Monday, May 30, 2005

i saw a grand total of 1 patient today. not bad considering that i haven't really opened this other clinic yet. she wasn't a paying patient either but that's ok, it's a start (for word of mouth aka referrals) for me. she's such a cute baby, only 4 months but already taba-chingching so i couldn't resist playing w/ her. to her mom's delight, she responded to me immediately. the mom even said that she can't make her baby laugh like that at home. hmm....

after examining the baby, i couldn't find anything wrong w/ her. except for the fever and irritability, she's feeding well, nothing wrong w/ the bowel movement, no cough or colds. her tummy was full of air though so she might be having colic but that would not explain the 1 day fever. i requested for a urine exam (maybe a urinary infection can explain the fever) and gave something to relieve the colic then the daddy says "hindi po ba pilay?"

translated in english, it can mean someone who's lame or colloquially, referring to a sprain or strain or sometimes even a fracture. i have searched my ever reliable textbook and cannot find any reference to it. we hear our grandmothers saying all the time "ipahilot mo si baby, baka may pilay kaya nilalagnat". even my own mom says that they used to bring me to the hilot everytime i had fever when i was little. we doctors tend to catergorize this as old wive's tales. how could a mere 4 month old infant have a broken bone or develop sore muscles (strain) or have overstretched ligaments (sprain)? although babies have different patterns of motor development, at 4 months, a baby is expected to push w/ his feet when held erect and may roll over already. both of this actions would entail contraction of previously unused muscles. on the other hand, there may be a history of fall owing to the greater mobility of the baby, hence, a strain or a sprain is not impossible. a fracture though is an entirely different case because there may be child abuse already.

so the next time we get asked, hindi po ba pilay? don't think it is just old wive's tales because some of these tales does have scientific explanations. besides, if everything our grandmother says are just tales, they wouldn't have lived to tell us about it, right?