September 5, 2007 7:12pm

First rotation down. Now I'm onto Internal Medicine. The doc I'm with is a bit of a nut. He is from Pakistan. That information would not be important except for that he makes it a point to mention several times each day how he's better than "white people". Day one of my rotation started off with, "All white people have Herpes. did you know that?"

Interestingly enough, he is married to a white woman. At the end of that first day when he asked me what I learned I said, "All white people have Herpes. You are married to a white woman. Therefore, you have Herpes."

The fun just went on from there.

I really dislike people like him. I don't like people who don't understand the difference between funny and offensive.

I also don't like how he talks to his patients, particularly his female patients. As soon as a female patient has a question or a problem regarding anything that he is uncomfortable with, he immediately says, "Oh, I will get my PA to talk to you. she does the female stuff."

Female stuff? Dude, checking an old guy's prostate isn't exactly the highlight of my day, but I know it has to be done.

Yesterday, one of his patients said to me "I've never talked to anyone like I'm talking to you right now. Especially not at a Dr's office." That made me feel good, but also sad knowing that this doc isn't opening that door for his patients, and I was able to do it without even really putting in too much effort.

Today he dismissed a patient from his practice, and I feel responsible. The grandaughter of the patient tore into me when I was in the room along with them. To make a long story short, this guy has bad emphysema. He gets winded easily, and his grandaughter wants him to have a portable oxygen tank. Medicare requires that your resting oxygen saturation be around 87% before you are eligible for that to be paid for. He is still way about that. Grandaughter didn't like that answer and made some remarks indicating that she will hold Dr. K personally responsible if her grandfather dies.

After she tore into me about the expensive medications grandpa has to take, and jumped all over me when I asked if he was smoking (I could smell it on him and if you smoke and have an oxygen tank with you it might BLOW UP so that was important information), I then listened to a 5 minute rant that grandpa made on every religion in the world. No idea where that came from other than the fact that he has a history of psychiatric illness. I went out into the hallway and told Dr. K about what happened in there. We went back in together. He adjusted the man's medications and then told him and grandaughter that they need to find another doctor. He then walked out of the room and dictated a letter to the secretary to put in the mail today dismissing this guy from his practice.

I guess I understand why having someone like that around is a liability, but I still felt responsible. On the other hand, once I looked through his chart more I realized that this office has been providing him with free medications via samples for the last 2 years, as well as bending over backwards to get him outside referrals and other services he needed. Sooooo, maybe this outburst was just the last straw.

On that note, I'm going to hit the books.