Subaqua Sternal Rubs

Since the brilliant people that devised the 6th term calendar scheduled TEAM (basically a "lite" version of ATLS for medical students and allied health workers) the exact same time that half of the students are supposed to be at the hospital on rotation. So my group rescheduled and did our final rotation (yay!!) at the "Walk-In Family Clinic" today. Unlike the Urgent Care Clinics at home, this one actually seemed to treat patients, rather than just dialing 9-1-1 for a taxi ride to a real hospital. Our patient was a 13-yo male who complained of constant pain in his left thigh since yesterday, with no other associated symptoms. No trauma. Any guesses, anyone? Well considering the latitude, Sickle Cell Disease would be a good guess. And mostly correct, too. This patient didn't actually have full-blown disease, but Sickle Cell Trait (heterozygous) instead, which is protective against malaria (hence the comment about the latitude). I was very impressed with this patient — he had a better grasp of his medical history than all of the other patients we have seen here. After quickly taking the history (getting better at that - times are down by 78%) and physical, we chatted for a little bit with the attending physician on the etiology, pathogenesis, management, etc. of sickle cell disease, and got our last signature, all in under an hour. Reflecting back, I must say that all the tutors and clinical experiences were really excellent (save one), and I enjoyed them. Though I am kinda getting sick of the observing, time to start doing!

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