Intelligent patients, dumb medical students !

I mentioned I was posted in the surgery ward in my  last post. I must say its pretty interesting  and presents with all kind of learning experiences ! Yesterday something funny happened. It was the first time, we went to the surgery OPD. We had no prior idea on how to perform the various kind of examinations that need to be done on a patient (except the gynaecological examinations that we'd learned in the gynae ward) . There came a lady into the doctor's office with pain in the abdomen. The doctor in-charge was a llittle busy writing a prescription for the previous patient so he instructed me to take the lady into the cubicle and examine her abdomen. I smiled at the lady nervously and took her there.Trying to remember all I had learned theoretically about examination, I uncovered her abdomen, making sure my nervousness was not reflected in my demeanor  The first step of examination is inspection ( That I thankfully knew !). I observed her abdomen and saw a transverse mark on her abdomen. I asked her about it and she said it was a scar from a C-section she had three months back. I did the rest of the examination, wrote down my findings and called the doctor.I must say I was really proud of myself because I did the examination pretty tactfully and  better than my own expectations.

The doctor came into the cubicle and asked me about my findings. I promptly mentioned my entire examination and also showed him the C-section scar.. He smiled at that mention, and asked the lady what kind of a scar it was again. And this time, she looked at it and said "Oh, its a stretch mark", the doctor looked at me and said with a huge smile on his face , "Even she knows its a stretch mark !"  It was a relief that the doctor was pretty understanding and made me realise my mistake without making me feel embarassed !

( The cesarean section scar was there, quite below the stretch mark ( obviously ! ) and I had missed it on inspection.( that portion of the abdomen was draped)..That woman , on my question, thought I was referring to that scar, when I really was referring to the stretch mark !! I hope my readers understand the confusion !!!)