First Day at ENT

Gosh first day at ENT.... what can I say?

Hmm, pretty interesting. But still I think Critical Care has been more exciting for me. I've thought to myself, if ever I wanna do something for life as a career, I think i prefer doing something with variety, some procedure involved. But yet, I can't seem to think of any other areas of specialty in medicine besides ED or ICU...CRAP! Ok, I might not be thinking the same way, a few months from now? or till my intern days are over?

Alright, of all the ENT stuff I did today, there's just a whole bunch of Ear stuff! Heaps of otitis externa, couple of biopsies, one involving the tongue and the other involving the hard palate. Neither actually was particularly striking to me. And also, a discussion on aural toilet, putting a wick and a grommet, which was ok, slightly higher on the interesting level.....hmm. 

What was really interesting besides the canalplasty, the operation I saw today was a friendly discussion with this patient who wrote a book Meniere's Disease! How cool is that??? Wow, according to her, she's been putting in a lot of effort into writing this book with the helps of about 300 people in the project. The book was published about 20 yrs ago according to her. And it was titled Meniere's Disease....oh man I can't remember the title. She started firing away the symptoms of Meniere's, treatment options which can include conventional medical treatment, alternative medicine and this is where it gets interesting, acupuncture, spiritual healing and also reflexology. She said the meridien points for the kidney lies on the same sort of longitudinal axis as the ears, so if you put some needles at the kidney area, you ear will get better. Hmm, did I get this part right? Ok, and then there was this part about vibration? She said she's completely deaf! And she picks out auditory stimuli through vibrations? Hmm, how bizarre to say the least. Not sure how that works. But anyway, it was pretty interesting that a patient wrote a book that even ENT specialists from around the country bought from. And its quite unfortunate that she doesn't make much from it. She was saying, the first edition sold for 20 dollars and its a rarity now, mentioning that it fetches a price of up to 60 dollars in Hobart! But still doesn't make a dime out of it. But good news is there are reprints since the first edition. Hmm, got to hunt this book down. Her descripton of the book is a blue book, sort of novel size but kind of like a 1 inch sort of thick book which we can find in the library. 

Ohhh, and the other interesting bit for the day, HHT. Gosh, heard about this when I was in surgery. Overheard the ENT consultant talking about HHT, giving case scenarios to the surgeon to answer. So after much sort of guess work on the meaning of that acronym, we finally thought that it could be Hereditary Haemorrhagic Talengiectasia, and gosh I'm right about it! Sounds like a mouthful too :S WOW and he also mentioned a great site to look out for this condition. How rare is it? Don't know but I guess, pretty common in the world of inherited conditions....hmmm

Check this out: Hereditary Haemorrhagic Talengiectasia (HHT)