For our Advanced Clinical Skills class, we went to the hospital yesterday to interview real patients. (Quite a concept, really.) Unlike our [1] mock patient, the 19-yo female in Bed 10 actually had a chief complaint from which we could elucidate a history of the present illness.

She had been having abdominal pain, fever, and headache for the past few days. When we asked "Have you had any serious illnesses, hospitalizations, or surgeries?," she answered a resounding "no."

Turns out that she has sickle cell disease, and has been hospitalized for crises 3-4 times a year since diagnosis at age 17. She also was diagnosed with gallstones and had her gallbladder surgically removed a year earlier. How could you answer "no" to that question? People please, relating your complete medical history to your medical provider only helps them to treat you better and more completely. Don't leave anything out because you don't think it's not relevant or important. You never know, it may be…