Monday, June 11, 2012

Success / Fail

Success:

When you correctly diagnose an appendicitis in a child who no one thought had appendicitis.

When you think you heard coarse lung sounds in the right middle lobe and (lo!) the x-ray shows a RML pneumonia.

When you finally get a kid who has clamped his teeth down on your tongue depressor to actually open his mouth wide enough to see tonsils. 

When part of your work day involves witnessing a 4 y.o perform a convincing and prolonged air-drum solo on his dinner tray with 2 brightly colored straws.

When you finally get a sample of liquid gold urine from a child with tummy pain and a fever.

Fail:

When you are taking a history and ask about immunization status and the parent states, "Immunizations are not based on science". 

When you ask a parent to keep their kid from eating any food until their nausea / vomiting / abdominal pain are sorted out and you go back in the room to find the child eating bright blue cotton candy (or is that a success because the child is clearly feeling better?)

4 comments:

OMDG said...

It's a success because the child is feeling better (unless they also diabetes in which case it is still a fail).

Elizabeth Shouldice said...

I think *asking* about immunizations is a success.

Justin said...

What did they think he had, if not appendicitis? I applaud your successes, regardless.

Just Me said...

cotton candy = success for child; fail for parent