So my rotation at the VA on inpatient mental health ward is coming to an end tomorrow. I'm not really sad, it's basically been your run of the mill PTSD, depression, anxiety, adjustment disorder with your occasional shizophrenia. The guys, I say guys because I think i saw one woman all month, have been cool. Some bang their heads against walls, some poop on the floor, some think its funny to charge at staff, and some, to my entertainment, spend their days sliding across the floor in their socks (they aren't allowed to have shoes). But of all the patients, none have taught me more about psych than my schizophrenic friend, we'll call him David.
David is over 50, talks in code languages, walks about 15-20 miles in a day if we let him around the ward, wears glasses with one lens, calls me judge judy, tells me to jump out of the window just about daily, will only wear unmatched socks, and carries around a curious george doll everywhere he goes. He is pleasant most of the time (as long as he has george), very intelligent, and is really harmless...he's just very psychotic. On a daily basis he asks me about my fishing trips, tells me he bought me a white horse, and tried to convince me that barak obama has given him kingship of the country and he can leave the ward...at the very least he's a break from all of the PTSD and depression. He's crazy, but he's happy, and I love that. So now that psych is over i think about what I've learned and he is def somebody I will never forget and he's taught me a lot about mental health in general. It's crazy to think I've learned more from the most psychotic man on the ward than I have from my preceptor. I would thank david for his help, but he'd probably respond in "our" code language that i'm apparently supposed to understand but I don't lol. So I guess I'll just shake his hand and thank him for the horse!
My interview with David today:
Me: David, can you tell me why you refused your valproic acid this morning?
David: "It makes me upset..."
Me: Can you describe how it makes you feel specifically? Headaches, dizzy...?
David: "Let me show you..."(proceeds to rip the head off of curious george doll, while making loud sound effects, stomps on it and throws it against the wall)"....that's pretty much how I feel"
Me: ummmmmm...(trying not to laugh hysterically)...I think I need you to give me curious george now.
Poor curious george.
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