Sweet Medicine

The last patient I had was really interesting. it was a great way to end the day of clinic. he was an elderly man with most of his teeth rotted out of his mouth and he had the complaint of a dry mouth for a month, but mainly at nights. he had been trying to solve the problem on his own by drinking eight glasses of water every day, but nothing was working. so he came to us. i asked a lot of questions. if it was the states, he would have gotten maybe more of a work up for an autoimmune disease or something, but since we can't test that here, i knew the best remedy for him. i went to dr. tom and said, "don't you think the best thing for him to do is suck on candy everyday like lemon drops or something?" dr. tom totally agreed. i've seen this work for people back home so that's why i mentioned it. so i went back in and asked pan to translate to him that "everyday he should suck on some candy, preferably something tart and that will make his mouth produce more saliva, but be sure to wash your teeth afterwards." i have never seen a patient react this way ever!!! he had the hugest grin on his face as if he had just won a major prize! he was tickled to death that his prescription was candy! it was like he reverted to childhood and was told this. it absolutely made my day seeing him have so much joy. i wish that all of my patients were that ecstatic when they get treatment.

as we were walking out of clinic, i relayed the story to the nurse aids and to julie. julie said, "zsila, your going to make his teeth rot out!" i kept explaining the story and then interjected, "by the way, his teeth were already rotted out, plus i told him to brush his teeth." the nurse aids got the biggest kick out of that side comment. they understand english, let me tell you they understand. i just wish you could have seen his smile. that's what being a doctor is about, getting those more often.