I'm too shy to post things normally, but i'll give it a shot since I have not contributed much to this wonderful forum.
So, to give some background, I'm in the medical field in training as a medical resident. Currently I am working in the ICU and one of my favorite tests that is employed there is the tickle test (Not a real test but seems to be used regularly!), which I witnessed again this last weekend!
In the ICU, we have a lot of patients who are intubated with tubes in their mouth and of course on a lot of sedating meds so they won't be traumatized when they wake up full of lines and cords. However, in order to see if they are alive and well, we have to employ several tests to do this, asking them to squeeze our fingers, open their eyes, and wiggle their toes. But some other times, we have to do some more stimulating tests, like causing pain... or other reactions as you will see below!
Well, this past weekend, I was working with my attending (aka the top doctor or boss) who is a gorgeous blond, maybe mid-40s, who is also incredibly smart (what an attractive combo!). We started rounding (meaning going around to see patients), and we are telling her about this patient who just wasn't moving anything below her head. We had already tried to do all the tests to figure out why she wasn't moving from below, like looking at her brain, her neck and her spine, but didn't find any reason why she couldn't move anything!
Puzzled, my attending steps into the room to try to talk to this young female who is just lying there, and the patient is awake and nodding her head in response to her questions, but she absolutely refused to move any of the other parts of her body!
A family member in the room suddenly remarked, "Yea she doesn't seem to be moving much, but she does try to withdraw when you tickle her feet. I did that earlier and she was moving them around!"
At that moment, I must have let out a little inner gasp, and butterflies were jumping around in my stomach, as I was wondering just how my attending was going to respond to that comment!
She goes..."OH really..." (with a somewhat mischievous grin) and then slowly draws the blankets back to reveal the patient's bare feet and reaches down and dances her fingers on the patient's soles in little spider tickles mainly along the arches! At this point, I'm like half-turned on and half-embarrassed by what's going on (I must have blushed but thankfully I don't think anyone noticed). She continues tickling the right sole for about a minute, and sure enough, the patient starts to wiggle her foot around like mad (though unfortunately she isn't laughing from her facial expressions). My attending was attentively studying the patient's face, and she looks at the team with a smile, going, "I can't believe I'm doing this!" But she looks like she's a total natural at it and then goes to work on the other foot with the same withdrawal reactions before finally stopping! Totally made my morning!
Best of all, the patient is getting better, and I guess it showed that the patient could move her lower legs after all! Tickling is the cure!! And definitely this is my favorite test to apply as a doctor.
So, to give some background, I'm in the medical field in training as a medical resident. Currently I am working in the ICU and one of my favorite tests that is employed there is the tickle test (Not a real test but seems to be used regularly!), which I witnessed again this last weekend!
In the ICU, we have a lot of patients who are intubated with tubes in their mouth and of course on a lot of sedating meds so they won't be traumatized when they wake up full of lines and cords. However, in order to see if they are alive and well, we have to employ several tests to do this, asking them to squeeze our fingers, open their eyes, and wiggle their toes. But some other times, we have to do some more stimulating tests, like causing pain... or other reactions as you will see below!
Well, this past weekend, I was working with my attending (aka the top doctor or boss) who is a gorgeous blond, maybe mid-40s, who is also incredibly smart (what an attractive combo!). We started rounding (meaning going around to see patients), and we are telling her about this patient who just wasn't moving anything below her head. We had already tried to do all the tests to figure out why she wasn't moving from below, like looking at her brain, her neck and her spine, but didn't find any reason why she couldn't move anything!
Puzzled, my attending steps into the room to try to talk to this young female who is just lying there, and the patient is awake and nodding her head in response to her questions, but she absolutely refused to move any of the other parts of her body!
A family member in the room suddenly remarked, "Yea she doesn't seem to be moving much, but she does try to withdraw when you tickle her feet. I did that earlier and she was moving them around!"
At that moment, I must have let out a little inner gasp, and butterflies were jumping around in my stomach, as I was wondering just how my attending was going to respond to that comment!
She goes..."OH really..." (with a somewhat mischievous grin) and then slowly draws the blankets back to reveal the patient's bare feet and reaches down and dances her fingers on the patient's soles in little spider tickles mainly along the arches! At this point, I'm like half-turned on and half-embarrassed by what's going on (I must have blushed but thankfully I don't think anyone noticed). She continues tickling the right sole for about a minute, and sure enough, the patient starts to wiggle her foot around like mad (though unfortunately she isn't laughing from her facial expressions). My attending was attentively studying the patient's face, and she looks at the team with a smile, going, "I can't believe I'm doing this!" But she looks like she's a total natural at it and then goes to work on the other foot with the same withdrawal reactions before finally stopping! Totally made my morning!
Best of all, the patient is getting better, and I guess it showed that the patient could move her lower legs after all! Tickling is the cure!! And definitely this is my favorite test to apply as a doctor.
