Multiple PE's

Because Chase I'd rather ask people who I thought may be medical professions and would enjoy helping others learn. Thanks for the respect, and thanks for the info.

Jwk

I understand that. But you can't say that just because someone is sick now, they have been sick for a while.

A history (as I understand it) means either they have had something, or not, or have a chronic illness documented in a medical file or otherwise experienced by the patient in their lifetime. If the patient says they haven't been sick and have exams and lab work that confirm it, it doesn't really matter how much they weigh or not, they haven't been sick. Risk factors (such as weight) fall into a different category. Will they predispose you to certain illnesses? Absolutely, but they aren't necessarily a direct causation of, nor a history of disease. You can say someone hasn't had any illnesses, but is obese, has a family history of ______ and is now presenting with x, y, and z problems.

I do thank you for the info and my apologies for sounding rude.
 
Obesity is a medical problem. If they have been obese for more than 5 minutes before they called you they have a history of being obese. A person can also have a history of symptoms without ever being seen by a doc or diagnosed with anything. Headaches are a good example of a symptom someone can have a history of without a diagnosis. Also, just because you don't know you are sick, doesn't mean you aren't sick. There are plenty of transient conditions that won't show up on subsequent testing. SVT comes to mind. So do DVTs and PEs. People forget about symptoms they have had in the past because they blew them off and attributed them to something else. "oh, my leg is sore because I pulled a muscle moving the couch" or whatever.
 
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But again, you can't assume a patient has or hasn't had something previously if they don't tell you. You can only go off of what they tell you and their file. The question is too, is it medically relevant to what is going on right now. "I've had leg pain for a day or two." uh oh, pt could have DVTs that broke off and stopped in the lungs, but turns pt. hit their shin on the edge of the coffee table. Not exactly relevant to a current situation.
 
fma08 said:
But again, you can't assume a patient has or hasn't had something previously if they don't tell you. You can only go off of what they tell you and their file. The question is too, is it medically relevant to what is going on right now. "I've had leg pain for a day or two." uh oh, pt could have DVTs that broke off and stopped in the lungs, but turns pt. hit their shin on the edge of the coffee table. Not exactly relevant to a current situation.
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That would be why you ask them if anything caused the leg pain.
 
That's my point. In taking a history, you aren't always going to find something that will lead you to a clear picture of what's going on currently. If their leg pain is from running into the coffee table, it doesn't make me think DVTs, it makes me think coffee table. Which brings me back to my original post and asking the question.
 
jwk said:
Decades ago. :)
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Probably before I was born then haha I had my ER clinical at Barnes so I am sure you understand why I am so skeptical of patient information haha
 
ChaseZ33 said:
Probably before I was born then haha I had my ER clinical at Barnes so I am sure you understand why I am so skeptical of patient information haha
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I was around when CHNE first started their EMS service, which would be 75-76 or so.
 
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