There was a great story on NPR this evening that I totally can’t find the link to. To make a long story short, 600 physicians and nurses and ilk get together in rural Virginia one day in the summer to hold a massive free clinic. On this day, coal miners and other locals line up in the wee hours of the morning to be assured of seeing a doctor on this, their only chance to get dental visits and cancer screenings and eye exams.

On the one hand, this is awesomely inspiring; this is why I’m going through these hoops in medical school. I can’t wait to be that doctor making someone’s day, damn I wish I could find the link so everyone else could hear how happy these patients were to be seen.

But then again, lining up at 3:30? Prepping for colonoscopies in Port-o-potties? They don’t even line up for care that early in Senegal. It’s unfathomable to me that normal laborers, too rich to be on Medicaid, but too poor to afford insurance, have to go through these hoops to get their care.

I know that once I’m a doctor there’ll come a point when I think that all I’m doing is plugging holes that just keep leaking… I mustn’t concentrate on that yet, I need my strength to get through this.

Listening to:
The White Stripes- Elephant
(The Hardest Button to Button sounds just like one of the songs off the new album. Extraordinarily like it.)