Week One

I survived my first week of cardiology!!! After my week of hard work, I figured I deserved to sleep in this morning. I awoke up around 10am which felt like noon. It was fantastic!! I hadn't slept very well all week -- partly due to nerves, but mostly because I was worried I would sleep through my alarm. For those that know me, I can be pretty difficult to wake up. My mom would attest to that (does a really annoying Tasmanian devil alarm clock sound familiar?). I made it my goal to be at the hospital before my preceptor.

I couldn't have asked for a better first rotation. The cardiology group that I am rotating with is awesome! The PA, Adam, (my main preceptor) and all of the doctors are great! Really nice, excited about teaching, and not in the slightest bit mean when I don't know the answers to their "pimping." I am liking cardiology more than I thought I would and like the role of the PA in this practice. Adam spends 2-3 days a week in the office and the other half of the time rounding in the hospital. Seems like a good mix. So here's a rundown of what I did/got to see this week.

I saw 25 patients in the office - about half were 6 month follow-ups for various complaints and the other half were "sick calls" (patients coming in for specific complaints)
The first day in the hospital I rounded with Adam and saw 5 patients.
On Friday, I was on my own in the hospital for 2 hours, rounding on 3 patients and writing notes and then meeting up with Adam to "present" the patients. There's an art to presenting to your preceptor that I'm not comfortable with but I hear it's get easier.
I helped with 10 nuclear medicine stress tests
Watched 4 cardiac cath procedures (entering through an artery in the leg and injecting dye into the coronary arteries to look for coronary artery disease)
Watched 2 stent placements into the coronary arteries
Interpreted about 20 EKGs (I probably only got about half right)
and the HIGHLIGHT of my week....I got to shock someone! It was a patient in an abnormal heart rhythm that I got to "cardiovert" back into a normal rhythm. That was pretty exciting!!

Sound like enough for 1 week? It was a busy week -- we started between 7:30-8am and ended somewhere around 5-5:30 (except for Friday when I left around 2pm). I don't have to take call on the weekends so I'm spending the weekend cleaning, hanging out with Steve and reading. Not sure who all is reading this but we miss everyone!!

More later - Michelle