Annie Abbott

Mr Ratliff

ISM 1

6 March 2019

Mentor Visit #6

My mentor visit this week was another success. It seems like every week that I go on

mentor visits, there is always a certain trend that day on the visits I see. This week, the common

trend was ear infections. I saw three different patients with things wrong with their ears this

week.

The first patient I saw was complaining of strep-like symptoms. The patient was given a

strep test; however, it came back negative. The parent then said that he was complaining of his

left ear hurting for about twenty-four hours, and sure enough, his left ear was infected. Dr. Baker

checked both ears to try and show me a comparison of a healthy eardrum compared to an

infected eardrum, but when he looked at the other ear, that ear was infected as well, then

concluding that the patient had a double ear infection. The patient was then given antibiotics and

told they could return to school when they were fever free for twenty-four hours.

Another patient that I saw came in because he had a sore throat and fever. While we were

not able to diagnose him with anything, as all of his tests came back negative, the dad then

pointed out that he wanted Dr. Baker to take a look at his ear. The father swore that there was a

tip of a crayon in one of his ears, but when he mentioned it to the school nurse, she said it looked

completely normal. Dr. Baker looked at it, and within seconds, insisted that I came over and took

a look at it. Looking in his eardrum, there was a definite substance in it that was not normal
under any circumstances. Dr. Baker originally had his medical assistant come in to try and wash

it out of his ear, but she was unsuccessful. He then had his nurse, Danielle, try, and she was

ultimately very successful, getting the substance out of his ear. The substance that was stuck in

his ear was an orange, plastic, cylinder. It most likely came from a toy; however, none of us

actually knew what it was. Dr. Baker then told me that when he worked at his old office, he

always wanted to have a wall of souvenirs which came out of people’s ears.

Lastly, we saw a patient with flu-like symptoms. While this patient did not have the flu,

she did appear to have a very bad cold. Her father insisted that she go in to see an allergist as

soon as possible, as he believed these allergies were coming from an allergic reaction to certain

foods. Dr. Baker agreed to refer him to an allergist; however, he told me afterward that it

definitely was not necessary, and she had just caught a bug. The father had many questions

during this entire visit, and at one point, it almost seemed like he was questioning the

qualifications of Dr. Baker. Dr. Baker told me that this was not an uncommon thing for his

nationality, as he deals with parents like that very often. I am very excited for my upcoming

mentor visit, and cannot wait to report back about new experiences!