I had a great first day shadowing Dr. Mike Villareal at Cary Pediatrics. I was able to see a plethora of patients, ranging in age from a few months old to a couple years older than me, and both sick and well checks provided a wide variety of cases. Something that surprised me was the number of ADHD checkups. Kids coming in to change or replace medication was almost just as common as an annual checkup or a minor sickness. It wasn’t anything complicated, either: Dr. Villareal would ask about recent symptoms and suggest medication in chewable or liquid form, the patient and their family would make a decision, and the prescription was sent to the pharmacy. Aside from these cases, we also saw a wide range of minor sick visits, spanning rashes to breathing problems to ear infections to sleep training. It was difficult for the smaller children to sit still and remain calm through all the probing required of the checkup, but Dr. Villareal did a fantastic job both placating and efficiently evaluating them. Being a Spanish-speaking doctor, he also treated several patients in Spanish only (I picked up bits and pieces of the conversation and he explained the main points afterward). Overall, I loved seeing so many different children who were either healthy and strong or on their way to being healthy and strong.
I also had the opportunity to briefly shadow the other staff at the office. One of the highlights of the day was being able to watch Dr. Hope Seidel perform a Nexplanon (a contraceptive implant) operation, where a small tube was cut and removed from a patient’s arm and replaced with a new one. I had never seen an operation up close before, and it was incredibly kind of the patient to allow us to watch. What surprised me the most was when Dr. Seidel pulled out what looked like an exacto knife and inserted the blade straight into the patient’s arm to start cutting out the tube. We weren’t allowed to have phones in patient areas so unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures, but it was truly a unique experience I won’t forget. I’m looking forward to the rest of my time here!
