It's Trichy

Oooooh girrrrrl. I've been working on my FNP clinical rotation this semester at a women's jail and peeped some trichamoniasis through my trusty microscope this week...  you gotta know sh&%# is ROUGH when you got these guys swimmin' around up in your lady parts...

Trich, as it's so fondly referred to, is a sexually transmitted infection that if left untreated can lead to such terrible conditions as Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. It can also increase your chances of acquiring HIV!!! Sheesh.
... And so meanwhile... we sit around gazing lovingly into our iPhones/pads/pods and post pictures of our manicures to Instagram... Hi people! There's a whole other world out there we might want to think about, so put down the phonepadpod. It's a crazy orange jumpsuit world where tons of really really young girls languish in jail with STI's and a lifetime of other disadvantages. In this world about 80-90% of the inhabitants are black. A lot of the time it feels like these ladies never had anyone give a crap about what was going on with them until they walked into the clinic and had someone tell them they were important and that they didn't have to stuff drugs up their vaginas just because some dude told them to.

Alone

I had some time last night to spend a few minutes holding one of my patients' hands and I thought of this picture, she was so weak and small. I'm not sure if she understood what was happening or that I was there but I hope she felt something. I did.

HIV

I took care of my first HIV+ patient this week. He was in rough shape, suffering from AIDS dementia, Hepatitis C, and many other comorbidities. During our conversations, I found out a lot of interesting things about his life: a past stabbing, jail time, the loss of two children. Taking care of this person reminded me how much I love and miss working with drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless folks... generally marginalized groups. I appreciate how down to earth and candid they can be (he told me the speech therapist was "a bitch" out of the blue), and I love being a positive, respectful, non-judgmental presence in their lives.