Genetics Clinic

Today I was assigned to the pediatrics genetic clinic. The physician I was with has seen it all. She has been in practice since the early days of medical genetics. Although I will probably not see very much of the stuff that she sees on a daily basis ever in my career, I am thankful that I have had this chance and that they are so willing to take students in their office. I wish I could have rounded in the newborn nursery with her because I have heard that she can recognize most syndromes just by looking at an infant. She was very kind and interested in students learning. She discussed at length and printed an article on a rare osteogenesis imperfecta type V case. We saw a lot of Down's syndrome patients. It was interesting to learn about the required yearly screenings and to hear a couple of heart murmurs. They have a textbook filled with pictures of syndromes and genetic conditions and short blurbs about them. I spent a lot of our downtime flipping through it. The picture is of all of her medical instruments (which the students are responsible for the day that they are there). It is really like a big box of toys to make examining the kids easier. Believe it or not she is the first pediatrician that I've worked with who has employed assistive devices like this.

I also had the opportunity to "read" a friend's lumbar spine x-rays today. I know he has been dealing with a lot of problems for awhile now, but they seem to have gotten worse recently. I hope everything works out.