Image source: Unsplash
by Michaela Witt
i saw myself today for the first time
in a clinical vignette.
a 24 year old Caucasian female…
i forget the rest, but six words were enough.
i wondered: does she have a favorite color?
a favorite recipe? a faded nighttime stuffed animal companion?
i do.
silver, cinnamon rolls, and a tarantula. i want you to know.
does she have a name? she must, but
the vignette didn’t mention it.
we looked at her symptoms.
we looked at the multiple choice answers; there were five of them.
five solutions to a problem, five boxes, five categories.
A B C D or E.
are any of those letters in her name?
three of them are in mine.
she could be me.
we picked an answer and defined our nameless patient by a disease.
i don’t remember if we were right, or wrong.
all i know is that i saw myself today
for the first time
in a clinical vignette.
Michaela Witt is a third-year medical student at NEOMED.
