Bad time for a how-to YouTube video.

[u/sco-go]

[u/everyones_hiro]

When I was a kid, before youtube existed (Gasp I know!) I had a weird rash so my mom took me to the pediatrician. It was a pretty extensive full body rash and the Dr gasped when she saw it. I guess maybe she was just expecting a kid with common hives or something but she leaned in and immediately started mumbling under her breath everything it wasn't. It wasn't chicken pox or dermatitis, or folliculitis, was it full body ringworm??? She asked my mom a million questions and told us to wait for a minute. We waited in the office for probably like 25 minutes and my mom was panicking thinking she was calling infectious disease or it was something VERY serious. The Doctor then rushes in with a HUGE text book. Like a 6 inch thick tome. She's struggling to carry them but she props one open using all her strength and points at a part of the page saying Pityriasis Rosea. She was like "ITS THIS!" very excitedly. All three of us sat there and read about it. It fit my symptoms exactly.

[u/Hobothug → u/everyones_hiro]

I enjoyed this story very much lol

[u/IllithidPsychopomp → u/everyones_hiro]

As someone that's been to medical school, a big part of being a doctor is knowing where to find the right reference material, find it and apply it quickly. You can't possibly retain it all in immediate memory but you CAN trigger a memory that you read one tiny paragraph amid your 95+ slides per class per day and know if the refresher information is correct. Evaluating your sources and having access to colleagues you can bounce ideas off of is so important!

I have a similar experience and remember my pediatrician being flabbergasted that something seen in rural tropical climates found me but she brought in her textbook to show us the smallest paragraph and was like "that was obscure, glad I read about it for a test." 🤣 I, personally, don't care how you come across the info as long as it's valid and helps me.