, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Why shared decision-making in medicine often fails

      M. Bennet Broner, PhD | Conditions
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Why we fear being forgotten more than death itself

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Finding healing in narrative medicine: When words replace silence

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Why coaching is not a substitute for psychotherapy

      Maire Daugharty, MD | Conditions
    • When the white coats become gatekeepers: How a quiet cartel strangles America’s health

      Anonymous | Physician
    • Why doctors stay silent about preventable harm

      Jenny Shields, PhD | Conditions
    • Why interoperability is key to achieving the quintuple aim in health care

      Steven Lane, MD | Tech

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 6 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • 2 hours to decide my future: How the SOAP residency match traps future doctors

      Nicolette V. S. Sewall, MD, MPH | Education
    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • In a fractured world, Brian Wilson’s message still heals

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How doctors took back control from hospital executives

      Gene Uzawa Dorio, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Why shared decision-making in medicine often fails

      M. Bennet Broner, PhD | Conditions
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Why we fear being forgotten more than death itself

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Finding healing in narrative medicine: When words replace silence

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Why coaching is not a substitute for psychotherapy

      Maire Daugharty, MD | Conditions
    • When the white coats become gatekeepers: How a quiet cartel strangles America’s health

      Anonymous | Physician
    • Why doctors stay silent about preventable harm

      Jenny Shields, PhD | Conditions
    • Why interoperability is key to achieving the quintuple aim in health care

      Steven Lane, MD | Tech

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

What it means to be sick as a medical student
6 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...