Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Excuse me, are you a first year too?
Sunday, March 22, 2009
hello from glasgow
our exams are nearing...may 18th. the first ever exam we'll be having here. stress levels aren't that high yet but it will be soon enough. easter break has just commenced and we're, actually "i" in this case, is being a lazy bum as usual and procrastinating. it's a whole repeat of eos 5. argh!!! eos 5 all over again! however i shall not complain after hearing what our peeps at seremban had to go through for eos 7. congrats to all there!
well this is a short update. there's nothing much happening here with the exams getting nearer. till the next update ta!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
GP Case 1 - the demanding patient
Just to 'liven' things up a little, I'ma post a couple of cases which I've seen in my GP clinic for you guys to think. Yes, I have my OWN clinic! Okay, so it's just for 2 weeks .. but damn, it's the most fun I've had since while studying Medicine.
Anyway, here we go.
Case 1.
Guy in 20s came in with his wife and 2 kids, complaining of being depressed. He admitted being recently out of prison, and said while he was there he could not eat and felt really down. Upon release, he described himself as continuing to feel depressed all the time, lost interest in everything, was not eating or doing anything at all. Once, he said he injected himself with heroin and his wife found out. He saw a GP previously who put him on Fluoxetine, which did nothing. When queried, he said this depression has lasted for years but he had never talked to anyone about it, and Fluoxetine was his first medication.
Then his auntie gave him this 'medication' to take, which he handed the empty foil over to me. I looked at it, 'Neurontin' (a brand of Gabapentin). He said he's feeling much better after taking them, and began eating and helped around the house with the kids. He has just finished the Neurontin so he had come to get a prescription for it.
He claimed that the medication has helped him so much, if he couldn't get a prescription he'll just buy it from the pharmacist. He said his wife can vouch for the change in him after being on it, so I looked over at his wife but she was just minding the baby in her hands.
Hint: Just to be sure, I consulted the BNF.
What do you think and what will your management of this patient be? I'll update this post with an answer in a few days (:
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Letter From Tasmania
Pic of the clinical school. It's connected to the hospital at the back.
Pic of Elizabeth Street Mall. Okay... not a good pic... It's all i got :P
Thursday, August 07, 2008
8 months on
"Hey dudes and dudettes,went the sms that I received 2 weeks ago from mus. As silly as it sounds (yeah man, mus... "dudettes"?), there was something about the message that struck me unlike the other goodbyes before this. M205 has moved on.
I'm leaving soon! All the best!"
Two and a half years rushed by like that.
Things have never been the same.
No more 2 hours of lecture and kamikazebbqwthshizukani after that (Outsiders: I really meant studying).
No more CGs at PBL rooms.
No more PBLs.
No more pseudo-escalator stairs.
No more Sun newspaper.
No more "staying awake" at the back of LT.
No more Sri Emas cafeteria (Thank God).
No more 5 minutes walk to Vista.
Friends are no longer a stone's throw away.
No Sri Petaling Chow Toufu (Ivy!!!!!)
No more jogging @ 9 loops lake.
No more air-con wherever we go.
No more pseudo-patients!
No more posters and videos to make (personal).
No more trying to study in the library but end up surfing websites at the e-lab.
I do appreciate the time we spent together. The jogs, the CGs, the chit-chats, the lame jokes, the cyber-cafe sessions, the game, the education et cetera.
Friends, how are you guys getting on?
Saturday, August 02, 2008
thon glaikit laddie amang the mons isna daft efter a'
2 weeks into the bridging course in University of Dundee Medical School, can't say we've really learned much haha. Most are just 1.5 hour lectures on the overview on the different specialties - Cardiology, Orthopaedics, O&G, and the like.
And of course there's also the much boredom-inducing communication skills class. Which is actually an English class in disguise. We learned how to restructure questions. And 'British' colloquial slang words mean, like awesome, loo, wee, take a hike, pissed off, bimbo, fag. Yawns. Imagine 2 hours, twice a week on that. Swear we almost asked for a refund. Haha.
Anyway that wasn't the thing i wanted to blog about here. Well, earlier yesterday, we had a clinical skills class on history taking. 3 SPs, 3 cases. Here's what one of the doctors told us about her view.
The way we take the history of the patient, is bombarding the patient with all sorts of questions, and then sifting through the HUGE load of answers trying to figure out what is wrong.
The way they take the history of the patient, is trying to figure out what is wrong while asking the questions. Sifting through the patient's answers, while asking relevant questions to rule in/out the differential diagnoses they thought of. Sort of making arguments for or against the diagnoses in their mind.
So how did they go about taking history?
Look at the presenting complaint in three ways:
1. Anatomy
2. Systems
3. Disease Mechanism
Let's say the patient has right upper quadrant pain in the abdomen. Looking at the anatomy, it might be the liver, gallbladder, lung, kidney, colon.
A patient with bilateral ankle swelling, looking at systems, it might be CVS or Renal. By disease mechanism, you might want to think what can cause the swelling? Proteinuria?
Another helpful tip is how to come up with differential diagnosis. Remember:
VINDICATE
Vascular
Infection/Inflammatory
Neoplasm
Drugs/Degenerative
Idiopathic
Congenital
Autoimmune
Trauma
Endocrine/Environment
Using this mnemonic, the causes of the symptoms can be easily figured out. For example, glomerulopathy. Infection, drugs, autoimmune, endocrine?
Hope this helps in taking histories. Happy talking to patients! (:
ps - the title is in Dundonian, the local Dundee slang. haha have fun figuring it out :P