Stephanie Wottrich

3 weeks ago | opmed.doximity.com | Jay Shah |Hillary McDonald |Stephanie Wottrich |Roxanne Nelson

The call came at the end of a long day admitting patients as a resident physician. When I answered, expecting to hear my mom's voice, I was instead met with the tone of an EMT: "We were called to your family's house and are currently doing CPR on your father.” In the background, I could hear my mother crying, her voice desperate. I sat paralyzed in the workroom, staring at a half-written HPI. "Sir, I'm a resident physician," I responded, voice cracking despite myself.

3 weeks ago | opmed.doximity.com | Hillary McDonald |Stephanie Wottrich |Roxanne Nelson

During my didactic year of PA school, it was a running joke that we spent eight hours a day, five days a week, sitting in a chair and learning about how terrible a sedentary lifestyle was. We also got very little sleep and even less exercise, because we spent most of our time training to be clinicians who would one day teach patients how important it was to be well-rested and active.

3 weeks ago | opmed.doximity.com | Stephanie Wottrich |Roxanne Nelson

Last week I was in clinic, and I saw a patient who I had met virtually once before. She had been seen by other residents that came before me in our small fiber neuropathy clinic and had been through an extensive workup where she was diagnosed with small fiber neuropathy after a skin biopsy.