ECG's and patients who bring their laundry list..

I really should not be blogging today because I have a bunch of ECG's to look at before class tomorrow at noon. I was planning on running today but it is crazy windy today and my allergies are driving me nuts. Deep in my head I'm thinking, "goody, I don't have to run today!". Seeing that I ate 2 lunches today, I should probably run anyway.

What I did today: had clinic all day.
Who I saw: One guy with a rash and a lady who brought her "laundry list".
What is a laundry list, you ask? Well, a laundry list is a medical professional's nightmare. It's a list of at least 10 vague symptoms the patient is having that you have to deal with. For one, it is extremely time consuming and when you have an office full of patients to see, you can't spend the needed 3 hours working up headache, dizziness, fatigue, nausea while watching movies, occassional heart palpitations, 5 lb weight gain, corns on feet...and oh yeah...the main reason you came in...coughing. This lady came in to see me this morning complaining of coughing but while I'm trying to ask her about associated symptoms like fever, congestion, etc, she goes off on some other direction telling me she thinks she has fibromyaligia, plantar fasciitis, and hip pain ( to name just a few!). I finally had to interrupt her and redirect her to "just answer the questions". I don't want to hear about your friend's spinal fusion surgery, your dog's hemorrhoids, or what your poo looked like after you ate some of your Aunt Gerty's cherry pie. It was way overwhelming and it made me so glad I decided not to go into primary care.

It's probably not fair to blame the patient. They don't know any better. They think their doctor wants to hear all that stuff. Well, they don't. Just answer the question and don't give extraneous information unless it has something to do with the question. If you do have a big list of things wrong, expect to pick a few of the most distressing symptoms and then come back at a later date to address some more of them. Your doc ain't superman and can't deal with them all at once unless they are all related to the same thing OR you are his only patient he is going to see the whole day (which you aren't).

Oh yeah, and don't wait until our visit is over and I have my hand on the doorknob before you say, "oh by the way, I need some medicine for my genital herpes....."

OK I feel better now....now I'm going to tackle the ECG's so I can be finished in time for SouthPark.