gay pins and toothaches
i am in the library post clinic.
i have been wearing this little pin on my white coat that db gave me. it is a redorangegreenyellow snakes around the medical staff(which is actually not the real symbol of medicine). The caduceus(which is the one on the pin) was the magic staff of Hermes (Mercury), the god of commerce, eloquence, invention, travel and theft, and so was a symbol of heralds and commerce, not medicine.
the World Health Organization use the "correct" and traditional symbol of medicine, the staff of Asclepius with a single serpent encircling a staff, classically a rough-hewn knotty tree limb- anyway there is some way cool history about the staff and how it became the symbol of medicine. supposedly the worms that swim in the skin just below the surface were so common place and you could see them on a patient that a doc would cut the skin in front of a worms path and have a little stick ready so the worm curled around the staff. and docs would advertise their services by showing a worm around a stick... i just learned that.
so back to the pin
i vaguely remembered that it was a gay people in medicine pin, the thought was swimming in a recess of my mind but i didnt think about the consequences or the political statement... it was all colorful I thought i would wear it and shooot i thought i was comfortable with my sexuality:).
been meaning to get some "health care for all" or some more clever medicine slogan pin but i had this really nice one so i wore it and i thought nobody else really actually knows what that pin means. and i had no idea that people were making mental notes to try and figure out if i am gay. and turns out everybody knows what that pin means. and some people are clowning me for it. and now i am making sure i dont fold and take it off. there are some things that are so ingrained that they come up and jab you when you least expect like a trick knee or an ali punch. and so does the boy machismo of my playground middle school days. but the pin will stay.
more stories...
this one woman came in yesterday crying. toothache. bad. like really bad. i talked to the OMFS clinic(oral-maxo-facial surgery and they said it is not urgent and give her an appt in two weeks) and when i told her it wasnt serious and she would have to wait two weeks she was devestated. and started crying big time. and i told her we would get her to USC tomorrow to have her tooth pulled but she would have to get there crack of dawn early and she could take the pain meds i give her tonight.
she said she had no money. this happens so much. people say they dont have 6 dollars for medicine. i asked her again if she could afford 5 dollars worth of pills. she said no. and she was crying more and more. and so i fished out ten dollars and handed it to her. she was elated. she jumped off the stool and put her 60 year old arms around me and got so happy smiled broad enough before she remembered the pain in her mouth.
sri
i have been wearing this little pin on my white coat that db gave me. it is a redorangegreenyellow snakes around the medical staff(which is actually not the real symbol of medicine). The caduceus(which is the one on the pin) was the magic staff of Hermes (Mercury), the god of commerce, eloquence, invention, travel and theft, and so was a symbol of heralds and commerce, not medicine.
the World Health Organization use the "correct" and traditional symbol of medicine, the staff of Asclepius with a single serpent encircling a staff, classically a rough-hewn knotty tree limb- anyway there is some way cool history about the staff and how it became the symbol of medicine. supposedly the worms that swim in the skin just below the surface were so common place and you could see them on a patient that a doc would cut the skin in front of a worms path and have a little stick ready so the worm curled around the staff. and docs would advertise their services by showing a worm around a stick... i just learned that.
so back to the pin
i vaguely remembered that it was a gay people in medicine pin, the thought was swimming in a recess of my mind but i didnt think about the consequences or the political statement... it was all colorful I thought i would wear it and shooot i thought i was comfortable with my sexuality:).
been meaning to get some "health care for all" or some more clever medicine slogan pin but i had this really nice one so i wore it and i thought nobody else really actually knows what that pin means. and i had no idea that people were making mental notes to try and figure out if i am gay. and turns out everybody knows what that pin means. and some people are clowning me for it. and now i am making sure i dont fold and take it off. there are some things that are so ingrained that they come up and jab you when you least expect like a trick knee or an ali punch. and so does the boy machismo of my playground middle school days. but the pin will stay.
more stories...
this one woman came in yesterday crying. toothache. bad. like really bad. i talked to the OMFS clinic(oral-maxo-facial surgery and they said it is not urgent and give her an appt in two weeks) and when i told her it wasnt serious and she would have to wait two weeks she was devestated. and started crying big time. and i told her we would get her to USC tomorrow to have her tooth pulled but she would have to get there crack of dawn early and she could take the pain meds i give her tonight.
she said she had no money. this happens so much. people say they dont have 6 dollars for medicine. i asked her again if she could afford 5 dollars worth of pills. she said no. and she was crying more and more. and so i fished out ten dollars and handed it to her. she was elated. she jumped off the stool and put her 60 year old arms around me and got so happy smiled broad enough before she remembered the pain in her mouth.
sri
posted by srijeeva at 5:12 PM
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