feeding the babies

so I keep telling myself when I'm on my newborn nursery rotation that 'when I finish my work' or 'when things slow down a little' that I'm going to sit in a rocking chair and just feed a baby - gosh dang it! It just looks so relaxing.

For the babies that are in the nursery the nurses and sometimes volunteers take that job, and I'm always stuck doing exam after exam, checking bilirubin and other labs, doing paperwork. And of course there is never a 'when I'm finished' or 'when things slow down' (or if there is I'm on call and that's when I'm sleeping!)

some of my collegues make time to feed babies because they want to. a couple even swing by the nursery when they aren't on that rotation, but they'er nearby and want to feed/hold a baby.

so perhaps I'm just not the type that feeds babies... I have yet to make time for it. Though I'm sure I'd make time for it if it were my own baby!

Seriously....

So the other day I had a patient who complained of headache. Here is how part of the conversation went (and might I mention that this is an adult patient):

Dr: Do you have any problems with your vision?

Pt: What's that?

Dr: When you see is it blurry or is it normal?

Pt: Oh, I don't know.

Dr: When you look at things, can you see them ok?

Pt: Yea, I can.

So either the education gap between me and this patient was large, or I really need to work on my communication skills...! I was having a hard time thinking of any other way to ask the question or be more clear. Really more a sad story than I funny one.