Columnist Emeritus Dr. Valentina Bonev is a board certified fellowship trained breast surgical oncologist. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine and earned her medical doctorate at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. After general surgery residency, she completed a breast surgery fellowship at the Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Center at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. She is passionate about surgical education and community outreach on breast health. In her spare time, she enjoys writing and scrapbooking.
As a former in-Training staff member and columnist, I gave you A Taste of Your Own Medicine and now it’s time to give you a taste of my own medicine! I started writing for in-Training as a medical student when the site was in its infancy. It’s amazing to see how it’s grown while I have been away in training and now as a breast surgeon. It only feels right to provide some reflections on …
The first thing I noticed entering Betty’s room was her walls. They were papered, nearly from floor to ceiling, with photographs of celebrities. Taylor Swift, Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran all stared back at me.
My eyes have adjusted. Faint streaks of light from the edges of my window illuminate the darkness of my room. I toss onto my side and my gaze drifts to the shadows on the wall. I make shapes out of them, like making shapes out of passing clouds.
I expect the attending to leave the room after ripping off her gloves and gown. Instead she grabs a clean towel and gently wipes the patient’s forehead with the soft tenderness of a mother. I decide that this is the kind of doctor I want to be.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m just a med student. The rest of the team will be here shortly, they’ll explain everything to you.” We wait in silence.
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?”
I know that being a third-year medical student is like being a transplanted kidney. One starts the day in one body. School is composed of lecture halls and written exams. However, the world has shifted by the end of the day, and shockingly, one’s old body is not present.
Writer-in-Training
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Hillary is a member of the MD Class of 2020 at University of Massachusetts. She received her BA in Neuroscience from Oberlin College and is interested in the intersection of art and medicine. In addition to writing, she also enjoys creating medically inspired paper art and has had pieces published in "Intima" and "Pulse."
