The Chronicles of Gynia
I'm noticing there are some new features added to LiveJournal since the last time I've logged on, which I'm also noticing was a year ago ::sheesh:: guess I never really had anything interesting to say, nor anyone interesting reading :)
The Chronicles continue:
Med School: Year 3
Clinical Rotations: Day 3
OB/GYN: Day 2
5:45 am: Rise and... shine? Oh no it just gets earlier and earlier this is insane. Apparently on Wednesdays rounds start at 6:45 instead of 7am... why? who knows. I guess its because if you had to arrive the same time everyday you wouldn't be freaked out all the time so this way with a different time everyday (On Friday we do rounds at 7:45!)you never know when to show up and you start off each day rightfully on edge.
Also getting up today was even harder because I had a stupid asthma attack last night as I tried to go to bed because someone attached to our apartment (either the landlord or the ppl in the other part of the duplex) smoke and apparently some part of our ventilation in our bedroom is connected to someone elses room (which is why we highly suspect the landlord) so that was fun while I coughed to death Matt frantically deodorized and taped paper over all the ceiling vents. hopefully in the winter we wont catch on fire O.o
Today really never had much of a chance for me. Right after rounds the chief resident had a C-section to do. Since the other medical student was tagging along with me and they can only take one student Tayo got to go cuz I got to see one yesterday. She almost fainted about 20 minutes into it and had to leave and it was all over for med students after that. The OR was so busy they had so many C-sections that the both the 3rd year resident and the 2nd year resident were in simultaneous deliveries without leaving (i.e. noone came out to get ME) and the only other resident was the chief who ran off to clinic by himself and the 1st year resident who was brand new in OB TODAY... which mean that as crazy as it sounds I knew more about what was going on and where things were, than him. ::sigh:: It also meant he really didnt have anything to do without anyone to supervise because unlike Dr. Aslam from yesterday this really was his first year. So for several hours I just kind of hung around looking for a doctor to tell me what to do.
Around 9:30am or so: Dr. Mekheva the resident I decided to follow around today finally came out from the OR and I followed her to examine a patient. She wanted to evaluate her cervix and see how far along she was (side note: By the time my 6 week rotation in OB/GYN is over I will have seen MORE than enough vaginas for my lifetime, in case anyone cared ^_^) So as she's getting the lady set up she asks "Is it alright with you if the medical student examines you as well" and the lady's like "that's fine whatever" and I'm like ::What??:: AANNDD Dr. Mekheva doesnt explain to me wtf I'm doing. Dr. Aslam had at least explained to me in words how to evaluate how dialated a cervix was, Which by the way 4 cm is like HUGE and you get 10 cm dialated to deliver a baby which Dr. Aslam explained to me is measured by if you can stick both hands in like you are simulated a book. But Dr. Mekheva was like "Yeah I feel the head and the membranes and blah blah" and I'm thinking ::this is gross and I have no idea what I'm doing and my hand is in this womans vagina and I dont feel a head or a membrane or anything:: (but I dont think I went looking nearly as hard ^_^) After that Dr. Mekheva used this big plastic crochet hook thing to rupture her membrane ('break her water') and like half a liter of fluid came gushing out onto the bed which really had to feel weird but really I'd be more concerned about that plastic crochet hook up my vajayjay. Dr. Mekheva said that the weight of the baby on the cervix is spread out when the membrane is intact and by breaking the water the force of the head on the cervix will help to induce labor. I think it worked but I was obviously somewhere else when she delivered so I dont know how that went.
10am: Dr. Mekheva has another C-section whee! This time I get to come along. I tell her I dont know how to scrub and I FINALLY get a real decent instruction on scrubbing and dressing and what to do in the OR room! Huzzah! The attending physician is really nice and open to medical students. I successfully put on my gown (with help like is required) and I actually get to approach the table. (Yay! step up from yesterday!) I'm instructed to stand next to the resident with my hands on the patient so I dont accidentally touch something not sterile. The surgery was MUCH bloodier up close and much cooler! I'm must admit that sadly I did not even recognize the anatomy as he was operating. When the uterus takes up your entire abdomin you sort of lose some perspective :) Also WAAAY more blood that I thought there was from seeing the other surgery yesterday. When you are up and close they bleed like BONKERS. Apparently its considered normal bleeding as long as they dont lose more than a liter of blood. And the blood looks different too its looks like the blood on TV where its like almost got a silvery quality to it, or that it looks really opaque like bloody mylant or something. Ok I'm probably making gross analogies and not getting my point across. Long story short, C-sections=bloody but crazy cool. Anyway during the surgery I got to actually sort of assist in a real way. I held a retractor during most of it to open up the field and I cut a suture line while my resident was sewing up the uterus and then the attending left after the peritoneum was sewn back up and I went over to where he was standing on the other side of the patient and I GOT TO CLOSE!!!!aaah!!! sooo coool!! Granted it was staples and not sutures but AWESOME!! Wheeee! My first few were a little crooked and Dr. Mekheva even took a few out (dont worry we didnt give her a wonky scar) even though I was doing it exactly how they said to, but at the end they were going in how they were supposed to so that was good.
