Is this chicken pox or not?

OK, Doctors, Nurses, PA's, NP's, other allied Health Personal and any other interested voices...

Is this Chicken Pox or is it not?

A thirty year old male, born and raised in India, presents with a rash. The rash has a characteristic "dewdrop on a rose petal" appearence. So one would think chickenpox.

However, he denied any respiratory symptoms in recent weeks. No cough, no runny nose at all. Doesn't all chicken pox have a prodrome?

Also, the statistical odds of an Indian adult getting through childhood without chicken pox are very, very, very small. And you can never get chickenpox again (though you can get other viris' with a rash similar to chickenpox).

And he feels fine. No itchiness, feels just fine. Doesn't chicken pox give you other symptoms?

So anyways, the patient saw myself, and he saw an interist, and both of us told him it was not chicken pox. So then he went to a Paediatrician who told him it was.

Well, is it or isn't it?

And the patient was tickled pink to have his rash posted on my blog.

24

"24" is the number of glasses of fluid I consumed yesterday.

It includes water, lemon water, ginger water, electrolyte solution, kool-aid, tang and one cup of tea. Mostly it was water.

And I still feel dehydrated.

Amy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Last Wednesday, Amy had a bad day.

I was in Delhi fetching, which makes dealing with four young children more difficult. Then the AC broke.

Awhile after that, Sam got into the laundry room, grabbed the spray bottle of stain remover, pointed it straight at his face, and squeezed. His eyes were full of Stain Remover. She called me, and then immediately hung up to take Sam to the shower to wash out his eyes.

After washing out Sam's eyes, she was comforting him in a chair, when she noticed that the diamond in her wedding ring had fallen out. She searched for a couple of hours, and did not find it.

I got a few more phone calls, and did my best to comfort at 500 miles away.

The good news? Sam does not appear to have any lasting damage, and the diamond was found two days later, but the AC is still at the shop.

Such is life, or such we have made it.

Brief Update...

Staying busy.

I was in Delhi to pick up a Medical Student, and met with a couple friends for lunch while there. Had a good time. The train rides there and back were reasonable... no one smoking or staying up all night talking, the AC was working, only an hour or two late.

I actually got a free upgrade... got onto my regular third class seat, and here was a patient of mine who wanted to sit with her friends, and offered me her seat in second class... nice.

Elections went off well here. THis is only the first phase of five, so there is more to come, but this was the biggest day for our fair city. A complete closure of all wheeled vehicles meant we had to walk from the train station home, but that was just fine.

Off to clinic today again, staying busy.

It is hot.

The Most Important Prayer Request in the World

A Good Word from JP:

The most important prayer is that the most important person in the universe do the most important act in the universe.That's why Jesus put this request at the beginning of the Lord's prayer: "Hallowed be your name." God is the most important person in the universe. More important than all others put together.

"All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness" (Isaiah 40:17).

The whole-souled act of hallowing God's name is the most important act in the universe. To "hallow" means to "sanctify" which in God's case means to set apart inyour mind and heart as supremely great and beautiful and valuable. "Hallowed be your name" means, "See to it that your name is hallowed. Use your infinite power and wisdom and love to stir up billions of hearts and minds to admire you and prize you above all things." We ask him to fulfill this promise:

"I will sanctify [hallow] my great name, which was profaned among the nations.... And the nations shall know that I am the Lord...when I shall besanctified [hallowed] in you before their eyes." (Ezekiel 36:23)

"For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another." (Isaiah 48:11)

Ask the Lord to help you make the most important prayer your most commonprayer. And the one you desire most to see answered.

Some Days I Feel Like Crawling into a Corner and Reading

Again, LM took this photo...
I just like it...
In a place with so many people and so much noise, how is a gentleman supposed to get a few quiet moments of study?
As so...

The Long Sought After Ladder Photo

Ladders are in short supply in Our Fair City, so they often get transported around for various uses. The most common way to transport a ladder -- as pictured -- is to balence it on the shoulders of two men who ride their bikes through mad traffic.
This strikes me as verging on the miraculous.

When a good reputation makes for a lot more work...

I see lots of patients in the Muslim Charity Hospital, for many different reasons.

Some months ago, I saw a patient who had been diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB) by an outside doctor, and the patient was seeing me for a second opinion. I did a bit more of a work up and concluded that the patient did not have TB. (I don't fault the original doctor, TB can be a very tricky thing to diagnose sometimes.)

The patient was very happy, and has been symptom free since seeing me.

But now some people are thinking that I am the doctor who can tell them they don't have to take their TB meds. (TB medications are fameous for their side effects.)

So each week I am seeing another patient or two who comes in and asks if they have have to take their TB meds. But it seems clear to me that they DO have TB and desparately need to finish their six month course of medications.

Takes a lot of work to convince them to keep taking their meds.

"Natural Herbal"

"Natural Herbal" clearly has different meanings to different people.

"Malathion," which is listed in the ingredient list, is a pesticide.

What to do when it is hot outside...