Red reflex

My motto for clinical is "make the most of it" which is why I was wandering from patient room to patient room with my checked out opthalmoscope and blood pressure cuff (or technically, my sphygmomonennemonenanoometer) looking for victims to practice my assessment skills on. Towards the end of the day, C and I decided to find someone with cataracts so that we could assess their red reflex by shining a light in their eyes with the opthalmoscope. I remembered seeing that Mr. V had cataracts charted, so we went into his room and obtained permission and I looked for the red reflex in his right eye and saw it. C looked in his left and couldn't see it. She checked on me to make sure she was looking for the right thing and saw mine, but when she tried again on Mr. V, still nada. I checked it out as well and didn't see anything. How exciting - my first abnormality!

Afterwards, I was wandering through the hallways and came across the instructor with a clump of students. Looking to review my assessment knowledge for the midterm next week, I asked the group what conditions would cause an absent red reflex. The instructor responded "you probably just don't have the skills to look for it."