Sadness

Today I met a seven year old boy who is HIV positive and constantly gets infections because of his compromised immune system. He's had chronic ear infections for awhile now and has a hard time hearing. He's in the care of his grandmother, who is also HIV positive because his mother died of AIDS. They came to the mobile clinic a little late, after all of the nutritional supplements had been handed out, so he's probably going to be hungry for the next two weeks until the mobile comes around again. All he got was some Panado (Tylenol by a different name) and ammoxycillin for his ear infection.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to seeing such sadness everyday. I'm not sure if I'd want to. So many doctors and nurses detach themselves from their patients' suffering as a defense mechanism. It drains the compassion out of them but keeps the heart from breaking I guess. There's no way to be compassionate and not let it affect you.I'm not sure if a happy medium even exists. I just hope I never get used to the idea of unnecessary human suffering.