When we came to the United States of America, we did not know anyone and no one knew us. That is something every International Medical Graduate feels. A few weeks ago a very interesting thing happened to me that made me realize what extraordinary human beings I was working and studying with in the UCLA International Medical Graduate (IMG) Program. I also realized how important it is collaboration to deal with any difficult situation.
First of all, I’m Miguel Casillas, from Tijuana Mexico. It was the day after my USMLE step 2 CS exam. I was in Santa Monica at UCLA Les Kelley Family Health Center during the morning to return some books I had borrowed and to talk to some fellow IMG’s about how my exam had gone the day before. Afterwards, my wife and I decided to spend the rest of the day in Santa Monica and visit the pier? and to spend the day relaxing. Little I knew what was about to happen.
After having lunch I started to get this strange discomfort in my lower abdomen. It was very strange unlike anything I had ever felt before. I thought it was the lunch I just had had and decide to just walk it off. But slowly, the discomfort started to get worse little by little until I decided to go back to my uncle’s house where I was staying. Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic at the time because on the drive back the discomfort started to turn into a very extreme pain. By the time I arrived at my uncle’s house I knew what I was dealing with… I had a kidney stone.
This wasn’t the first time I had a kidney stone, so I kind of knew the drill. I started drinking some water, and took some pain medication. In the past it was a moderate to severe pain that would take me maybe a couple of hours to pass the stone, but not today. After a couple of hours with the pain it wasn’t slowing down one bit. I started vomiting every drink of water I took and it was getting very hard to breath with the pain. I was getting very lightheaded, but the worst thing was that I started to worry about the fact that I might have to go to the hospital, and unfortunately like many other Hispanics and immigrants in the US… I have no Health Insurance.
At this point I didn’t know what to do. My wife was starting to get very worried and she was insisting to take me to the hospital. But I didn’t even know where I could go. I wasn’t even in any condition to drive. My wife didn’t know her way around LA and my uncle and aunt were at work. So I decided to call Gilberto who was a fellow IMG at the time. I told him what was happening. He was actually at the UCLA Les Kelley Family Health Center at the time and immediately talked to Dr. Bholat who told me to get down there and they would see what they could do.
When you’re the type of person who doesn’t like to worry or bother your family and friends with your problems, it’s very hard to be completely helpless at a situation like this, where everyone around you is worried and scared of what might happen. Therefore I tried to pretend everything was going to be fine as long as I could, but it got to a point that the pain was so unbearable that I couldn’t even stand.
Thank God that my aunt got there quick and she and my wife took me to UCLA Les Kelley Family Health Center where Gilberto was waiting for me. He immediately took me inside and everyone there was quick to my aid, and I mean everyone from the nursing staff, doctors and of course my fellow IMG’s who waited with my wife outside and kept calming her down saying everything was going to be all right. And surely in the end it was.
Note: Photo above belongs to dissolve. It was modified by Victor Castilla M.D. under a Creative Commons License.
No comments:
Post a Comment