this week in public health

ok, so this was a defining week in my new career.......one in which i truly felt that i was meant to be where i am now.......2 examples......one i shall share, and one i shall keep to myself.........the first involves a first-time pregnant mom a bit older than my eldest.....married.....a smoker trying to 'cut back' to 5-6 cigarettes a day.....and planning to try to breastfeed......her spouse and her breast-feeding sister are supportive, her mother and her inlaws are not........she came in to my office quite agitated because she started leaking...and was convinced that something was wrong.......nope....this is a good sign, i offered.........to which she countered.......well, now my breasts seem so swollen and so red......i think something is wrong...ok so at this point there was nothing else to do but to offer to take a look......gentle readers........had i desired to look upon body parts not my own i would have gone to nursing school........and so this clearly worried mom-to-be stripped off her shirt and displayed her swollen breasts......and i was able to definitively assure her that a) her breasts were not engorged/abnormallyenlarge/swollen/infectedasinmastitis....and b)that her nipples were the best possible kind for successful breastfeeding.........and she left my office so visibly relieved and calmed of most of her fears....one can never calm all of the fears of a first-time mom..........and i felt so affirmed as an expert.......and justified as an underpaid state enployee.........doing what i can do to make other people's lives a bit better.......the other example is much more private....not in the privacy law connection that must be considered......but in my personal privacy......i had a pregnant woman disclose an instance to me that foreshadows all of her fears of pregnancy/motherhood......and i was able to assure her that she would be just fine......one of the few times in my life that i can say with clarity that i was destined to be in that room with that woman on that day discussing that essential issue.....and this was a timely occurance......given that i ran into someone at church who knew me when i made more money....and though she did not say so out loud.......she was clearly thinking that i had come done in the world when she smiled that face-cracking smile as i told her about my new job.......it is weeks such as this that sustain me....