Anatomy lessons

I don't know how anatomy is taught in other countries, but in America it isn't taught at all outside of health profession schools. The average citizen doesn't know what a gallbladder does, much less where it lives. And this lack of fundamental knowledge of our own bodies makes us completely paranoid whenever we don't feel well. "Help! My lip is tingling! I think I'm having a stroke!" "Oh my god, I have back pain! I think my kidneys are failing!" That is actually one of my favorites. Everyone with back pain thinks it is kidney related. They also think that their kidneys reside just above the waist (which they don't). Ask them what their kidneys do and get a blank stare.

In any case, I picked up a chart to see a new patient and the chief complaint was "fatigue". In a 25 year old male without any medical history. I hate fatigue in young people. Guess what? I'm tired, too. And some days all I do is yawn and without coffee, I'm a danger on the road. But do I think it's a serious medical condition? No. I went to interview the patient, who was sitting up on the gurney talking animatedly to his girlfriend. When he spotted me, he flopped against the stretcher and moaned, "I don't feel good." Please. I tried to ask him some questions about his symptoms, but he would only give me one word answers. At that point, the girlfriend chimed in, "I want him tested for everything." "Everything?" I asked. "That's a lot. Can we narrow it down?" She rattled off the usual diabetes, high blood pressure, appendicitis (??) and then threw the big one at me. "I want him tested for cervical cancer." "Cervical cancer? I can't test him for that." "Why not?" she asked, angrily. "Because he doesn't have a cervix," I replied, trying to be polite. "How do you know he doesn't have one? You ain't even examined him yet!" She had me there.