Wednesday Wednesday WEDNESDAY!

So whatever, I’m still about 8 days behind here, but I am catching up and making the effort! So back to last Wednesday then...

After the text from the preceptor that we had to go to the other site (BOO, because I was really needing a project day to get my presentation done at this point), I had already mapped out where this new site was and I got even less excited. Since I take public transportation, it said it would be 1 hour and 46 (ish) minutes to get to the site, and mind you...I know once the street numbers start going up, the areas become less and less safe, so when I was told i would be going to 82nd street...I was kind of afraid, not going to lie. I have made it through 4 years in Chicago up until this point, but really, I was kind of scared to be in this part of town. I took a bus to the train, to another bus, then was to transfer to another bus. I was unfamiliar with the area, so I asked the policeman standing on the corner (there were also 2 other officers on the other corners, so that was alarming) and he pointed me in the direction to the bus. So I waited for the bus, jumped on, and pulled out the navigation. When I looked and none of the street names were making sense, I realized I was going in the wrong direction. So I had to get off that bus and walk to the other side of the street in an even worse neighborhood that I had initially gotten on the bus in. When I looked at the app, there were no buses heading in the right direction. Shit. At that point, it was getting closer to the time I actually needed to be there. Just a rule of thumb for me, I map out my directions and transit time beforehand and usually give myself an extra half hour to account for delays or me getting lost.

Once I finally got to the clinic (after having to walk a few blocks from the bus with my backpack and white coat in hand), I realized that I had definitely judged a book by its cover. The inside of the clinic was AMAZING and so state of the art. The rooms were incredible; most rooms had a consultation area with a couch for patients and a desk with computer and behind the desk was a sliding door and then the patient goes into the exam room. SO cool. The patient chair doubled as a scale! Really neat. Anyway, we couldn’t access the computer to see the patients because that was not our “home” clinic site, so myself, my colleague, and preceptor sat in an unused MA office and my preceptor was like, “well, we cant do anything, so y’all just go on Facebook or something”. I LOL’d, then could finally check my text messages...the twins were born! A friend of mine from high school’s brother (who was also my friend in high school) had twins and she had been sending pictures of her new niece and nephew, who came about 5.5 weeks early due to mom having high blood pressure a few days prior. I will try and keep updates on the babies now that y’all know about them too! But anyway, it was cool to get to see the baby pictures and keep up with all of them.

Back to the clinic. It was Suboxone day at that clinic, so we were familiar with the routine. Met a few patients who were really nice, but honestly, some really just had no idea about their medications. So we did the best to educate them. We had one patient who was just seeking out treatment and the process of patient interviewing is so much more intense and thorough. The patient had a lot of questions, but seemed like they were really ready to quit the drugs and be a better person. I am routing for them!! But we stayed at clinic from 11-3ish and after the adventure I had getting there, I needed to Uber home. ETA was about an hour and 15 minutes. Lawd have mercy! Once he arrived, I legitimately slept the whole way home. I never do that. It took forever to get home, but I finally had made it. I knew once I got home, I needed to work on my presentation, since the preceptor wanted us to submit the presentation beforehand so we could go over them the next day. I was in for a long night...but I still watched more Mad Men haha