This summer I am blessed to have the opportunity to shadow a well respected Otolaryngologist (Ear, Nose, and Throat) physician. I have the privilege to shadow Dr, James C. walker. Born in south Louisiana, Dr. Walker graduated from the University of Southwest Louisiana (now University of Louisiana Lafayette) in 1980. He earned his Medical Degree from L.S.U. School of Medicine, New Orleans in 1984 and completed his residency at L.S.U. Medical Center, New Orleans. He opened his New Iberia practice in 1991. Dr. Walker is Board Certified in Otolaryngology and Reconstructive Surgery.

When I started working as a lifeguard at a major waterpark was when I developed a burning passion for medicine. As a lifeguard, every day I experienced a new eye-opening medical emergency. My first week working, at 15 years old, I was assisting in a spinal cord injury. Throughout my four years of working as a lifeguard, I have experienced everything from a bloody nose to cardiac arrest. As I advanced through the ranks from a lifeguard to supervisor, I have experienced hearing an emergency action plan being sounded and then running across an 80 acre park through crowds of people with an emergency crash bag and backboard, weighing over 50 pounds, there is nothing like the heart racing, adrenaline rushing thrill that emergency medicine gives me. It is what inspired me to want to receive a higher level of training in the medical field. At first, I wanted to just become an EMT-Basic, but then my personal motto ran through my head, you either go big or go home! I knew I wanted to take it to one of the highest levels of medical training and become an emergency medicine physician/ trauma surgeon, MD.

June 13th, 2018 marked the end of my second day shadowing him, and oh boy. These past two days have been a blast and have only increased my interest in becoming a physician. These days have been a huge eye opener and have exposed me to bedside manners and actually interacting with patients. Learning in a book can only go so far into practicing medicine. Medicine is about interacting with humans, not charts and data. Shadowing a physician give you real-life examples of cases that you can experience and see in person. You learn how to interact with patients: getting history, physical examinations, giving diagnoses, giving treatment planes, being compassionate. Most importantly, it can help you gauge if medicine is really the lifelong commitment for you.

You work the long hours of the physician you are shadowing, you see the patient volume of his specialty, and you get to see the abnormalities of the human body. So, if you are scared of needles or blood, or if you don't want to be in school for a long time, then medicine definitely isn't for you.

Just in the two days that I've been interning, I've interacted with over forty patients and over forty unique medical cases. Wednesday's at inpatient procedures day at his office and usually, the patient load is drastically minimized, but the experience definitely isn't.

This Wednesday I've witnessed a softy, flat, mucosal covered fleshy lesion be removed from a patient's cheek, a young hunter with severe hearing loss in one of his ears with an unexpected finding of numbness of his mandíbulas branch and C2/C3 dermatomes, a superficial ulcer near apex of tongue and hyperkeratosis under a patient's tongue that we sent lab, and so much more.

My most memorable moment was with the one patient who had scar tissue from a previous surgery that blocked his nasal airway. I witnessed my physician inject numbing medications into the patient's nose and then used a solid tool to forcefully break a part of the scar tissue. When the nurses turned their heads, trying to avoid the painful sight, I didn't turn mine. I could not look away, I was amazed and looked with enthusiasm! Then the doctor sutured a splint inside the patient's nose.

Thanks to shadowing this doctor I can faithfully say that medicine is the route that I want to go. The sights are pretty graphics but I find it captivating. I would not have seen it in person without shadowing. Books and videos can only do so much, you have to see it in person: touch, see, smell the medical experience. So if you're interested in medicine, I highly recommend that you find a doctor near you. Maybe it's your primary care physician. If you don't know a doctor, then google ones you and start calling and emailing their office and just ask if you could shadow. Just don't be afraid to ask! Don't take it personally if doctors don't respond, or take a while, or say no! You can get 126 no's, but all it' takes is one yes. Good luck, this is your first step on your long, but totally worth it, journey in medicine