Don't Mess Up On a Woman's Age

So, we have these program for M2 year called APD. Stands for Applied physical diagnosis. it's cool, we go to a hospital 4 times throughout the year, 2x in fall, 2x in spring semester and interview and do a physical exam on a real live patient in the ER of either rush or cook county hosptial.

 Anyway, I got assigned to Cook County, the busy County hospital. So last week I had one of these sessions. It's in a small group, 4 of us and an attending ER physician, they mimic 3rd year stuff, so it feels like real rounds. After we interview the patients, we have to present the pt just like a real round during 3rd year.

Well, I muffed up 2x in my presentation. After I had a 5 minute conversation with my pt about how I need to ask her her age and not just date of birth because my mental math skills aren't great, we laughed about her still being young and under 30. Well, as I presented to the doctor during our rounds, which i forgot to mention are at the bedside of the patient, and yes mine was aware that we were there, some aren't, but mine was. I said "miss blah, blah is a 30 year old female who presents with kidney stones. Well I messed up, the pt cut me off mid sentence and yelled "Hey, I'm NOT 30!!" ahh, hell naw, I rounded, I'm an idiot I immediately thought to myself.

Then later I said aloud that she smoked 2 packs every day, when it was 1 pack every two days. I felt real bad. It was real embarrassing messing up the age of a WOMAN right in front of her! I laughed real hard after, and so did the doc and my classmates. Anyways, the practice history and physicals in the ER are great. We have all the tools, a stethoscope, the blood pressure cuff, ear and eye instruments, the hammer, all the stuff we need for a complete physical exam. its crazy. we get to be doctor, its definetly my favorite part of this year. Also, I'm going to try and shadow my ER doctor within the next week or two! PEACE

 -MD in 14