Capsule Endoscopy

Now that I am trying to write this blog on a regular basis, I find it disturbing that there are days that I come home and think "Did I learn anything new today? Nope. No new medical knowledge." And that is bad. I felt like yesterday was one of those days, but then again we did have a good resident report that was a patient with a lower extremity rash and hand swelling. There was no final diagnosis, but cryoglobulinemia seems good. It has an association with hep C. And then I think PAN has an association with hep B.

Today I had a patient who had a metastatic cerebellar tumor with an unknown primary. After a PEG placement and tube feeds he was having tarry stools. We'll see what the scope shows tomorrow.

I also saw my first capsule endoscopy today. This a cardiac pt who had been on Plavix, developed heme+ stools and then had a clean EGD and colonoscopy. I didn't realize that between the two not the whole GI tract is covered. There was some bleeding on the capsule and there will be an eteroscope tomorrow.

I sent a copy of my CPC slides to my favorite doc. After doing some editing today, I realize that I have a lot of work to do. There was anther CPC presentation today and it was about a stroke in a pt in her 20s who had prior miscarriages. I thought it was going to be lupus and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome for sure, but it turned out to be a cerebral sinus thrombosis. Pretty neat. There should be another one tomorrow and then mine next Wednesday is the one after that. Then I will have more interesting blog entries, too.