Ear, Nose Throat

This afternoon we had our ENT rotation. I have been looking forward to this one for some time, and I was not disappointed. The rotation took place in the doctor's office. I really like doing the office stuff. It's fun. When we got there the patients were lined up outside the clinic. This turned out to be a good thing because we got to see a lot of patients in the time we were there. Each of us got to take a turn interviewing a patient since we saw 5 patients in the 2 hours that we were there. Oddly enough all of our patients had ear problems. The doctor allowed us to look in the ears of the patient we interviewed and then report what we saw. I got nervous that I wasn't going to be able to see anything and then what do I report to the doctor?? My patient had fungus in her ear. Yes, you read correctly, fungus. She couldn't hear anything out of that side because of it. I actually was able to see it in the otoscope which was a good thing!! The doctor cleaned it out and showed it to her. Her face was classic!! We had another patient with a bacterial infection of the ear. When he cleaned out her ears he made us all smell the wax. YUM! Apparently by smelling the wax you know what type of bacteria is present. All in all the experience was great. I really think I could do ENT for a living. You have the best of both worlds because he also does surgery. I'm not making any decisions on one visit to an office, but I did enjoy it. Well, I need to run. Until next time!!
~M