This time, I was at a GP practice doing 'Gastrointestinal and Renal Clinical Practice' - essentially this is where we get to meet real patients and question and poke them to our hearts content. The first patient was a 71 year old lady, who had one of her kidneys out.
So far, so good.
I was the first to examine the patient, and started with: gentle palpation (gentle poking) and deep palpation ('try to hurt them' poking). These passed off without incident. The notable part was 'balloting the kidney', which is essentially where you put one hand on the patient's back and one on the front and try to squeeze the patients side so that you can feel the kidney. This has the be done with the patient lying flat on the bed (on top of your hand) but our patient was leaning over to the side - naturally I thought I would say 'Could I get you to lie on top of my hand, please?'. Instead I came up with: 'Could I get you to lie on top of me, please?'
There are some days I question whether getting up in the morning was the right move.
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