After the C-section we sort of ran out of things to do. The day went pretty quick after that. I spent a bit of it sitting which was nice and then just wandering around looking for something to do. Dr. Mekheva kind pawned me off to the new resident to help him do stuff being as it took him like all day to prepare for evening rounds so I was trying to do everything else that I could possibly do that was his job.
3:00pm They sent me up to the 3rd floor to draw blood from this woman by myself. I was nervous being by myself but not about drawing blood. I've probably done it a dozen times and never really failed at it. Also they draw blood a little differently here (as far as equipment goes) then how I'm used to so I wanted the resident to make sure I had all the right stuff before I went up, but he was stressed and was like ask the nurses. Oh man, nurses on the 3rd floor, scary scary scary people. I was so scared and they were so rude. AND they had shit for stuff up there. They didnt have any turniquits and they didnt have the right tubes that I needed, so then I had to go back down to L&D to get the stuff and go back upstairs and then as luck would have it this woman had no visible veins and when I say none i mean NONE. Shite. I examined her for a while and then found one that I could FEEL if the turniquit was on but could not see. Whee I'm by myself and going to have to do a blind draw.
So I prep her and get out the stuff and get it all ready and go to uncap the needle and as I uncap it, I retract the needle. ::CRap I forgot they use needles that have a switch on top to retract them, these are not what I learned on, smooth Stacey, she's all prepped and no more needle:: "mm hold on one second miss I'll be right back" as I try to nonchalantly run back to the supply room to get 3 needles this time, cant be too safe! I come back and start all over and prep her again and ready, aim, fire! Blood! Whoo I got it sweet! I pop the tube on (which is supposed to have a vacuum in it to help draw the blood) and it has enough vacuum to draw blood down the 6 inches of tubing that they use and then nothing, no more vacuum....blood is BARELY coming out. Shit. I would have brought more tubes but since I had to go downstairs for them there is NO way I'm leaving this needle in while I go run and get another one AND I cant stick a needle in the same area as I just did AND it was the only vein I could even find AND they needed the CBC stat! YaY!! so I inform the really nice lady that everything went well but being as the tube had no vacuum in it, I will, unfortunately have to come back later and poke her again, so sorry. I then run downstairs and pawn it back on to the resident whose job it was in the first place.
Nothing much happened after that, Its time to go to bed now even though most of you are just getting up since your all enjoying summer break still.
I seem to be getting sick of some sort. I have an excrutiating ear ache in my right ear, not cool.
The Chronicles continue:
Med School: Year 3
Clinical Rotations: Day 3
OB/GYN: Day 2
5:45 am: Rise and... shine? Oh no it just gets earlier and earlier this is insane. Apparently on Wednesdays rounds start at 6:45 instead of 7am... why? who knows. I guess its because if you had to arrive the same time everyday you wouldn't be freaked out all the time so this way with a different time everyday (On Friday we do rounds at 7:45!)you never know when to show up and you start off each day rightfully on edge.
Also getting up today was even harder because I had a stupid asthma attack last night as I tried to go to bed because someone attached to our apartment (either the landlord or the ppl in the other part of the duplex) smoke and apparently some part of our ventilation in our bedroom is connected to someone elses room (which is why we highly suspect the landlord) so that was fun while I coughed to death Matt frantically deodorized and taped paper over all the ceiling vents. hopefully in the winter we wont catch on fire O.o
Today really never had much of a chance for me. Right after rounds the chief resident had a C-section to do. Since the other medical student was tagging along with me and they can only take one student Tayo got to go cuz I got to see one yesterday. She almost fainted about 20 minutes into it and had to leave and it was all over for med students after that. The OR was so busy they had so many C-sections that the both the 3rd year resident and the 2nd year resident were in simultaneous deliveries without leaving (i.e. noone came out to get ME) and the only other resident was the chief who ran off to clinic by himself and the 1st year resident who was brand new in OB TODAY... which mean that as crazy as it sounds I knew more about what was going on and where things were, than him. ::sigh:: It also meant he really didnt have anything to do without anyone to supervise because unlike Dr. Aslam from yesterday this really was his first year. So for several hours I just kind of hung around looking for a doctor to tell me what to do.
