Capstone Log 7

Today: 2 hours
Running Total: 11.5 hours

Sometimes I hear the doctors talking to patients about the most bizarre things. But today was normal. When I came in, Dr. Pickering was on the phone and asked if someone was sensitive to butter. But her tone was very unconvincing. Made me laugh.
Dr. Kelly was phoning patients when I arrived; he spoke about how parents often worry about green stool in their newborn (which is absolutely normal) and eating habits (which could mean a small sore throat or simply no hunger). First-time parents are usually the most skeptical and always have, in the doctors' eyes, some silly questions.
I went in with Dr. Kelly for a physical with a 10 year old boy who still occasionally wets the bed at night, which isn't too common at his age, but not very rare either. He explained to me about a special hormone called antidiuretic released by the pituitary which is not released when you're dehydrated, therefore you don't urinate. I asked if this boys pituitary didn't release any, but he said no. Which confused me a bit, because then there's no real reason why he still wets the bed. But he's taking medication to supply antidiuretic so that it doesn't happen anymore.
We then saw a boy who came in with a sore throat, cough, and high fever. Once he said there was a cough, then we knew it couldn't be streptococcus because cough doesn't come with it, but we tested it anyways. After Dr. Kelly took the swabs, he allowed me to do the actual "lab test" to determine whether the strep was positive or negative. Gina helped me and it was pretty simple. I like performing the little tests with the tubes and the special enzyme drops and everything.
After I was done doing the test we met with a 7 year old girl who has asthma. She had a physical but we discussed her drug intake. She takes a liquid every morning for heartburn and then uses the inhaler twice a day in the morning and at night for her wheezing. She fortunately is not on steroids  Dr. Kelly and I were talking about how oral steroids  especially in children, can ruin bones and joints and cause several other problems. He told me a story of a lady who was in her 40's but had to get both hips replaced because her doctor prescribed her oral steroids and only those.
We talked a bit about how doctors rarely ever use the brand names for drugs, such as Tylenol, Advil, Pediacare, etc. He believes that parents should know the ingredients and know the real uses of each drug instead of giving their child Tylenol for a runny nose. Acetaminophen, ibuprofen, sudafed; these should all be in the parents' vocabulary and they should be aware of their uses.
For next week I have to learn about rotavirus, which I know absolutely nothing about. So it should be an interesting topic for me to read on.