For my first history and physical, I presented a case about pharyngitis. I selected this case because pharyngitis is a typical complaint among the pediatric population and being able to properly test, diagnose, and treat is vital. In this case, an 11 year old male presented with nausea, vomiting, and tactile fever since last night. Later in the patient interview, he also endorsed a sore throat. On exam, he had an erythematous posterior pharynx with cobblestoning and without exudates along with his tongue having a diffuse white strawberry tongue appearance. Ultimately, I thought this case was important because children with pharyngitis, especially strep, can also have emesis which which can distract providers from examining the throat and diagnosis pharyngitis. The main point of constructive criticism I received was to make sure I put the patient identifying information at the top of the H&P, which I included for the second H&P.

For my second H&P, I decided to focus on a chief complaint that I was less familiar with. In this case, a 15 y/o male with a PMHx of vitamin D deficiency and chronic constipation presented for evaluation of urinary dribbling for one year. I was unsure of the workup, differential diagnosis, and treatment for this issue so I thought this was a good chance to dive deep on this subject. I used UpToDate to help me research this subject and come up with a comprehensive patient management plan.

During both meetings, each student prepared 5 pharmacology cards that contained the drug class, mechanism of action, indications, contraindications, adverse reactions, monitoring parameters, and dosing. During each meeting we were quizzed on each other’s pharmacology cards. This was a great opportunity for me to review pharmacology, which is always a subject I found very challenging.