Yesterday was my last day with Dr. Will for my Family Practice/OMM rotation. The last two weeks I don't think the learning curve was quite as steep, but I honed some skills and really enjoyed getting to know patients.
The last two days were some of the most interesting medically. Thursday, on FP, I saw one of the worst movement disorders any of the physicians had ever seen. Worse, the patient's vocal cords were spasming making her voice and expressions look like something from the Poltergiest. She was nice, but a very complicated case. She'd had these symptoms for a year and a half with only Demerol (huge amounts!) for relief since she was allergic to 32 drugs! Plus she already on 15 for a dozen or so medical conditions like hypothyroidism, IBS, CAD, severe L3-L5 DJD, spondolysthesis, etc, Her husband was a perfect presentation of clinical depression. He obviously had no life other than treating his invalid wife.
It was my first time on rotation actually thinking if I could live in her condition. I can't imagine doing nothing about it for a year and a half. It almost seemed like she was trying to slowly do herself in with huge amounts of Demerol.
Friday at Dr. Will's OMM practice we saw two Arnold-Chiari cases! Both women had serious operations for spinal cord compression, but both were otherwise perfectly normal. Not at all like the Pathology slides I remember describing all the associated neurological conditions.
My review was excellent and I gave Dr. Will equally high marks. He really reminded me how FP can be noble as well as rewarding and fun. I don't expect next months' Urgent Care rotation will seem as attractive, but I hope I will have a chance to do more procedures and hone my patient charting.
Finally, I had a nice conversation with our Clinical Education Dept. Instead of scheduling my rural rotation later this year as an IM rotation like I had planned, I signed up for a rural FP rotation in Snowflake, AZ. It's supposed to be a great rotation with lots of patients, pathology and procedures (my "three P's"). Becky and I even bumped into a classmate at Costco who just finished the rotation yesterday. He spoke very highly of it. Sounds like a beautiful area only four hours away.