Capstone Log 8

Today: 2 hours
Running Total: 13.5 hours

When doctors get sick, who do they go to?! Dr. Kelly has laryngitis, so today he didn't really have any patients. Instead, I tagged along with Dr. Pickering. We saw a nine year old boy who had a nasty cough and a high fever which lasted over the weekend. His symptoms showed that he has the flu, but his breathing said it could have been pneumonia. He took a chest x-ray and Dr. Pickering allowed me to see the images, front and side view. They showed that he had a lot of mucus and congestion, but definitely no pneumonia. The doctors were thinking it could be bronchitis, but nobody can really tell just by looking at x-rays.
Dr. Kelly then had a patient, a little boy who was about one. He's had a cough for the past 2 months already and uses a flow vent for when he's wheezing. Fortunately for the child, he hasn't been wheezing since the end of January, but unfortunately for me, I wasn't able to use the stethoscope to listen to a child that wheezes and compare to normal breathing. But we're glad he's healthy.
Dr. Kelly then allowed me to go with him into a prenatal with a soon-to-be-parents couple. A prenatal is basically a visit with the parents before the birth of their child in order for the parents to ask questions and get familiar with the pediatricians and actually establish a pediatrician for the new child instead of having one assigned. They asked questions about diapers, sunlight, and bringing the child out into crowded places. It was interesting to hear about what you are supposed to do and what you're not supposed to do with a new born baby.
After the prenatal, Dr. Kelly talked to me about rotavirus, which by the way, has an amazing vaccination that works stupendously. He talked to me about how rotavirus causes extreme diarrhea and it causes intussusception, which is when part of the small intestine gets pushed and invaginated into the large intestine. It causes tremendous pain and the part that gets stuck will die, causing the rest of the small intestine to die and then causing death. Most children get rotavirus several times during childhood which builds their immune system, so adults almost never get it.
For next week, I have to read about attention deficit disorder (ADD). It really is an interesting topic, seeing as how I know many people who have it.