Natural History of My Job Change!

Another crazy week in the Miller house, Colin keeps telling me one day it will settle down, I have yet to see it, when it does settle down we will undoubtedly go crazy with boredom. For some reason clinic was crazy this week, just full of really sick children, very time consuming and complex cases. But I have to say this is my preference to be busy and to serve the under served, overlooked and downtrodden. This is a relatively new job, I have only been in post for 6 months and loving every minute of it. I am the Neurofibromatosis (NF) Coordinator in a Neuro-Oncology Clinic. NF is a genetic condition that can cause benign/malignant tumors, ADD/ADHD, chronic pain, renal/orthopedic issues... the list goes on. As a result they are a challenging population to deal with especially if the parent also has NF ( which happens 50% of the time) as their organizational skills tend to be lacking due to their disorder so they are nearly always low income, low functioning families. We have a great deal of these families in Philadelphia (the disease is more prevalent that Cystic Fibrosis but not nearly as well publicized). But because the clinic I work at is one of the best on the East Coast we tend to get patients from all over the US and Internationally. I love working with these families as they just need that extra "care" to help them navigate a very complicated system, so I walk them through their consultations with Neuro-Oncologists, Orthopedics, MRI, Neuro-Pysch, Neuro-Opth, Social Work.... the list goes on, you can see why I am busy. Sometimes I feel like I am running all over the hospital, I work with a great bunch of physicians and nurse practitioners who have been so supportive of this new role. It is very refreshing to be in a collegiate atmosphere where everyone is keen to help their colleague be a success professionally and personally. For the past 8 years I was working in community health. Thought I would be there forever, loved going into peoples homes and staying as long as I needed to give care to sick children and their families. I especially loved being in the poorer areas of Philadelphia because despite the cockroaches and the extreme poverty I really felt like I was making the most difference. However, March 2007 I was attacked in a bad neighborhood one early evening, no great injuries but I knew I was loosing my nerve in a job I had previously been fearless at. Then 6 months later I narrowly missed being carjacked ( talked my way out of it with my Off-With-Your-Head accent), then I think my days were done in the community. When I saw this post I wondered if I could transition back into the hospital - it had been years, but it really has not been that hard and I love working with a team again rather being isolated in the field which is what I have been doing.

So, I still have a passion to serve those who live at or below the poverty line but now I am having a go at 3rd World Medicine, hence the trip to the Dominican Republic in October, after that I already have my eyes on an AIDS clinic in Africa - watch this space, you never know what I will get up to next.

We did manage some fun this week though, last night we went to watch the Phillies Baseball downtown, tons of fun, made even better by the fact that they won. And its true a hot dog really does taste so much better when eaten at a stadium. Today (Saturday) more car pooling, laundry and groceries - such fun!!!!!!