A Day In My Mothers Shoes

It's Tuesday morning, a typical day for my mom at work, she's a unit clerk. But not for me, today I am spending the whole day with her at her workplace, hospital, to do my paperwork for Medical Terminology class. She started by going through the charts one by one and I did the same thing. Due to hospital policy, patient's names are not to be revealed on this report.

5U-Room 1:

Patient was admitted with constant pain on the right side of the abdomen under the rib cage, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fatigue and jaundice. A prognosis of Hepatitis was made. Liver test was ordered: Bilirubin, Albumin, Prothrombin time, cholesterol, Alanine aminotransferase(ALT), Aspartate aminotransferase(AST), Alkalline prosperities and Lactic dehydrogenase(LDH). After the tests were completed, patient was diagnosed of Hepatitis for having abnormal liver test. Now its up to the doctors to see if the patient has acute or chronic Hepatitis. Unfortunately, the patient has the chronic infection. With this disease, complications will lead to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver failure over time. Patient is given interferon alfa-2b, it slows the virus's ability to reproduce and boosts the body's immune system.

5U-Room 2:

Patient in this room has asthma. The patient experience coughing, especially at night, wheezing, shortness of breath (SOB), dyspnea, hyperpnoea, paroxysms, presence of thick, tenacious mucus, thoracalgia and chest pressure. Several tests were done on this patient to see how severe is the asthma and if there are any complications: blood gas (to check for hypoxemia), spirometry (done before and after the bronchodilator), methacholine challenge test, pulse oximetry, chest x-ray, pulmonary function tests (for pneumonia), evaluation of the sinuses, evaluation for Heartburn and GERD (gastro esophageal reflux disease) and evaluation for allergies. Patient is treated with a nebulizer delivered by a device called a metered dose inhaler or MDI.

5U-Room 3:

Patient has Type II Diabetes. It's a chronic disease that develops when the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin or when the body's tissues become resistant to insulin. Test that measure blood sugar level are ordered: blood glucose test and glucose-tolerance test, urine test, Hemoglobin A1c and cholesterol screening. Complications of having this disease are the main concern here with this patient: dental problems (gingivitis, bleeding, halitosis), eye problems (cataracts, glaucoma, retinopathy), foot problems (athlete's foot, fungal infection