OMM: Intro to Holistic Medicine

Today I began my OMM rotation with a family doctor, Dr. KB, who specializes in naturopathic and holistic medicine. It didn't take me long to realize that she was not like most PCPs. The first few patients we saw were here for follow-up visits on bloodwork, focusing on hormones like testosterone (for libido), estrogen (for energy and others), pregnenelone (for memory), and adrenals (for cortisol production). We had one middle-aged man come with a testosterone level quadruple of what it should be (it's at a teenager's level), and he joked, "That's probably why I feel so good." We then had another lady come in for fibromyalgia that was not resolving with hydrocortisone; Dr. KB increased her dosage and recommended that she come back in 2 months. In the family medicine setting, Dr. KB rarely uses conventional medicines. If a patient shows up with high cholesterol, she prescribes red yeast rice instead of Lipitor because they have the same effect. If a patient can't sleep, she prescribes progesterone because it will also increase melatonin levels to help a patient sleep better. It's actually pretty interesting. Her clinic also offers something called "activated air" that ionizes air and helps treat all sorts of disorders (mainly asthma) as well as ionized foot soaks that supposedly detox the body. I'm not against natural medicine, but I got to admit it's all very new to me right now.

But I digress, this is an OMM rotation, and we did see a few manip cases today. The first patient had a clear-cut case of painful adhesive capsulitis, and I think I may use her case in my OMM paper. Another patient had a huge muscle knot running along her left side; I did muscle energy on her with no effect. Yet another patient had a major sacral shear that was giving her knee pain; we had to treat both her innominates and her shear. For another patient, I spent close to an hour on trying to diagnose and treat all her disorders (she had a right upslipped pelvis and was sidebent right all the way down her back), but ended up leaving her for Dr. KB to treat (while I was working on her, Dr. KB was next door talking to a disgruntled patient who had to wait an hour to see her and refused to talk to me b/c she "already did the student thing the last time"). Instead, Dr. KB referred me to see a 1st year med student who needed the 7 stages of Spencer done on him. This student, who I'll call T, was actually a postbac when I was a 1st year, and he'd wanted to attend our school but didn't meet the GPA requirement for automatic admission. He'd broken his clavicle in a motorcycle accident years ago, and the 7 stages helped his mobility a lot. He came to the clinic with his pregnant wife and expressed an interest in transferring to our school after 2nd year b/c all his family is here. I encouraged him to do so, since at least 2 people from other schools are now in my class (i.e. Wendy from TUCOM-NV).

I had nearly 90 min for lunch and drove to school to use the computer. There, I ran into Dustin N, who is doing ob-gyn and is on the Green team (he has 2 weeks of nights, too). I asked how how Dr. D and Dr. C were doing, and apparently his experiences have not been good ones. Dr. C has apparently become more uptight than usual, which doesn't bode too well. Dustin and Deanna have had no one to teach them since Drs C and D are always busy and they have two FP interns with them (no Dr. M to help out). Even though it's the 3rd week, Dustin hasn't been able to deliver a single baby (he only got 1-2 placentas) because the FP interns jump on every delivery to get experience and don't let the med students deliver. I was surprised when Dustin said that only the FP does postpartum checks and that he (Dustin) doesn't have to arrive until 6:30. What happened to all those mornings Anita and I had to arrive at 5:45?! They don't have to scrub in for all the C-sections, either, and the FP interns do most of the H&Ps or else take the med students' work. So according to Dustin, the OB rotation has been less than stellar (Dr. C has told him and Deanna that they weren't being proactive). Now I am really glad that Anita and I had Dr. B, Dr. K, and Dr. G to help us out when Dr. C and Dr. D didn't have time; they taught us enough to be more independent and probably look good in Dr. C's eyes. Also, apparently one of the previous students got Dr. C in trouble by letting it slip to one of our attendings (Dr. Ch____) that Dr. C had given them a day off, so he's afraid he won't get time off the 2nd week. If it was someone from the last rotation, then I have an idea who it is, but still...that stinks.

Thank goodness my OB rotation was a good one. And now...THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!