More Family Medicine

My Family Medicine rotation is running better than ever. I am still continuing to do more and more as my preceptor becomes more comfortable with my skills. But with the good, comes the........funny?
Dr Sams enjoys my company I believe, and she really likes being able to teach and have some extra help around the office. Some extra help comes in all forms however, including entertaining the patients. Just last week, she had one of her more light-hearted patients in for an annual check-up, and she asked me to follow her into the room shortly after to evaluate his condition. 5 minutes after Dr Sams vanishes into the room, [enter Stage left Student Dr Whiddon]:


Richard: "Hi Mr. *******."
Dr Sams: "This is Dr Whiddon, he's a third year med student helping me out."
Patient: "Hi"
Dr Sams: "Mr. ****** is complaining of some acute glossal edema with mucocutaneous erythema."
Richard: "Ok Mr. *****, open your mouth for me please."

::::richard sees::::
:::medical note::::

Mild mucocutaneous erythema with bilateral tonsillar enlargement and cervical lymphadenopathy. NO glossal edema, NO megaloglossia, SEVERE glossal erythema with diffuse non-blanchable petechiae.

Dr Sams: "Well Dr Whiddon, what do you think?"

Richard: "Uhhhh.????????"

[The whole time I'm thinking, 'OMG he's gonna die!' Um, is it an acute reaction, should we admin Epi STAT, should we rush to ER, should we just cut his tongue out? WTF is going on? OMG!!!! So I do like any good young doctor would do in this situation....

I wing it]

Richard: "I would suggest.......he stay away from the cherry flavored suckers!?"

Dr Sams & said Patient: [Laughing] "Good Job"

The short of it, Dr Sams entered the room ahead of time before me so she could get the idea of his complaint; and knowing him for the past decade, she knew that he always carried Fireball candy on himself to eat which helped him quit dipping snuff. So just before I entered the room, Dr Sams told Mr. ***** to pop a quick Fireball and swish it around for a while making his tongue look like he had just finished a Sonic Route 44 Broken Glass special. I was freaking out! But oh you know, they got a nice little chuckle out of the whole ordeal. Not to worry though, I still have a little over a month to get even; and its coming.