Capstone Log 9

Today: 2 hours
Running Total: 15.5 hours

Today, the office wasn't very busy. When I got there, Dr. Kelly made a phone call to a mother concerned about her 18 year old daughter. She's been having fainting spells in the morning because she gets dizzy after waking up. But apparently it's fairly common to faint in the morning. While we waited for his 4 o'clock, we talked about what I had to read up on for this week, which was Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which is a subtype of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). I found an article from the NY Times about a boy who had used a drug that usually treats ADD patients, however he didn't have the disorder and abused the drug instead. It led to his addiction and reliance on the drug and when it was no longer available to him, he hanged himself in his closet. Dr. Kelly questions whether it's an actual disorder, and since the percentage is so high, it's actually "normal" to have ADD. There is a lot of controversy with it and the way people perceive it to actually be.
Dr. Kelly told me how this week, there are a lot of patients with earaches and congestion. There was a patient who had earaches as well as coughing and congestion. There was a lot of pressure in his right ear and water in his left, but no ear infection.
Ear infections could be potentially fatal if not properly treated and could spread throughout the area surrounding the ear. It could get to the point where one whole side of the face could become paralyzed.
Dr. Kelly then explained Huntington's Chorea disease, which is a neurological disease and is distinguished in 30-40 year old people and above with involuntary movement of their limbs and then possibly dementia.
Lastly, a girl came in with hand-foot-mouth disease, with which the name seems so informal that it was hard for me to believe that it's a real infection. A mother was concerned if she can get it from her daughter, and yes she can. It's characterized by a sore throat and rashes on the hands or feet. It's also my next topic to read up on for next week. I'm excited to learn about it, it's quite intriguing.