Family Medicine: Observations by a Family Doctor

Observations by a Family Doctor in my office:  Shingles in retired parent giving Chicken Pox to adult offspring.  Strep throat presenting as conjunctivitis.  Diabetic addicted to starches causing increasing HgbA1c.  Low Vitamin D3 levels in over 50% of patients tested in my practice.  Renal Insufficiency in a lot of patients after treatment for edema of legs with diuretic.  Lisinopril causing a lot of people to cough or to have elevated potassium. 

Warts, papillomas, skin tags, cuts and abrasions abounding as the weather becomes more tolerable.  Sinus congestion with mucous excess from "ragweed day" on August 15 until the first frost.

 Some aging couples are so close as to be almost inseparable.  When one of them dies, the other becomes empty and miserable, sometimes leading to the demise of that person.  Loneliness isn't good for human health. James Lynch wrote a book about this subject titled, The Medical Consequences of Loneliness, which validates the title well.  People need people.  People need responses from other people.

Children like to imagine and play, if given the chance.  We have a child's kitchen/cooking station with oven, microwave, plastic food items and a baby in one large exam room.  Three to ten year old children tend to actively engage in play around the kitchen activities.  Some children manifest a deep caring for others with an intense desire to share.  After age twelve, it's rare to see or hear of these traits in the children I see.  A clear exception is the home schooled children.  They continue to engage, plan, imagine and speak of it somehow in the course of a well child exam.

Two or three times a month I see a "stay at home" Mom.  Once every four months, I see a "stay at home" Dad.
  
Just a few observations.  People are always interesting, even in a Family Doctor's office.