Patient log

As part of our program, we are asked to keep a blog of our experiences in the hospital, including the types of patients that we see. Since I already, have a blog, I am just going to add it to my personal one. I have spent 4 days in the hospital so far. I spent it in the division of infectious diseases. I am hoping i will see some cases that I wont really see in the US. I have seen and heard of patients in the hospital that I hadnt seen in medical school. For the most part, the hospital is fairly similar to US hospitals. I have been going to the main referral hospital for children in Bolivia. At this time of the year, they are beginning to enter winter, and have a lot of bronchiolotis-RSV patients, a viral infection of your smaller airways. There are also patients with meningeal tuberculosis, adenitis, pneumonia, and some other infections. We had a grand rounds (basically a presenation in the auditorium for all pediatricians) where they discussed a case of rheumatic fever. When you get strep throat and it isnt treated, it can turn into rheumatic fever, which is a serious infectious that can effect the heart, joints, skin, and other parts of the body. That is the main reason to treat strep throat. It is very rare in the US. We also had a referral for a little girl who has bruising all across her legs for no reason (there is no suspect of abuse), called purpura. We just found out her platelet count (the part of the blood that keeps us from bleeding) is normal. I gave a little presentation in Spanish on what can causes this and on a benign tumor we saw called a nevus sebaceous. There are times that I understand most of what is being said and there are times that I understand nothing. The times that I understand most is when they are discussing a topic that I already know about. I have the most medical experience out of all the students here so they often discuss topics that I already know. Overall, my Spanish is slowly coming along. I can often carry 1 on 1 conversations about simple topics or medical topics, but that is about it. My grammar is decent, but my vocabulary is not too good since I havent really been studying for too long and havent taken formal classes where they pound new vocabulary. I have noticed enough progress to not get discouraged at least.