Day 37: It's just emotions taking me over.

It's toasty today, just a mere 31 degrees celsius. The usual busy clinic day. Lots of squeeze-in's. A call to NHS England. A care home visit. A debrief with our newly appointment social link worker, Sapphire. I've been working in General Practice for the past 5 years and I still find my emotions catch me by surprise. Today I've met an amazing 5 year old boy who spontaneously threw his arm around me as he was leaving the consultation with his parents. Oh my gosh! So unexpected but so heart warming. In contrast my last patient shared her story of true love and bereavement. I felt so close to crying, utterly heartbreaking to hear and see her unravel in front of me.

I would say actually I had the same feels with all my previous roles, in hospital and community pharmacy. It's people and their stories. I can never imagine exactly how they must be feeling but having felt so many raw emotions myself I find I'm right there with them, on the empathy step. I have had clinics in the past where I've had relentless cases back to back and then I'm left feeling numb and disengaged from the rest of world. Sometimes I feel I have given away part of me to someone who's in more need than me. Resilience is vital to survive.

It's fair to say I'm done in today.