This makes it all worth while

I was just forwarded this link by the Access and Referral Coordinator (Tara) at Project Access at the Coalition that my clinic is a part of and wanted to share it with you all. About a month ago, Tara called me asking for a patient story for some publicity for our program and I offered the story of a patient that has gone through a lot in pursuit of care for her extremely painful skin condition. Here is a copy of the story. I hope it gives you a little more insight to what I'm doing this year. You can find the actual web page and Isha's picture here.


Isha’s dermatological condition made her so self-conscious she became extremely anti-social; she’d hate even the thought of interacting with people. Two days after she moved from Cleveland to Portland for a job transfer, the local company department closed. Isha was out of a job in a city she didn’t know, and with no insurance to help her get medical attention.

“It actually turned out to be a blessing,” Isha said. She found Wallace Medical Concern, where her doctor connected her with Erin Cooley, who enrolled Isha in Project Access.

Following three months of antibiotic treatment and consultations with Dr. Nathalie McDowell Johnson, of Surgical Associates, and Dr. Daniel Zegzula, of Portland Plastic Surgery, Isha underwent a successful surgery in December 2009. She said, “They took out as much diseased tissue as possible without leaving almost any scars.”

Laughing, Isha said, “It’s over with. I’m healing. I smile more. I feel comfortable getting out among people. Even my family commented on how my personality changed.” In her own estimation, Isha has “a couple of months to go” with follow up visits and recovery.

Relief came with a degree of gratitude. “Everyone at Wallace [Medical Concern] and [Legacy] Good Samaritan was wonderful. They all took time to listen, thoroughly examine me, and then tell me what my options were, the good and the bad.”

As she related her story, Isha sounded surprised at times. “Someone at Project Access called me to tell me what the process was and the expectations. At the end, they asked what they can do to improve. I thought, ‘Is there something else? You guys are doing exceptionally well and are asking for feedback.’ I loved it! It was something I had never experienced before.”

That it all was a volunteer effort compounded Isha’s feelings. “It was special,” she said. “I had no job, very little income, no bright outlook on things. It just so happened I was at the right place at the right time. If it hadn’t been for Erin Cooley, I wouldn’t be here.”

(February 2010)

A Few Things to Share

Man, I'm slacking as a blogger. I always have little thoughts throughout the week that I'd love to share with the people, but lack of access to internet and time do not lend themselves to being able to sit down and share what I want to share when I want to share it (though we are able to steal internet at our house currently, but I won't let myself blog from home). Then almost three weeks go by without a blog post. Sorry friends! Here are some important/interesting things that have happened recently:

Solo Clinic: I ran downtown clinic all by myself! It's pretty exciting. I was in charge of EVERYTHING: orienting a new doctor, helping people find supplies in our "clinic in a box" that we use because the clinic is borrowed space, filling in for as an interpreter (for a rectal exam - that was fun), making sure everything ran smoothly, that all the patients that were supposed to be seen got seen, dealing with walk-ins and making sure everything got put away correctly at the end of the night. I'm a real clinic manager :)

Shadowing: On MLK day I got to shadow our Medical Director for morning round up at the VA. I showed up at the Hospital while it was still dark, just before 7 AM, and spend a few hours walking around with two medical students, three residents, another Pre-med girl also shadowing, and Dr. Reuler watching the students and residents present on the patients that had been admitted over night. Not only was it a really interesting experience, the VA is up on "The Hill" with OHSU and I got to watch the sunrise over Mt. Hood. It was AMAZING - such a beautiful sunrise from the perfect vantage point. It was the first sunny day in about a week and was the perfect start to the week.

LPAC and Social Justice: So social justice has been on my mind a lot recently - sparked by our Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Party conversations, through talks during our Area Director visit, and with our upcoming retreat focused on social justice this weekend. I got to really be a part of it during our recent Latino Patient Advisory Council (LPAC). Wallace has received a grant to evaluate the needs of the east county community and determine whether or not we should expand and become a Federally Qualified Heath Center (FQHC). Any who, part of this process is focus groups with the community to discuss what the actual needs of the community are. So we had a few people from the county lead this focus group with out Latino Patients at our LPAC meeting. We discussed what a "healthy community" looks like, what are current barriers to having a healthy community, what are the needs of the community, and how can Wallace help to provide for those needs.

I was so affected by what was said. For one, the room was pretty evenly split male and female, and everyone participated equally, which was not expected. They shared their concerns about lack or resources and communication about resources, how hard it is to be latino and the discrimination they receive in the work place. Worrying about proving themselves and being strong, but how can you be strong physically or mentally when you don't have enough food to feed your family? One woman was talking about being in debt for life to the hospital because she had to have an emergency surgery and there was nothing she could do about it, but then another couple chimed in about financial assistance programs at hospitals. There is not enough communication about the resources available. And then just coming to a new country and not understanding the laws and customs is so difficult. They expressed frustration with their own latino community that doesn't take responsibility for their own health and well being, and the sense of competition between neighbors that inhibits the communication flow.

For me to be one of only two white women, a person of supposed privilege, in the room of 20 latinos, I felt so honored to be a part of this discussion. I can say that latinos are disriminated against and not completely understand what that means, but having heard about their struggles from their own lips, it is more real than I could imagine. It must have been so empowering for them to be given a space to voice their concerns and actually be heard and listened to; to even be asked these questions and have their thoughts truly valued. That's really the first step: to give people space to be heard and validated, then take the things they sat and take action. And I really do get to be a part of solution. It's a pretty incredible feeing.