Columnist and Medical Student Editor
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Yash is a first year medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA. He pursued a Bachelor of Science in premedicine at Penn State University. Prior to attending medical school, Yash worked on clinical and translational research in hematology/ oncology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He enjoys playing tennis, rooting for the Eagles, reading, and traveling in his free time. Yash is undecided on a specialty, but he has long-standing interests in advancing medical education and working with cancer patients.
COVID chronicles
The COVID-19 pandemic posed a tremendous challenge to our community – certainly from a health perspective, but also in nearly every other aspect of daily lives. Our daily routines were upended – from the way we work, play, learn, socialize and travel. Numerous times, the unimaginable happened, and it is safe to say we will never see the world in the same way again. As future physicians, it is important that we recognize the challenges faced by the health care space during the pandemic, and perhaps more importantly, the everlasting transformations that our future medical students, physicians and patients will encounter. This column explores the countless obstacles we overcame and their everlasting effects, along with emerging trends that we will see in health care for the years to come.
Generally, the pandemic yielded worrisome short and long-term harms to the oncology field and its patients. Nonetheless, there are some promising changes emerging in medicine, several of which are germane to oncology.
You call me on a Thursday to tell me / You were diagnosed with leukemia in October.
I commented to the resident how satisfied the attending would be with the efficiency of his work. He just laughed and said “look” as he gestured down to his list of patients. I saw the name, and a sense of dread sank in during the rest of the silent walk down the hall.
I proposed a deal to my fellow student on our surgery rotation. “You can have all the other cases today if I get the laryngectomy.”
Motionless, a man awakes from his stupor of heart. Relief from sharpness, the pooling and swelling.
When I was told I had a mass in my chest, I was shocked. Like most people who are told that they have cancer, I was blindsided. But it was even more shocking because I had been going to multiple doctors over a period of six months complaining of pain in my chest, right arm, and right shoulder.
You tell me you’d like to be an engineer one day. You hesitate after the words “one day,” like you’re reconsidering the phrase. I want to tell you not to, but I can’t find the words.
mom, what’s loo-skeem-ya? / oh okay — does that mean I’m loo-skeem-ya?
I take a deep breath / to calm myself / before walking into the storm / of OR shadowing.
I prepared myself to discuss lab results and dietary counseling. But then my eyes stumbled upon the words on my screen that seemed to be staring back at me: ‘Lung cancer, metastatic to the bone.’
I was starting my surgery rotation, the second rotation of my third year, on the colorectal service. It was my first 24-hour on-call shift, which meant that my team would be responsible for multiple surgical services overnight.
Perhaps the single most awkward conversation that a third-year medical student can have with an attending physician is the one that begins with the attending asking, “So, what medical specialty are you interested in going into?”
Contributing Writer
Boston University School of Medicine
Charles Surette is a fourth year medical student at Boston University School of Medicine. In 2016, he graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in biology. He is passionate about storytelling as a means of exploring the experience of working in medicine. His other interests include food, theatre, travel and supporting all Boston sports teams. After medical school, Charles would like to pursue a career in psychiatry.
