Been on attending rounds and bedsides for a while now which is a nice experience since I'm not responsible for patients yet but I can observe the rest of the team doing their thing, help hold a patient in fetal position for a lumbar procedure, and listen in on patient reports and presentations.
For bedsides, I got to do a write up on a patient who was admitted to the hospital for complaints of fatigue and an extremely low hemoglobin count. She was a lovely, cooperative lady and she readily agreed to letting me perform a basic physical exam on her, but when the attending came in at the end and told her she could be discharged, the patient sighed in relief. "I can't wait to go home and get some real food."
The attending gave her a look. "I know what you're thinking of and the answer is no."
The patient rubbed her hands sheepishly. "I wasn't going to - no - well, just a little for the road?"
"No!"
"No?"
The attending shook her head, shaking her pen at the patient for emphasis. "It's going to kill you. No more starch."
"Okay ..." the patient agreed, resigned.
Out in the hallway, the attending asked my partner and I, "Did she tell you about her diet?"
"No ..."
"Yeah, well, she eats ... like, starch."
We nodded slowly. "Okay." What's so weird about starch?
"... As in laundry detergent," she explained.
"What?" We gaped at her.
The attending chuckled. "Yeah, we said her GI seemed irritated and she just goes, 'Oh yeah, that might be the starch'. So she's actually been eating Argo Starch which is something I believe that the cleaners use to starch clothes."
My partner blinked. "When you said no starch to her, I thought you meant ... real food ..."
"Like carbs," I added.
So the patient has pica, which is a disorder in which the patient craves non-food substances. Sometimes you see this more often in pregnant women when some of them start having a hankering for dirt, clay, or starch, etc. In the case of this patient, she had a previous history of eating starch during her pregnancy and recently picked up the habit again, popping these Argo Starch like popcorn while watching TV.
Yep. Other than bedsides, I've been studying for practicals and exams. Been busy and it's probably going to be busy for a while. Writing will be on hold til late summer probably. As always, thanks for your patience!
Oh wait, on a totally random note, it really hit me the other day that the last Harry Potter movie will be coming out this summer and at that moment, it felt like my childhood - tis OVER! Haha, this generation who grew up with Harry Potter and the Hogwarts bunch and lived through the anticipation of waiting for each book to come out ... this is it. The last movie. Just seeing the cast of Harry Potter all grown up and how mature and stylish they are now and going off on their own separate successful ways after completing this series and comparing them to the first movie when they were such cuties with their little chubby cheeks and ... my childhood is finished. TAKE ME BACK.
So when I saw this epic fan video ... I'm a dork. I teared up a little:
The magic will never die! Battle cry of the day.
Oh, and congrats to Prince William and Kate Middleton for getting hitched. It was the day after my formal so my friend woke me up freakishly too early to watch it be broadcast live and I kept passing out on the air mattress next to her TV in the living room where I had crashed for the night only to be wakened up sporadically by her comments on the dress, the hats and stuff. I think every time I opened my eyes, I saw Kate walking down the aisle again. I felt a little like I was in Twilight Zone, but since it got replayed so many times throughout the day, I was happy to be able to catch it later when I was less groggy. It was really a very lovely wedding and everyone looked absolutely spiffy.
