Playing Doctor

I went to see this guy yesterday complaining of acute chest pains radiating to his left arm and shortness of breath. Anyway his X-ray came back and he was diagnosed with pneumothorax (air in the pleural cavity). Apparently, when I went to see him nobody had told him yet of his diagnosis, and so I went and told him, and explained about the treatment. "They stick a needle into your chest to drain out the air." hhaha. On hindsight, I realized that this might have sounded quite horrifying. But it is definitely what they do, which is to insert a needle in to aspirate the air or to put a chest drain in. Anyway, most interesting bit is the guy has been diagnosed with Charcot Marie Tooth syndrome since he was 12 years old. I think this syndrome is possible quite uncommon, the first time I've come across it. Charcot Marie tooth is a inherited disorder, causing peripheral neuropathy, therefore causing peroneal muscle atrophy and foot drop.

I was on the wards today and I spoke to this patient who I met yesterday with bronchiectasis, asthma and pneumonia, and apparently the doctors wanted to discharge her even though she was not completely well yet and she refused to be discharged. So I spoke to her, and she told me that no doctors have come to see her since Monday and she has not been given any antibiotics, and she said that she preferred to see the respiratory doctors which she normally sees. So I went downstairs and told Dr Thomas about her, and he said that he would definitely come to see her later on. I went to see her again in the evening agan today, and she was well pleased as Dr Thomas had told her that he would be transferring her downstairs to the respiratory ward to get her antibiotic treatment for the next 10 days, and Dr Franklin the consultant on her ward also came to apologise for not coming in to see her, as he thought she had already been discharged. Yupsss, helping people totally makes my day :-)