Mesut's Heartstrings

Chapter 1

Mindy gazed into her own eyes in the bathroom mirror and began an internal mantra in preparation for the most pivotal day of her career. She had learned in the psychiatry unit of her medical school curriculum, that self-confidence was an integral part of a balanced mental health.

"You are a professional. You are a professional...", she said to herself.

Everything she had worked so hard for during her first two years of her medical school training had earned her this position as a medical student intern in the Arsenal football club sports medicine team. Mindy had been drawn to sports medicine despite never having played sports competitively. In fact she was the least athletic person in her medical school class and at twenty years old, she resembled more of a girl than a woman. She was naturally timid , with a straight, petite figure and no coach had expected her to bring the vigor and endurance to play competitively. Perhaps becoming a sports medicine physician had been so attractive to Mindy because she always viewed sports as an exclusive club in which she would never be accepted into. She felt empowered at the thought of treating people that had once caused her great envy, but her confidence was waning at this hour. She had only been in Holloway for a week as this internship had plucked her from the quaint little suburbs of Chapel Hill. She was still getting accustomed to the British culture, not to mention getting over the shock of landing the position. How she had gotten the internship was a complete mystery. The medical student internships of the Arsenal football club sports medicine team were insanely competitive as the patients the interns would learn to treat were valued at millions of dollars, literally. Mindy's mantra was finally starting to take effect and she could feel the confidence and self-assuredness grow inside her. She told herself that she was not only capable, but was the most competent medical student to take care of world-class athletes. Mindy finally adorned her white coat and headed out towards the bus stop in front of her flat.

        When she arrived at Arsenal's Colney Training centre, she was met by the other four student interns and her physician preceptor, Dr. Chavda. Dr. Chavda ran them through the orientation and gave his lecture on the philosophies of sports medicine. He elaborated on the importance of the patient-doctor relationship in this particular field and how it was important to have the trust and compliance of the athletes in order to protect themselves from injury. He emphasized that in industry of treating diverse, world-class athletes, language-barriers were no excuse for patient communication. A doctor that was able to competently care for athletes of the Arsenal team would need to communicate well pushing past language barriers.  He then introduced his students to the athlete's medical records, which they would need to seamlessly memorize. Dr. Chavda believed firmly in the independance of his medical student interns and made very clear that they would be expected to pay close attention to each of the player's patient histories and make their own diagnoses and medical decisions. He would respect any logical decision they might make to pull their player from a practice or match, no matter what the opposition or complaints were from management. He was eager to show how much he believed in the potential of his students.  Although Mindy was slightly intimidated by the notion that she would have complete autonomy over the decisions she made for her patients, she was invigorated by the chance to prove herself. 

During their break, Mindy and the other students began to flip through the patient charts and take note of the types of injuries recorded. As she flipped through, she felt her insides churn in anticipation for their first physical examination of the football players planned later in the day. She thought of how embarrassed she would be in front of her peers and the players if she should vomit up the asparagus and cheese soup that she had for lunch. Then she thought of how important it was that she established a healthy patient-doctor relationship with her patient athletes. A good doctor was expected to hold a somewhat authoratative aura about himself or herself, and Mindy found it hard to be an authoratative and professional figure with patients that were all basically the same age as her, not to mention she had no experience working with people that did not speak English. As she was silently concerning herself over these paranoid worries, Dr. Chavda called the students to greet the football players and to assign them for their monthly checkups. Mindy walked out with the other students through the long corriders, walking briskly to keep up with Dr. Chavda and his urgent strides. They arrived in the waiting room where the players were scattered around the room, casually horse-playing and creating utter chaos as if they were complete fools. Dr. Chavda, non-chalantly, began assigning the players to their doctors-in-training and sending them off one-by-one until Mindy was the only doctor left unassigned.

" Mr. Ozil. This is Dr. Mindy Li. She will be responsible for your check up today. Please follow her into the examining room 5 for your monthly physical."