A Physician Assistant’s Journey of sharing God’s love one patient at a time
Part of practicing family medicine is providing patient education. I have to be able to explain diagnoses and treatments and answer patient questions. A great example is when I diagnose overactive or under-active thyroid disorders (hyper or hypothyroidism). "Will I have to take this medication forever?" I'm often asked. "Yes." "Will the medication work?" Is …
I'm Kristina Polley, a Physician Assistant that practices Family Medicine. I'm referred by most of my patients as their "family doc". Typically, that means that I take care of their high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid problems, weight issues, high cholesterol, anxiety, depression, and a few other chronic conditions. I'm the one they see for their …
Right when we thought we could open up movie theaters and gyms, we took a few steps backwards and ended up stuck in Phase 2 in North Carolina, with a mandate to wear masks in public. At work, I'm still seeing patients outdoors, either in their cars or on our front porch. I drape the …
"That was a great mock interview!" I smiled and held back a childish squeal of excitement. "But you'll never make it to medical school." "What?" My smile slowly curled downwards. "You'll never make it. You're not good enough. You're only a B student and there's nothing on your current college transcript that says you should …
I LOVE algorithms! When presented with a symptom from a patient, I will always use an algorithm to figure out what's going on in order to properly treat the symptom. For example, I get a lot of complaints from patients about chronic headaches. So, I use a series of questions in order to go down …
As a Physician Assistant, I find myself reminding patients that healing take time. And I also find myself asking patients to give me time to figure things out. A sprained ankle or wrist can take 6-8 weeks before it feels back to 100%. Sometimes longer. Sometimes shorter. I remind patients that neck pain from whiplash …
Finding Faith In Medicine 