Incontingency

It takes effort to write a decent post. Material must be collected, thought about, even if I'm going to ramble the entire time. There must be some substance. Now that I've made my lame excuse, let's begin.

First off, I went back home last weekend, mostly because I just felt like it. I needed clothes.. and peanuts.. and it's always nice to go back to my bubble that is Plano, where they have grassy medians. mmmm.. grassy, curbed, medians with trees.

I was trying to get pants* when I saw 4 police cruisers in the parking lot, all surrounding a car. I thought it was medical at first (common), but there were no MICU's around, so I walked closer to my car and I saw one of the police cruisers' hood draped with clothes, and a couple of officers standing around, almost laughing, and a hispanic lady with a very shrunken face. That was interesting to see. I wonder what they were going to do with so much plundered clothing.

Some of you may not know, but one of my students was recently (3-4 months ago) diagnosed with Lupus. I'm not going to make a case study out of her or anything, but I didn't know anything about Lupus when I heard of it (I thought it was some dog disease, which.. makes sense in a way). It's a horrible disease and debilitates the body. Anyway, she asked me to pick her up from the Greyhound station so she could make it to a test in time, which wasn't a problem for me, and that's what I'd like to stress, that I didn't have a problem with that.

It wasn't "Oh I'm too tired... can't you call someone else?" or "It's too late, I'm really sleepy"**. Yes, jackass, I can and will call someone else! What's with the tiredness (a common excuse)? Suck it up and do it! I, like most people, will only make a request when absolutely necessary. So if I call you in the middle of the night for something (and it seems urgent), try not to blow me off, and if you do, begin to consider yourself an inferior human being, because I already have.

What's even more sad is that most of these people are going to be parents, and some, doctors. If you can't get past your desires (and stubbornness), then you'll make horrible parents/doctors/people. I don't mind making midnight drop-offs if someone needs a book, or stay an extra hour if someone needs help, because in the long run, it won't affect me a bit. Even in the short run, I'll be fine. 10 minutes or an hour is irrelevant! And I'm sure the other party appreciates it.

I suppose this is what Medicine is all about. I was at a talk/presentation/meeting about "Depression among Asian-American females". A speaker talked about how in the end, she had to call 911, as they were the only people that ultimately provided medical/psychological attention. People always talk about a fabric of society and "things that keep us together". Well, you should be able to infer what that is by now. It's not physicists, or mathematicians, or IT (dime a dozen these days) or businessmen, or really people in any other field besides Medicine. People need to be healthy to enjoy life, to make decisions, to live, to fight and argue, to vote and be voted on.

When I see an ambulance, it's comforting, not because I know someone is injured, but that something is being done about it. Life happens because there are people who will wake up in the middle of the night to see a patient, drive a friend home, perform a surgery or tend to a crying child.

So is it a burden that I get called upon? Absolutely not. It's more of a reminder of the awesomeness I hope to step into some day, and become that thread.

*: 30x32 is impossible to find. Too many people are short and fat these days. I'm going to start ordering this size online.
**: Actual responses from friends, not strangers.