KU Medical Center
The Weight
Artist: Marshall Moyer, Resident Physician (PGY-1), Internal Medicine
Category: Written work, Poetry
I wrote this poem to reflect on my experience as an intern starting residency training during the Covid-19 pandemic. It starts with a description of my first day of residency, during which I got drenched with rain walking inside from the VA parking lot. My first patient was a Covid patient on supplemental oxygen, but thankfully was weaned off the oxygen support quickly and discharged safely home. In the first 3 stanzas, I tried to capture my anxiety and sense of responsibility on that day and compare the sounds and feelings of that first patient encounter as a doctor to other experiences and feelings throughout my life. As the poem continues, I reflected more on the pandemic as a whole. I've had many conflicted feelings about it, but have often felt a subtle sense of guilt that my life has not been affected that much. It seems ridiculous that I've felt annoyed by closed restaurants, cancelled events, and changing plans when others are worried about their loved ones dying in a hospital without visitors. I reflected on that perspective and guilt, and also the sense of gratitude I've felt to all the people around me who have made the transition into residency much more manageable. Even during a pandemic, there is a lot of joy in the world still, and much of that comes from family, friends, and wonderful co-workers and patients.
The Weight
Artist: Marshall Moyer, Resident Physician (PGY-1), Internal Medicine
Category: Written work, Poetry
I wrote this poem to reflect on my experience as an intern starting residency training during the Covid-19 pandemic. It starts with a description of my first day of residency, during which I got drenched with rain walking inside from the VA parking lot. My first patient was a Covid patient on supplemental oxygen, but thankfully was weaned off the oxygen support quickly and discharged safely home. In the first 3 stanzas, I tried to capture my anxiety and sense of responsibility on that day and compare the sounds and feelings of that first patient encounter as a doctor to other experiences and feelings throughout my life. As the poem continues, I reflected more on the pandemic as a whole. I've had many conflicted feelings about it, but have often felt a subtle sense of guilt that my life has not been affected that much. It seems ridiculous that I've felt annoyed by closed restaurants, cancelled events, and changing plans when others are worried about their loved ones dying in a hospital without visitors. I reflected on that perspective and guilt, and also the sense of gratitude I've felt to all the people around me who have made the transition into residency much more manageable. Even during a pandemic, there is a lot of joy in the world still, and much of that comes from family, friends, and wonderful co-workers and patients.