Spot Diagnoses

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” -- William Robertson Davies

Story 1

It was late afternoon after our theory examination for a most reputable brutal Second Internal Assessment. My friends and I were hanging out at nearby restaurant after practicing ophthalmoscopic examination in Campus U-Café to everyone’s weird stares.

There are group of adults hanging out and there was a woman wearing her glasses at this dim of dusk. At first I couldn’t understand why. Could she be some sorts of popular celebrity in an attempt to be unrecognizable? She sat next to a man I believed is her husband and there he is, their little rascal. The other guys at their table most probably her husband’s friends. That little boy looks kinda cranky and annoyed. With his bloodshot eyes I finally understand why.

I told my friend “Don’t turn to your back this instant, but I think that kid behind you and his mom got viral conjunctivitis.”

“What make you think so?”

“That kid has red eyes and his mom wearing glasses, viral type is the only one form of infective conjunctivitis.”

I presume that kids must’ve gotten it from nursery or kindergarten and gave it to his mom.

Story 2

In ENT clinic, went into one of a senior specialist room. There was an obese women looking lethargic.

“Spot diagnosis. What did she got?” the doctor asked

“Emmm…” none of us get it

“Come on, I just told you yesterday in class,”

“Emmm…” still no one answer. We were looking for some sorts of discharge or prominent mass but no, nothing.

“What did I taught you yesterday?”

“Emm…rhinolith…?” one of us answer, I am still blur.

“She got sleep apnoea! Look at her!”

Okey, that was uncalled for. How do we spot diagnosed sleep apnoea? She can easily fit narcolepsy or something. But again, she is obese with short neck, lethargic and admitted to ENT. Yeah that is textbook sleep apnoea for sure. It would be easier to spot Kaposi's sarcoma and spot diagnosing HIV-positive or spot-diagnosing complex fracture in those wearing Ilizarov apparatus. Then again...

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” -- William Robertson Davies