The Daily Surprise

These patients are constantly keeping me on my toes. A few of the most recent things that made me go hmmmm:

A 73 year old woman presented for a same day appointment with palpitations. Thankfully, I dug through her chart and found out she is a frequent cardiology patient, has had multiple evaluations for this, and is on an antiarrhythmic medication. My nurse gets an EKG (which looks all funny but luckily looks the same as the one from the cardiologist's office last month) and I begin to explain that I suspect her symptoms are from her known chronic arrythmia. The patient (in Chinese) asks to see the EKG. She and her husband start to interpret it themselves, and I hear them throwing around the terms left bundle branch block and QRS interval (in English, mind you. I suppose cardiology is an international language?!). The woman then turns to me and tells me that the EKG tracing is wrong (not that my interpretation of it is wrong - which would be way more likely!). I attempt to reassure her that the tracing is similar to the many EKGs she has had in the past. She appears dubious, and declares that both she and her husband were doctors in China (aha!). So what do I do? Yep, I tinker with her antiarrhythmic medication (with sweaty palms) all the while strongly suggesting she follow up with her cardiologist asap.

You just never know when your secret physician patient is going to bust out her own EKG interpretation.

Then today, I got a telephone message from a certain very stubborn octogenarian who appeared in a past blog entry after firmly refusing all my well-intentioned suggestions. The phone message stated that she considered our discussion carefully and has decided to go along with my recommendations for changing her medications. Victory!

You just never know when your geriatric patient is going to start being compliant.

Keeps it interesting.