Day 10

So my computer decided to just die leaving the last few days I've written about to be lost and instead of writing it over ill just post the pictures. What happens in the Philippines stays in the Philippines right? Well the weekend was a little crazy filled with discos, boat trips, beaches and volcanic cold springs not to mention a lot of chaos. So maybe it's good we just leave those stories in the Philippines :)

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And now with my computer back, here are the missing pieces

So most people on our trip have now had to succomb to the deadly Traveler’s diarrhea, and been a little under the weather. So far I have avoided contracting this unpleasant illness, but I’m still waiting for it to be my turn. The Filipino water will get me eventually, I just know it. TMI? No such thing as a medical student. At breakfast we called up a few students to the clinic early because of an emergency. A toddler was having what seemed to be febrile seizures, possibly caused by meningitis. He was eventually sent to the local hospital’s ER in Sorsogon to get a lumbar puncture. They dismissed the child and family when they got there, and Dan who went with them had to fight a bit to get the child admitted and treated.

 

So today I was placed with Celine and Rob in the student room. I love working in the student room almost as much as the OR. Well I think I like the balance just to do something different each day. They give us the ropes in the student room to perform full H&P’s (history and physicals for those non-medical readers), an assesment and come up with a plan. That’s what a SOAP note means. S=subjective (what the patient tells us through the history), O=objective (what we find in our physicals), A=assessment, P=plan. It’s wonderful experience, and I’ve gotten really comfortable seeing and assessing patients. My drug knowledge has definitely improved, and anytime I have to give a shot or IV my day just gets that much better. I guess we are kind of masochists in a way, but only for the best interest of our patient. I had a lot of patients with caffeine related headaches in the morning. It really seemed to be the theme. Celine took over the last patient of the day and let me tell you this was a TRIP! The 21 year old male had everything! His chief complaint was leg cramps. He works a lot, and has had the pain more when he works (which has been more lately), and it gets better with rest. Ok I thought we were done there. No no no, not in our house! So he also had a headache, blurry vision and double vision which he denied then confirmed then denied again to having, chest pain, bright red blood in his stool once a week, black tarry stools once a week, and numbness down his left arm. His physical was completely unremarkable. Celine and I spent hours on the patient and were at a loss to what could be causing all these symptoms, so we consulted one of the Nepalese physicians. In 5 minutes, the patient was gone, and advised to drink more water, eat more bananas (potassium for the cramps) and take some ibuprofen if the pain didn’t subside with lifestyle modifications. If someone threw a rock at my head at that moment I would have been ok with it. This is what you have to learn as a medical student; that not all patients are sick, and a lot of the times what they say and what they present with on a physical do not match up. Trust your instincts. Always trust your instincts.

 

After the clinic we went into Sorsogon to use the internet  (yay you see my blog now!) and get some grocerys. We set up our club Jeepney as we rode into the city blasting Call me Maybe. We may have single handedly scarred many Filipino’s…. Nonsense, they were jamming along with us. When we got back we ate another delicisous dinner (with fried bananas MY FAVORITE!) and chilled out for a while after with a delightful game of “would you rather” before hitting the sack. I don’t know how I am going to be able to live in the US again without the fruit from the Philippines. I never eat bananas and here they are out of this world! They have like a dozen or more different kinds and they’re all amazing. And the mango and pineapple! Don’t even get me started. I’m already plotting a way to smuggle some home…..without ending up in a foreign jail