I was with Dr. Zimmerman for two appointments in the morning before I had to switch for two appointments with Dr. Villareal because of age restrictions on who I could see in the office. Therefore, I worked with Dr. Villareal for a case that shared the same patient that I saw with Dr. Seidel. Their symptoms had progressively gotten worse in the follow days of the appointment. It turned out to be a viral infection and rash that had really run its course and the child just needed a few more days of rest before they were truly ready to get back to normal within their routine. Today showed me that more often than not, patients will come in with lots of symptoms. Many are viruses and infections that just have to run their course. The doctor can test for all kinds of things but for certain cases, there is just nothing that the doctor can do to help. There were a few patients today that had this diagnosis for their sick appointment. The doctors told them to come back if it got worse but it was still very eye opening to hear that there are times that the doctors can’t always fix everything that is going wrong with people. The afternoon was also very interesting. Our first appointment back from lunch involved a girl getting her ears pierced. She was very nervous, but the smile on her face after the appointment was well worth the pain! The next appointment involved a baby with jaundice. This is a yellowing of the skins and eyes due to chemicals in the body. Dr. Zimmerman showed me a graph (pictured above) to show the risk of jaundice based on a chemical and the baby’s age. Our last appointments of the day involved several check up’s for several different age groups. I learnt a lot about certain diseases that patients can present with at their exams. This varied from eye abnormalities to gene abnormalities that changed a child’s ability to store iron in their body. I learnt about the symptoms of the disease, and the tests involved with each one. Another major thing that popped up during the afternoon was a neurology report that came in for Dr. Zimmerman. It involved a child with bad migraines and vertigo. Their neurologist had them go through an MRI test on the child’s brain. The results came back positive for a brain tumor. It was smaller, but it will be difficult to remove. This showed me that even though the practice may have a lot of runny noses and sore throats, there is still large surprises. It shows how important the doctor’s opinions are in the practice. I have loved working with Dr. Zimmerman today, and cannot wait to work with Dr. Villareal tomorrow!
