I had my angriest patient in all of third year today. And I totally understood where he was coming from. Everyone has limited patience. He was just being human.

He's a 38 y/o man who was diagnosed with colon cancer. He is visited by surgeons, my attending, my resident, and me the medical student. He gets woken up every few hours, his roommate is loud (maybe mentally ill). He has a 9 y/o daughter.

He's well past his threshold of irritability and it's totally understandable.

He yelled and cussed. Said he felt like a "guinea pig," felt like he was being disrespected. "Go cash your check." I don't think he meant everything he said, which is true for any of us when we're angry.

The resident handled everything. She made it a point that she would not be disrespected when all she's doing is helping him.

I was actually looking forward to talking to him again in a few hours after he had calmed down. I felt very capable. I thought my compassion would show and he would feed off of it. I never got that chance. The attending thought it would be best if he's bothered as little as possible. I totally get it. Now I'll never know how I would have done.

I'm a little surprised at my confidence and eagerness to deal with an angry patient. I think it's because his anger was natural and I don't think it's who he is at his core. I usually avoid confrontation, it makes my heart race. But this was the complete opposite reaction with him. Hm, that feels good.