A happy sad person?

Today I learnt the most important lesson in my life...patient history. A patient's history can tell alot...if you ask the right questions that is. The funny thing is that when you ask a patient to tell it all, you're actually invading his/ her private space. So you've got to tread carefully. Ask politely, listen intently coz' it will give us vital clues as to what symptoms are present and would lead to a very good prognosis.

The funny thing is the patient my group so today was a terminally ill patient..who looked nothing like what a terminally ill patient should look like. So perceptions change. She was a 55 year old lady who came in with a fractured femur, ie the long bon in the thigh, after a dizzy spell, slip and fall (or before the slip and fall). She also fractured here wrist as well. So after one of my groupmates wrote down the history, our group had a discussion with our tutor. And what we realised was that she developed a tumor in her right lung that metastasized to her brain and hip. The tumor caused hairline cracks in her femur and it broke up. So though her life could be prolonged by chemo and radio theraphy, there is only so much that medicine can do.. The sad thing is that she has a sec2 and a sec 3 kid. Imagine what they will have to go through...... I really feel for them.....

Without Wax
Maverick