September 13, 2014 Saturday "prickly heat"

First Words

      …thoughts of an anachronistic, solo pediatrician

                    by Glenn Feole, M.D.

        "Be careful too that the reading of your story makes the melancholy 

        laugh and the merry laugh louder," Cervantes, Prologue to Don Quixote

Contact: ishmaelish36@gmail.com

Blog site: ishmaelish36.blogspot.com

September 13, 2014 Saturday

At my favorite store in Boston, called Ink, they have post cards.  This is one of my favorite artists:
Michael Sowa from Berlin, Germany.  Web site: www.inkognito.de
This picture is called "Bayerische Sternsinger"

Chief Complaint: (written on the chart before I go in the room)

   "prickly heat"

Interesting Name:

     Layza

Anecdote:

     Shanice was a three year old sweet, very thin African American girl.  She was here for the first time with her new Foster Mother.  The Foster Mother looked like she was in her sixties.  She was immaculately dressed in a pharmacy technician jacket from Bi-Lo food store…she was very warm and compassionate.
     Shanice didn’t say a word during the exam and pretended to be asleep at first.  She had severe allergies, had a horrible sinus infection, and was wheezing badly.  She needed asthma treatments three times a day the Mother said.  
     She was extremely thin but the Mother said that she had actually put on a lot of weight since she got her a month ago.  She asked me with much concern if her stomach was alright.  
     “I know her stomach can’t be that big, but she’s always hungry.  She always goes to the refrigerator, and if there is no food, she steals food from the garbage.”  
     I told her to feed her as much as she wants.  She needs it.  

     I gave her a litany of prescriptions and told her to come back in two weeks.  She was going to get better no matter what, I said.  When I opened the door, Shanice and her new mother were giggling and teasing each other.  She walked out with her sneakers with holes in them, her pants dirty and worn, but I had a good feeling about her.  All would be well.

              April, 2008  South Carolina