Family practice.

I spent the morning shadowing a family physician in the clinic. I could have stayed the entire day, but I was fed up with the nonsense and decided I'd be better served working on my own than listening to inane patient complaints.

The day started with a 40-ish female complaining that last week, she experienced a sudden onset of hives and swelling in her hands and feet. The rash went away and the swelling went down, leading Dr. B and I to conclude that is was probably an allergic reaction.

The next patient was a woman who wanted to discuss weight loss surgery. She hadn't been able to lose weight with a reported good diet and exercise (which is a load of baloney), but wanted the consult anyway. Dr. B told her that in order to even be a candidate for the surgery, she needed to prove that she was losing some weight the old fashioned way. I did not get the impression that the patient was particularly compliant, but you never know.

The saddest patient was a woman who came in complaining of extreme nausea and stomach pain. When Dr. B asked what was wrong, the woman burst into tears and spilled a terrible story about her 22-year old stepson, who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and who was put on hospice care this week. Apparently the kid is not expected to live to see the end of the month. Clearly the woman's symptoms were related to her anxiety and stress, so Dr. B gave her some meds and told her to come back in a week.

The next patient was a middle-aged woman who had seen blood in her urine this morning. Dr. B asked for a urine sample but the patient couldn't give one, so Dr. B performed a pelvic exam. The woman had some blood around the outside of her vagina but not inside. Dr. B said it was probably a UTI and gave her a weeklong course of antibiotics to see if that would clear it up.

The next patient was a young lady who needed a physical and gynecological exam. Nothing particularly exciting there; I was pretty much yawning in the corner by that point.

Anyway, to make a long story short, it went on like that, most of the cases extremely boring and pointless, etc. I have no desire to be a primary care doctor, but I knew that already. Woo.