Splitting It Back Together: Healing Patients with Difficult Journeys

Homelessness has been one of the most chest-tightening yet miraculous experiences in my life. I, by no means, mean to romanticize an experience that scarred me and continues to alter people’s paths in detrimental ways but I have learned one thing I think is worth sharing with my fellow medical enthusiasts: each one of our stories matters. We all carry heavy experiences, especially as BIPOC, that more than likely made it difficult for us (and our previous generations) to achieve peace and balance. What if I told you those difficult experiences are the same experiences that will help move you and others closer to peace and healing in medicine and beyond?

 

Over the summer of 2024, I was given the opportunity to shadow a Street Medicine team in Los Angeles as a first year medical student. For those of you who may be wondering “¿Qué es eso de Street Medicine?” Street Medicine is a pretty niche subset of primary care that takes medicine to the streets and meets the patient where they are. It prioritizes caring for the unhoused population because these are people who confront limiting barriers to medicine, including transportation, discrimination and neglect. As I said before, I experienced homelessness myself and it haunted me throughout my 6 years of undergrad so this is a community that I see and identify with. Back to the story. When I tell you I was NERVOUS, I was shaking in my boots in the days leading up to my shadowing experience. Why? I was entering a realm in which my reflection looked back at me on both sides. I am now mingling in a community of kind healthcare professionals who, quite frankly, are far removed from the experience of homelessness and I’m now looking into a community that I was once a part of myself. I felt split. Split from both communities and alienated in my venn diagram of medicine and homelessness. I was the one and only person fitting section A and section B. That feeling is terrifying, especially when you stand so firmly in both realms.

 

My first day was the best day of my life and the days thereafter were only better. At first, I was weary about sharing my story because I was far more privileged than the people in these encampments. I was in school, I had my car to sleep in and friends to feed me while people I was helping treat were eating 3 meals a week and were suffocating in their tents at almost 100℉. It almost felt wrong to share… until I met a young woman with a kidney infection and the funniest jokes. We started off bonding because we were both latina chihuahua moms but I had put mine down just 2 weeks before. She gave me a hug and told me she understood my pain because her chihuahua is her best friend and is the only reason she laughs some days. Then she asked me why I was there(not in LA but why I was shadowing a group of medics on the streets) and the truth rolled off my tongue faster than I could overthink it. I told her I experienced homelessness and the only reason I made it through school was because I knew I had to serve a community the world turns its shoulder on SO EASILY, a community that needs attention more than any other. Despite me wanting to take every word back immediately, she simply said “that’s badass” and told me about all the ways the healthcare system screwed her over, especially in the way they treat her. It was almost as if she were telling me what she needs me to do as a doctor. She told me that even when she has access to healthcare, she would rather die from a kidney infection than be treated like shit by people who stand between HER life and death. It was invigorating and it was a reminder to push… for the both of us. The conversation turned into her telling me she has goals in her life beyond homelessness. She wants to move to the countryside and live with the earth, her dog and her thoughts. We rambled and I gave her some options to think over if she doesn’t know where to start. She said she would get back on her feet and by the way she said it, I truly believe she will. She thanked me and I thanked her. I think about her often because she made me realize how important it is to use my story as a point of reference. It’s an important reminder that when we see a possibility in action, we feel closer to achieving it already… especially when that person looks like you, has experienced life in a similar way and is cheering for you.

 

All this to say, we are all so different from one another for a reason. There are patients you will meet along your journey that you feel closer to than the reality around you. It will feel like a split between your current state and where you came from but that split is why you matter. That split, as terrifying as it may feel, will bring others closer to where they’re going. Your experience will allow you to support your patients in ways other healthcare professionals wouldn’t even know where to start. Sharing will heal those experiences for you and others by moving them forward with purpose.