This last week, I’ve been on hospital rounds with Dr. Bogantes. We followed up with the same patients almost everyday for the whole week. One patient I remember was a cute 12 year old girl who had complete occlusion of her carotid arteries. This lead to her suffering from a stroke which affected the right half of her body. The manifestation of this stroke was a lack of ability to smile with the right side of her mouth and an abnormal gait pattern where she kind of circled her right leg around to the front every time she took a new step. The medical team talked to the little girl’s father everyday, explaining her imaging results and checking to see how physical therapy improved her condition. By the end of the week, she’d gotten a custom orthotic that really impacted her gait. The orthotic held her foot in place, whereas it previously dangled/flopped due to the damage caused by the stroke. This orthotic helped her walk a lot easier without feeling like she was tripping over her floppy foot. I gave her a smile of encouragement every time I saw her and she smiled back with half her face. But one of the times I saw her she was feeling really happy about her progress and I saw a whole smile light up her face. Not just half, but her whole mouth. I looked at her three times just to make sure I was seeing things right. Dr.Bogantes explained that if she smiled voluntarily she could only smile halfway, whereas a genuine instinctual smile used a different pathway not affected by the stroke. So I figured when I saw her smiling all the way it had been a real smile and I was happy for her! Overall, I had a very wholesome week 🥰😊
To top it off, I saw an adorable sphinx cat on my way to the grocery store 🐱
Kitten 🥹