Week 2 ~ Books and Crazy Minds

This week at my internship I learned a lot about different parts of the body. A patient came in with diverticulitis which is when the pouches/holes sometimes found on a persons colon become infected or inflamed due to food particles getting stuck. Crystal informed the patient that it would be best to go get a colonoscopy due to the fact cancer could possibly be formed from the diverticulitis. When we left the patient, Crystal explained to me in detail and with pictures what diverticulitis is and what it looks like. 

She then explained to me, with a book, a variety of different body parts and their functions. The book was very detailed and extremely interesting to me. For an example, this book showed every little part of the ear. Before I looked in this book, I had no idea there were so may little parts involved with something as tiny as the ear.

This week a lot of people were coming in with symptoms of the flu. The nurses that Crystal work with have been doing flu tests; then Crystal goes in, checks them out, and prescribes medication. On the last day of my internship for week two, another patient came in with knee problems. Crystal talked to the patient about a medication that would help with pain.

I learned that when you are in the medical field there will be patients willing to do anything to receive a medication they are addicted to. A fax came in to Crystal and she saw that one of her regular patients had went to the E.R. for medication. The patient went to the E.R. and told the doctors that they had terminal cancer but didn't want treatment, just medication for the pain. This was a huge red flag to Crystal so she talked with the rest of her staff and they decided they needed to call the E.R. and the pharmacy. Crystal told me that things like this will occur at times; I just find it crazy that a person can live with themselves faking something that extreme.