My first ID case
A bit of a warning as this post might contain the rantings of a person obsessed.
I solved my first infectious disease case! On an actual patient!
A couple weeks ago a patient came into the ER. He was covered with a macropapular rash, complained of sore joints and had a fever that Motrin did not effect. The only real case history was that he had recently been to India for a wedding.
The PA and doctor had no idea what he had. The internist thought it was chicken pox. It looked a bit like chicken pox, but not enough to convince me.
I hadn't had much time to look up potential causes until one really slow day at my research job. I was listening to the podcast of Science Friday when they interviewed someone from the International Society for Infectious Diseases. I'm pretty sure when he listed the website the light was shining directly on me.
I immediately signed up and looked for emerging diseases from India.
Mere seconds after I entered these terms I had found it. Chikungunya. An outbreak has been occurring in India and has been spreading wider since 2004. It uses a mosquito for it's vector, so it's like another malaria except this is viral.
The symptoms matched. Last night I showed my discovery to the nurses both in the ER and the medical floor and the house sup. It was unanimous that I had figured it out. I felt giddy. Like a school child being told he could stay up late or ride the roller coaster. Like there was an unofficial rite of passage.
I realized at the very moment I received conformation for my discovery that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Even if it is colds or flus or gastroenteritis, this is it!
I just wish I would have caught this the day of. My step-father had sent me an e-mail the week he came into the ER. It was a link to a poorly written article on chikungunya (though it was called chicken fever in the e-mail). It didn't stick with me sadly, though I did bookmark the article. Next time a case like this comes in I hope I can diagnose it faster. Though I might have to be secretive about it. I'm not a doc or a PA (yet) and I don't want to encroach on their territory.... unless they ask for my help.
I solved my first infectious disease case! On an actual patient!
A couple weeks ago a patient came into the ER. He was covered with a macropapular rash, complained of sore joints and had a fever that Motrin did not effect. The only real case history was that he had recently been to India for a wedding.
The PA and doctor had no idea what he had. The internist thought it was chicken pox. It looked a bit like chicken pox, but not enough to convince me.
I hadn't had much time to look up potential causes until one really slow day at my research job. I was listening to the podcast of Science Friday when they interviewed someone from the International Society for Infectious Diseases. I'm pretty sure when he listed the website the light was shining directly on me.
I immediately signed up and looked for emerging diseases from India.
Mere seconds after I entered these terms I had found it. Chikungunya. An outbreak has been occurring in India and has been spreading wider since 2004. It uses a mosquito for it's vector, so it's like another malaria except this is viral.
The symptoms matched. Last night I showed my discovery to the nurses both in the ER and the medical floor and the house sup. It was unanimous that I had figured it out. I felt giddy. Like a school child being told he could stay up late or ride the roller coaster. Like there was an unofficial rite of passage.
I realized at the very moment I received conformation for my discovery that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Even if it is colds or flus or gastroenteritis, this is it!
I just wish I would have caught this the day of. My step-father had sent me an e-mail the week he came into the ER. It was a link to a poorly written article on chikungunya (though it was called chicken fever in the e-mail). It didn't stick with me sadly, though I did bookmark the article. Next time a case like this comes in I hope I can diagnose it faster. Though I might have to be secretive about it. I'm not a doc or a PA (yet) and I don't want to encroach on their territory.... unless they ask for my help.