September 25, 2007

• It’s coming

  

  It’s coming.

  The more time I spend in family, the more i enjoy it. You know, on my second day and all. It’s simply such a relaxed atmosphere. I am walking around the hospital with my hands in my pockets and not a care in the world. The SOAP notes are fairly straightforward and lazy because my differential is not filled with zebras, and sometimes not even with horses, just ponies. My Plans often contain statements like

  -reassured patient, told to f/u in 1 wk (that’s follow up, folks-get your mind out the gutter)
  -discussed eye care with patient, told to apply warm compress
  -refilled prescription, told to f/u 6 mos

  It’s just so, well, easy. Compared to my previous rotations. That may be why I like it. The residents pretty much leave me to do the H and P on my own, then go in and work off my findings, co-signing my note with minor modifications. Its that same level of trust I was given in IM, and I find myself responding by trying harder, doing more complete exams, and thinking about all possible outcomes, if only to prove I am up to the responsibility.

  Tomorrow I get off early at 1pm so i can drive up further in the suburbs to another hospital for 3 hours of lecture. Which I am not quite as enthused about. One of my favorite things about third year was leaving the classroom and lecture halls, but this is still stuff i need to know so oh well.

  Today in patients saw some classic textbook cases. A psoriatic arthritis

  This was not exactly a compliant patient either. She began the interview by telling me she was difficult and didnt like taking meds, particularly her diabetes medication. So we spent some time discussing how she could be a better patient

  Next was a guy with an inguinal hernia. A HUGE ONE. We are talking his testicular satchel (that’s medicalese for ballsack) was the size of my fist. This is because part of his intestines had slid down into said satchel and were causing him some discomfort
  

  
  

  It looked something like that, only even larger. Thanks, google images, for helping my site get tagged as pornography! The part of this story that makes him a classic patient however is that he was walking around with his family jewels like this for 6 YEARS before deciding to seek medical attention, and that only because he is getting married soon and didnt want this to spoil his wedding night. Cuz apparently the whole you know what they say about big hands things is not supposed to correlate to testicular size.

  Seriously People…If you have a problem, see your physician in a timely fashion. Note i say your physician and not your local emergency room, which in an ideal world would be for trauma, seizures, heart attacks and meningitis only. If our patient had come in 6 years ago when this was initially noticed, he would not have required a surgical consult and could have been in and out in 15 minutes.

  No medicine is not making me jaded toward people, I always resented stupidity. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. A few more stys, which are basically inner eyelid acne and another prenatal checkup. Family style OB/GYN i can handle, as doing dopplers is kinda fun…seeking out the placental blood flow, followed by the fetal heartbeat sounds a lot like a galloping horse. Or perhaps just a little fetus banging two coconuts together (movie reference!)

  Internet Family Shoutouts:
  WaterfallPhilosophies: how goes your pregnancy?
  Ablossoms: why not post stories about your crazies? you are on psych, i know you have them
  Carmendebizet: i know it’s my blog…i am a bit of an attention slut, so i try and change it up every once in a while to attract new readers, or keep old ones
  Lemunia: what are you up to these days?

  Anonymous Hong Kong, Poland, and Great Britain readers: stop being anonymous and say hello!

  • 7:52 pm
  • 9 Comments