Travel clinic

After an uneventful weekend of shopping and hanging out in Camas, I was back up to Madigan this morning to do more prevention of diseases. The original plan was for me to be in STD clinic this morning, but that didn't happen--they were already lined up out the clinic door when I arrived at 7:20 (clinic starts at 7:30 and it's all walk-ins), plus there was a new resident running clinic (they switch every month, so this is the August resident), and it was just too hectic to try to see patients and train a med student at the same time. By the time the morning was over, they had seen 18 patients. The record for that clinic is 22. I did hear some stories though, which left me and Captain Wilson (the intern who wasn't in clinic this morning) shaking our heads in wonder.

So instead of working STD clinic, I spent the morning doing more of my research for the scoliosis project. I found a timeline of scoliosis screening in Washington, which I thought was interesting. It didn't take them much to make school screening a requirement after the first recommendations from the Scoliosis Research Society and the American College of Orthopedic Surgeons in the 70's, but then after the US Preventive Services Task Force made the recommendations against in 2004, they've been trying to repeal the law requiring it, which has taken quite some time. Apparently it's much easier to make a law than get rid of it.

There were three patients in the afternoon for travel clinic, all three of which are what are referred to in the travel medicine world as "VFRs"--Visiting Friends and Relatives. In other words, they were born in foreign countries (in this case, Asian countries), became Americans (one couple immigrated, the other woman married as serviceman), and are now traveling back to their home countries to visit. In other words, they are experienced travelers who know more about what is needed than I do. They were good patients to start with, though, because they were fairly straightforward. It just took me awhile to figure out how to document everything in AHLTA.

After work, I swung by Rachel and Jason's for some free food (thanks, Rachel :)) and just to hang out. Kit was there, too, so the four of us talked about all sorts of random things from gossip about who is dating whom and applying for police jobs and nuances of the Army and things to do in Hawaii. We did have a quote of the night (which is probably on Rachel's blog, too): someone knocked on the door, and Jason got up to see who it was. After looking in the peep hole, he said, "Oh, it's Mormons," and then opened the door, at which point, one of the missionaries said, "Yep, it's the Mormons, just like you announced. Would you like to hear about Jesus Christ?" We got a good laugh at that one (of course, after we politely told them we were in the middle of dinner and closed the door). Good times, good times.