Interpreting patient stories.
Everything in life is a narrative, and interpreting the clinical narrative improves your clinical skill. It is an important part of being a clinician, and places increasing reliance on yourself, rather than “tests”. That makes our work meaningful.
This is the story of a man who popped in to see me, complaining of a constant sensation in the right eye. He says it has been present for a few months, came on suddenly, and nothing helped.
He claims the eye has been given the all clear by an optometrist.
He then stated that to get relief, he pulled the eyelid away.
During the consult, I noted something visible on the right eye, glanced at it with the slit lamp, then I asked.….” how many birds do you have”, to which he replied “7”.
This is a bird seed granuloma, but it isn’t a granuloma…just organic husk of a bird seed inciting local inflammation. One can pick it off with a fine 30G needle, give a short dose of topical steroids for a week and everything goes back to normal.
We are all under time pressure, but when you learn how to chat to your patients, eventually you can work out most things.
They never teach us how to talk to patients at University.
Learn more by visiting www.dranthonymaloof.com.au