Week 7 – “5 wishes”

In the bathroom, one of my classmates looked in the mirror and said, “guys, I look destroyed.”  She said, “normally I don’t look like this” (…dark circles under her eyes). I told her, don’t feel bad, I have to wait until I go to New York to get my hair cut, so until December, I’m going to look like a puff-ball.  She said, same with me, I have to wait until I go back home to Venezuela to get my hair cut too.  That made me feel a sense of camaraderie, someone who travels a greater distance than me to go home to get their hair cut.  It’s not that I can’t get my hair cut in other places, but my go to person in New York is the best.  She makes you feel great, look great, and you don’t need a explanation.  She is also a practitioner of reiki – which if you don’t know is a healing art.  It works with energy.

School was only 3 days this week but just the same level of intensity as a full week and it is non stop again for 6 more weeks than with a small break of 4 days off (Thanksgiving).  Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun. This appears to be the pattern, 6 intense weeks, 4 days off and go again.

This week’s palliative workshop was on Advance Directives and I thought it was amazing.  It was the first workshop were I felt like I learned tools to use in my future practice.  The facilitator had a powerpoint presentation of all visuals.  I loved that it had no words and I could for the first time just listen instead of read/write/learn.  For example, she had a compass as a slide and that cued her to say, sometimes we do need to guide our patients… followed by the strategy she shared.  I’m meeting with her in a few weeks to talk about how she came to the hospice field in her nursing career.  Every day, I am so humbled to be surrounded by brilliant supportive professors who want to share their knowledge.  I am grateful to be at Duke.  I am also excited to meet in a few weeks with one of our guest lecturers in our wellness class.  She is the Program Director of nutrition services at Duke.  She had great things to say too.

Some things to remember to put in my box of words:  “I wish things were different.”  “I worry… her kidney function is not getting better.”  “If time becomes short, what is most important to you?”  And, once again, we were taught to remember the power of silence.

We were given a bunch of different articles to review, but I liked the 5 wishes the best.  You can also look at Engage with Grace to begin these conversations with loved ones.  Or a game to spark this conversation, called Go Wish.

My update on my ethics paper will be on interpreter services.  If everyone has a right to universal health care, how do we overcome the barriers of language and patients with limited English speaking abilities.  Translation services are in theory great, but in practice they have limitations.

I went to the gym 3 times this week as part of my wellness plan… just 3 more weeks of that.  This coming week – two exciting events – spend the day at Blind Industries (working with visually impaired people doing health assessments/health education) and I start my first clinical assignment at the hospital with oncology patients.