Journal Entry 11-3-15

Last Tuesday, I went to my mentors office. When I arrived, Dr. Santos

secretary and I exchanged contact information, so she will be able to get in
touch with me when Dr. Santos has emergency surgeries. When Dr. Santos
arrived from his lunch break, he and I had some time to talk before his first
patient arrived. We discussed what my survey questions should be and how
the survey should be formatted. Dr. Santos was very engaged with me, and
seemed very happy to see my improvement and gain in knowledge. We then
began talking to his assistant, Jennifer, about scheduling a date for me to
watch a surgery. Dr. Santos was not clear on the rules for students scrubbing
in, being part of the surgery, and possibly holding tools etc., so he asked
Jennifer to look into it. Some hospitals have different rules for students
interacting in surgeries, so Jennifer was going to talk to the Director of
Surgery for more information. Soon after our conversation ended, the first
patient arrived. This was patient A. Patient A came into the office for the first
time complaining of neck pain, but not in a specific place, just everywhere,
she said. She was very emotional. Dr. Santos concluded that there was more
going on than just neck pain. When Dr. Santos asked when the pain began,
she replayed with abuse, and started crying. When she began to calm
down, she told us a story about her past abusive relationship which caused
the neck pain five years ago. Dr. Santos and I looked at her MRI. She had a
perfectly healthy neck for her age. She had some signs of arthritis, but this
was very common for her age. When Dr. Santos gave her the news, she

seemed upset. She continued to ask for pain medication, but if there is no
diagnosis, Dr. Santos cannot prescribe medication. After Dr. Santos was
unable to diagnose her issue, she became very nervous asking well what is
it then? There are a couple different conditions and diseases that can cause
pain without visible symptoms, such as non-degenerative arthritis, Lupus,
and viral meningitis. Dr. Santos referred her to a hematologist for blood work,
and he made her an appointment at the pain management facility. After the
patient left, Dr. Santos told me that he sees cases like this every now and
then, and that her issue was most likely psychological. This experience
exposed me to a wider range of medical conditions than just diagnosing
degenerative disc disease. It was exciting. After the day was over, I told Dr.
Santos how great it was to see something different. He told me I should visit
the ER and experience a day there. He offered to get me in touch with one of
his personal friends who is an ER surgeon. I was at Dr. Santos office for 2:30
hours on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I went to the library and completed my
case study. This took a total of 50 minutes. On Thursday, I went to the library
again to begin working on my journal entry. The journal entry was easy for
me this week because my day in the office was very exciting. This took me a
total of 50 minutes. After I left school on Friday, I went to Dr. Santos office to
talk to him, Dr. ONeill and Jennifer about my interview. They were all happy
and willing to help. On Friday, I went to the library again, for 50 minutes, to
put some finishing touches on my case study and journal entry.