04 August 2007

Preceptorship Week 5 of 8

Less than 1 month left . . . and past the half-way mark of preceptorship! This past week, I did exams on an out-of-town teenage scoliosis patient and her mom. Both improved considerably with 5 days of treatment, and both felt tremendously better after only 5 days of treatment. Focusing on cervical curve restoration and addressing the upper cervical subluxations helped them to feel "lighter and clear-minded" and it reduced a lot of headache pain and nausea related to the strain they were both feeling on their spinal cords.

Additionally, I did an exam on a non-scoliosis patient who complained of a foot drop and low back pain due to nerves severed from an injury in the military. The orthopedic tests and motor and sensory tests we learn in school definitely come into play for a case like that!

On another interesting note, I learned more about the genetic disease, Turner's syndrome. In Turner's syndrome, females have only 1 X chromosome (X,O) instead of X,X. Some Turner's syndrome females manifest with X,Y.

In school and for national boards, we learn about the common characteristics which manifest itself in an adult, but we never learn about what that presentation looks like in a child. There is a young patient who is undergoing genetic testing for this disease. Although the results haven't yet been provided, some research provided more insight into the presentation . . . and this patient presents with very classic findings:
  • short stature for her age
  • congenital heart defect
  • scoliosis
  • drooping eyes, down-slanted eyes
Other related affects with Turner's are kidney defects and premature ovarian eggs which typically means that someone with this disease cannot get pregnant nor have children. Although a young girl who isn't yet interested in boys may not think this is a big deal, one day it may be a hard concept for her to embrace. I would think it would be even more difficult for her parents to endure. You can read more about Turner's syndrome here.

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home