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DH was using me as a practice dummy last night to practice for his clinical skills exam he has today. He performed an entire 1.5 hour set of comprehensive skills from the multi-page list of skills he may be tested on.
As I was being mercilessly poked and prodded, my knees being manipulated in such a way that they produced the "pop" he was looking for ("did you feel that pop?" "yes, it doesn't feel great. please stop" "oh, yeah, it's not supposed to feel good"), I reflected on how, in our short time in medical school, I have already been reduced to tears on multiple occasions while he tests things out on me.
My favorite: as he used my bare chest and abdomen to practice percussion sounds, he also looked for my liver. Since he had just learned this the same day, he started pressing down just a little too far north of where he was supposed to, jabbing me in a tender part of my ribs. When I yelped in pain and exclaimed that: "you're poking my rib, stop! It hurts!!", he scoffed and said "I'm not on your ribs". I continued to squirm in pain and he looks at me with both concern and an air of knowing and said "your liver is both enlarged and painful. Get dressed, we probably need to take you to the ED. This is not good". I told him "no, seriously, those are my ribs. You're poking my ribs." He had me lay back down and tried again. Miraculously, he then poked around in the correct area, found my actual liver and didn't poke my ribs. He left me with a tender spot on my ribs for the next couple days, but to this day maintains he "knew it was my ribs" the whole time. Right...that's why I was almost rushed to the hospital.
And second, he recently listened to my heart sounds and gleefully exclaimed I have a "benign systolic hear murmur". I burst into tears. I mean literally...burst into tears, crying "I don't want to have a heart murmur! How could no one have told me this before?" It was a good lesson for him in that: a) you can't look excited to hear something in an actual human that you've only heard in a recording when it's clearly something that might concern the patient and b) not everyone knows that "benign systolic heart murmur" means both "pretty common" and "not a big deal". The best part? A couple hours later he listened again and said..."wait, I actually don't think you have a heart murmur".
What have you been subjected to?
As I was being mercilessly poked and prodded, my knees being manipulated in such a way that they produced the "pop" he was looking for ("did you feel that pop?" "yes, it doesn't feel great. please stop" "oh, yeah, it's not supposed to feel good"), I reflected on how, in our short time in medical school, I have already been reduced to tears on multiple occasions while he tests things out on me.
My favorite: as he used my bare chest and abdomen to practice percussion sounds, he also looked for my liver. Since he had just learned this the same day, he started pressing down just a little too far north of where he was supposed to, jabbing me in a tender part of my ribs. When I yelped in pain and exclaimed that: "you're poking my rib, stop! It hurts!!", he scoffed and said "I'm not on your ribs". I continued to squirm in pain and he looks at me with both concern and an air of knowing and said "your liver is both enlarged and painful. Get dressed, we probably need to take you to the ED. This is not good". I told him "no, seriously, those are my ribs. You're poking my ribs." He had me lay back down and tried again. Miraculously, he then poked around in the correct area, found my actual liver and didn't poke my ribs. He left me with a tender spot on my ribs for the next couple days, but to this day maintains he "knew it was my ribs" the whole time. Right...that's why I was almost rushed to the hospital.
And second, he recently listened to my heart sounds and gleefully exclaimed I have a "benign systolic hear murmur". I burst into tears. I mean literally...burst into tears, crying "I don't want to have a heart murmur! How could no one have told me this before?" It was a good lesson for him in that: a) you can't look excited to hear something in an actual human that you've only heard in a recording when it's clearly something that might concern the patient and b) not everyone knows that "benign systolic heart murmur" means both "pretty common" and "not a big deal". The best part? A couple hours later he listened again and said..."wait, I actually don't think you have a heart murmur".
What have you been subjected to?
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