Fourth Day

Instead of being at Spine Colorado/Durango Orthopedics today, I was with Dr. Valerie McKinnis in the hospital. She is a family doctor employed by Mercy Medical. I “followed” her around all day checking up on her patients and writing patient’s reports. She allowed me to listen to different patients’ hearts and lungs showing me examples of a heart murmur and lungs affected by emphysema. Towards the afternoon I read an article on choledocholithiasis, an aliment where the patient has a presence of gallstones within the common bile duct. I read another article on Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangionpancreatography (ERCP), a procedure where a surgeon examines an internal body part with an instrument called an endoscope. Dr. McKinnis had me read these articles because one of her patients had choledocholithiasis and needed an ERCP.