Around 9:30am or so: Dr. Mekheva the resident I decided to follow around today finally came out from the OR and I followed her to examine a patient. She wanted to evaluate her cervix and see how far along she was (side note: By the time my 6 week rotation in OB/GYN is over I will have seen MORE than enough vaginas for my lifetime, in case anyone cared ^_^) So as she's getting the lady set up she asks "Is it alright with you if the medical student examines you as well" and the lady's like "that's fine whatever" and I'm like ::What??:: AANNDD Dr. Mekheva doesnt explain to me wtf I'm doing. Dr. Aslam had at least explained to me in words how to evaluate how dialated a cervix was, Which by the way 4 cm is like HUGE and you get 10 cm dialated to deliver a baby which Dr. Aslam explained to me is measured by if you can stick both hands in like you are simulated a book. But Dr. Mekheva was like "Yeah I feel the head and the membranes and blah blah" and I'm thinking ::this is gross and I have no idea what I'm doing and my hand is in this womans vagina and I dont feel a head or a membrane or anything:: (but I dont think I went looking nearly as hard ^_^) After that Dr. Mekheva used this big plastic crochet hook thing to rupture her membrane ('break her water') and like half a liter of fluid came gushing out onto the bed which really had to feel weird but really I'd be more concerned about that plastic crochet hook up my vajayjay. Dr. Mekheva said that the weight of the baby on the cervix is spread out when the membrane is intact and by breaking the water the force of the head on the cervix will help to induce labor. I think it worked but I was obviously somewhere else when she delivered so I dont know how that went.
10am: Dr. Mekheva has another C-section whee! This time I get to come along. I tell her I dont know how to scrub and I FINALLY get a real decent instruction on scrubbing and dressing and what to do in the OR room! Huzzah! The attending physician is really nice and open to medical students. I successfully put on my gown (with help like is required) and I actually get to approach the table. (Yay! step up from yesterday!) I'm instructed to stand next to the resident with my hands on the patient so I dont accidentally touch something not sterile. The surgery was MUCH bloodier up close and much cooler! I'm must admit that sadly I did not even recognize the anatomy as he was operating. When the uterus takes up your entire abdomin you sort of lose some perspective :) Also WAAAY more blood that I thought there was from seeing the other surgery yesterday. When you are up and close they bleed like BONKERS. Apparently its considered normal bleeding as long as they dont lose more than a liter of blood. And the blood looks different too its looks like the blood on TV where its like almost got a silvery quality to it, or that it looks really opaque like bloody mylant or something. Ok I'm probably making gross analogies and not getting my point across. Long story short, C-sections=bloody but crazy cool. Anyway during the surgery I got to actually sort of assist in a real way. I held a retractor during most of it to open up the field and I cut a suture line while my resident was sewing up the uterus and then the attending left after the peritoneum was sewn back up and I went over to where he was standing on the other side of the patient and I GOT TO CLOSE!!!!aaah!!! sooo coool!! Granted it was staples and not sutures but AWESOME!! Wheeee! My first few were a little crooked and Dr. Mekheva even took a few out (dont worry we didnt give her a wonky scar) even though I was doing it exactly how they said to, but at the end they were going in how they were supposed to so that was good.
After the C-section we sort of ran out of things to do. The day went pretty quick after that. I spent a bit of it sitting which was nice and then just wandering around looking for something to do. Dr. Mekheva kind pawned me off to the new resident to help him do stuff being as it took him like all day to prepare for evening rounds so I was trying to do everything else that I could possibly do that was his job.
3:00pm They sent me up to the 3rd floor to draw blood from this woman by myself. I was nervous being by myself but not about drawing blood. I've probably done it a dozen times and never really failed at it. Also they draw blood a little differently here (as far as equipment goes) then how I'm used to so I wanted the resident to make sure I had all the right stuff before I went up, but he was stressed and was like ask the nurses. Oh man, nurses on the 3rd floor, scary scary scary people. I was so scared and they were so rude. AND they had shit for stuff up there. They didnt have any turniquits and they didnt have the right tubes that I needed, so then I had to go back down to L&D to get the stuff and go back upstairs and then as luck would have it this woman had no visible veins and when I say none i mean NONE. Shite. I examined her for a while and then found one that I could FEEL if the turniquit was on but could not see. Whee I'm by myself and going to have to do a blind draw.
So I prep her and get out the stuff and get it all ready and go to uncap the needle and as I uncap it, I retract the needle. ::CRap I forgot they use needles that have a switch on top to retract them, these are not what I learned on, smooth Stacey, she's all prepped and no more needle:: "mm hold on one second miss I'll be right back" as I try to nonchalantly run back to the supply room to get 3 needles this time, cant be too safe! I come back and start all over and prep her again and ready, aim, fire! Blood! Whoo I got it sweet! I pop the tube on (which is supposed to have a vacuum in it to help draw the blood) and it has enough vacuum to draw blood down the 6 inches of tubing that they use and then nothing, no more vacuum....blood is BARELY coming out. Shit. I would have brought more tubes but since I had to go downstairs for them there is NO way I'm leaving this needle in while I go run and get another one AND I cant stick a needle in the same area as I just did AND it was the only vein I could even find AND they needed the CBC stat! YaY!! so I inform the really nice lady that everything went well but being as the tube had no vacuum in it, I will, unfortunately have to come back later and poke her again, so sorry. I then run downstairs and pawn it back on to the resident whose job it was in the first place.
Nothing much happened after that, Its time to go to bed now even though most of you are just getting up since your all enjoying summer break still.
I seem to be getting sick of some sort. I have an excrutiating ear ache in my right ear, not cool.