Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Most Useless Family History EVAH

There was another post I made where I said a patient had given the most useless family history I'd ever heard.  And it was.  Until yesterday:

Me: "Do you have any family members who have had a stroke?"

Patient: "My dog had a stroke."

Is this going to be a new thing?  Do I now need to specify human family members when I ask that question?

6 comments:

  1. Not only should you specify human, but also specify "directly related by blood" (or words to that effect) unless you want to be told about husband's parents and siblings, best friend's family and siblings, etc. "Related to you" apparently means anything from "I heard of them" to "I gave birth to him."

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  2. Not related to your post, but are you working on a new book?

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  3. Well, I have had patients ask me medical questions about their pets because they didn't want to pay for a vet visit... and I know exactly enough about veterinary medicine to know that I am definitely not qualified to answer those questions! "Dogs can't eat chocolate" is about the limit of my vet med skills.

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  4. Learned years ago to specify blood relative after hearing all about somebody's husbands medical problems. "Madam, since it is against the law in most states to marry one's close relatives I assume you misunderstood the question."

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  5. Well i am going to guess if the dog had a stroke from obesity its highly probable the owner suffers from obesity as well...... Fit dog is usually equal to a fit owner.....

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