Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Wet armpits

WE'VE DISCHARGED most of our patients, and for the first time in two weeks I felt as if a backbreaking load was taken off my shoulders.

photo

photo

photo

Today we had a sit-down teaching rounds with Sir Joey Duya, our service senior. I will remember him as the person who cites random passages from Harrison's out of thin air, engaging himself with enumerating details written in obscure tables and tiresome clinical practice guidelines. Our topic this afternoon was on hypertensive emergency. He treated us to snacks and a cold bottle of Coke.

During our bedside rounds yesterday afternoon, around the time when the ward felt like a humid oven, he taught us the importance of monitoring a patient's urine output, particularly in someone with sepsis. We had our new clerks (Berbi, Jimpo, and Mark) with us. Sir wanted to bring home the point that our patient needed more aggressive hydration.

Sir Joey: [Name of clerk], basa ba ang kili-kili mo ngayon?

Clerk did not respond.

Sir Joey: Taas kamay kung sinuman and hindi basa ang kili-kili ngayon.

Everyone laughed. Nobody raised his hand.

Sir Joey: Pansinin niyo ang kili-kili ng pasyente. Basa ba? It looks dry. He looks very dry. We have to adjust his fluids.

At that point I remembered my MBB classmate Boom who told me that the phenomenon of wet armpits making their mark on clothing was called jabar. She passed away when on my fifth year in MBB. She would've made a brilliant physician.

Next time, when I see a wet underarm, I will commend the person for having a good hydration status.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home