Rural Rounds

Last weekend I was able to attend the Global Missions Health Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The conference is on Christian missions-field medical and health care work, both nationally and internationally (although international medical missions is overwhelmingly represented). I attended the conference with one other person, Halley, a nursing student I am friends with who heard of the conference through the Nursing Christian Fellowship group. We left town together on Thursday night last week to be able to attend the whole day's sessions on Friday. Being a six-and-a-half hour drive from Columbia (seven and a half when factoring in the time I drove in the wrong direction), we arrived in Louisville at 3 a.m. central time. Louisville unfortunately is on eastern time. After a two hour nap on Friday morning I awoke shortly after six to get over to the conference. The church that it is held at is so big you could fit my entire hometown's population inside the building (West Plains...

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but it will likely be a week before writing again due to a busy schedule at the moment. So sit back and digest this in pieces if you like (although, if you want to know when you can see Dr. Peppers in action, scroll down to the last heading). I've provided some headings for breaking it up a little bit. Today was the second time my APD (read: advanced physical diagnosis) group met over at the VA hospital. This time however we were actually able to see patients, thanks to Dr. K, who is the resident paired with the attending in charge of our APD group. Dr. K had a talk with us about how she understood we needed to see patients in order for this to be a learning experience at all, and we proceeded to the second floor wards. Today we saw three cases. This week's cases: VA Hospital Mr. H was an elderly man who had developed pneumonia and a pleural effusion in his left lung. He was cooperative with allowing student doctors to exami...

Today was the Rock Equippers retreat. Basically, the equippers retreat is a day long getaway out of town somewhere where the small group leaders can gather together, be encouraged, share stories, and have John Drage remind us of what we have committed to as leaders and renew our commitments to ministry. One of the verses John shared in his introduction of our time together was 1 Peter 2:9. It says: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. - 1 Peter 2:9 The verse is exceptionally powerful. I was reminded of the following quote: "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship....There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal....

***Note, some of this material may not be suitable for those sensitive to squeemish topics. Those sections will be starred for your own warning*** Last night was my first day of ACE (Ambulatory Care Experience, basically a glorified shadowing patient-seeing experience before your clinical years) and this block I am doing my ACE in the Emergency Department. I was apprehensive at first, not because of what I might see, but because having volunteered there as an undergrad I was not given much to do in terms of volunteer service. In fact, they acted like they didn't know what to do with me. I called the ER to get the passcode for entry shortly before 4 p.m., and then, donning my white coat, proceeded down the hallway leading towards the west elevators and turned the corner towards the ER door. I let myself in, walked confidently up to the first person manning a desk station, and asked for the attending. There were two that night, and I was recommended to go to Dr. D. Introducing myself...