Capstone Log 5

Today: 2.5 hours
Running Total: 6.5 hours

Tiring, tiring day indeed. But in the end it's all worth it and I absolutely love going to the office and learning new things and seeing the children. When I arrived, Dr. Kelly and I discussed the milestones I read about for last weeks homework. We talked about the development a bit and how children constantly mimic and learn from everything that's around them. He described how neurological development starts at the very top and works its way down. When infants are brought into this world, they use only their eyes to look around, then they slowly start turning their heads, and then their torsos. They discover their hands and fingers, their belly-buttons and their feet and toes, then they crawl and walk and then run. However, they later on become aware of their genital parts, which is why they start to potty-train at an older age instead.
After our small discussion, we saw a girl who was sick; wheezing with stomach aches and headaches and a temperature of 102.7 degrees, which is relatively high body temperature. After the regular process, Dr. Kelly told me to look at the bottom of her eyelids, which showed a red/pinkish color, different than normal. That color indicated that she did indeed have a viral infection, most likely the flu. Interesting to see how simple symptoms, like discolored eyelids, can pose as signs of an infection.
After seeing the girl, Dr. Pickering had a question about a boy with reoccurring hip pains. They did tests however, and it showed that nothing was wrong. Dr. Kelly said he was normal and it was fine, no signs of inflammation. What he did explain to me however, was that children usually get muscle pains here and there or maybe a painful infection. It then goes away. But when a small pain comes back within the same vicinity of the previous ache or pain, then they perceive it to be the same thing that was there before, so it's half psychological that they feel that way. They can scream in agony, claiming that something hurts, but in reality, it's perfectly healthy. Their past experiences heighten their sense to feel what it was before, when it's really nothing at all. (I also think it's an attention-grabbing technique), but I'll still spot some sympathy.
I met another adorable little boy(similar to last week) who is allergic to amoxicillin, but that doesn't matter because he gave me a flying kiss when he left. However, Dr. Kelly did say that although people may be allergic to a specific medicine, they'll still prescribe it if it's absolutely necessary, which concerns me a bit. Wouldn't that only make things worse? But I trust the Ph.D.
A boy later came in with a wart on his knee. I was given the joy of sitting in the room as Dr. Kelly shaved the wart with a scalpel and then froze it with liquid nitrogen. Dirty work in the office, but somebody has to do the job.
After that, we met with two boys whose growth charts were compromised. It showed that they completely stopped growing and were actually shrinking. And the way it was shown is supposed to say that they were losing weight as well as not growing any taller, which is impossible unless there is a serious condition they have. But they were both perfectly normal, just a bit rowdy. Goes to show that nobody is perfect, and somebody messed up the growth chart from a previous checkup.
To end the day, Dr. Kelly told me a story of a very inspirational woman who, with her team, discovered the ultrasound technique to produce images. Amazing lady.
For next week, I have to read up asthma and everything about it. Please excuse the length of this post, I got slightly carried away.