A Physician Assistant’s Journey of sharing God’s love one patient at a time
I order and review a lot of labs. A lot. Every day. Basic labs include a blood count, kidney function, liver function, electrolytes (sodium, potassium, etc), cholesterol, and an A1C (if you're diabetic). These labs will typically help us monitor how meds may be affecting patients, how controlled or uncontrolled their medical conditions, and if …
Part of practicing family medicine is providing patient education. I have to be able to explain diagnoses and treatments and answer patient questions. A great example is when I diagnose overactive or under-active thyroid disorders (hyper or hypothyroidism). "Will I have to take this medication forever?" I'm often asked. "Yes." "Will the medication work?" Is …
I LOVE algorithms! When presented with a symptom from a patient, I will always use an algorithm to figure out what's going on in order to properly treat the symptom. For example, I get a lot of complaints from patients about chronic headaches. So, I use a series of questions in order to go down …
"I'm sorry." "For what?" I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. "I've gained so much weight and I haven't been taking my medicine these past three months." My patient said. "Ma'am. You NEVER have to apologize to me for your health." It was her turn to scrunch her eyebrows. "You just lost your daughter to cancer. …
If you ask medical providers their least favorite topic, I would hypothesize that it's probably pain. It's not because we don't want to take the time to do a thorough physical exam, order x-rays, order bloodwork, or prescribe medication. It's because we're a bit frustrated with the opioid pandemic. In actuality, we enjoy trying to …
I am a full-time Physician Assistant (PA). For patients who aren't familiar with me, they often ask, "Who are you?" I then go into my monotonous mini-speech on how PAs can diagnose, manage, and provide continuity of care for all medical conditions. I then continue on about how we can order labs, prescribe medication, interpret …
Finding Faith In Medicine 