Spring has sprung!!

As much as I like the snow, I was so thrilled to have nice weather this weekend. I went for a run yesterday and today and aside from being incredibly out of shape, it was so enjoyable. Toledo has a bunch of nice metroparks along the muddy waterways in the area that have great trails to run on. Spring also equals the opening of one of my favorite places in Toledo....the GUN BARN, which Caroline and I enjoyed on Saturday. The place is actually called Mr. G's barn and it's a family run ice cream shoppe. However it's barn structure closely resembles this place in Pocatello that sells guns and so it has been appropriately nicknamed the Gun Barn or GB. Our personal favorite is the cone (vanilla ice cream for me and chocolate for caroline) with cherry dip. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I am out of shape.

In other news, I survived my first week of surgery. The hardest part of this rotation is getting up at 4am. I'm having a hard time disciplining myself to go to bed at 10pm (in order to get 6 hours of sleep). As you can see by this post, I'm already late. I got to scrub in on a lot of surgeries this week. The OR is a very intimidating place for a newbie. For the most part, I feel like my hands are just in the way. However, I make a very good human retractor, suctioner and knot tie cutter. For those that haven't heard the story, I passed out on my first case in the OR. Thankfully, things got much better as the week progressed and by Friday I was elbow deep in intestines for 4 hours without the slightly hint of lightheadedness. I did mostly general surgery last week because the trauma service was slow, but I have a feeling there will be more trauma cases this week because the weather is getting nicer.

Trauma Surgery!

Today was my 2nd day of trauma/general surgery. I was assigned to trauma this month but since the past couple of weeks have been relatively slow in the trauma world in Toledo (lucky for the general population, unlucky for me), I'm making friends with the surgery residents to get in on as many general surgery cases as possible. I'm assisting on a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (i.e. gallbladder removal with camera) tomorrow afternoon and am very excited/nervous. Yesterday was pretty slow day and I was a little uneasy about how this rotation was going to go, but today was much better. I did my first trauma consult, made friends with the residents by offering to do one of their general surgery consults (unfortunately for me, it was a consult for a thyroid nodule/mass - not one of my "areas of expertise" - haha like I have any at this point), and did a progress note and some admission orders on a trauma patient that came in last night. In a previous post while I was in the ER, I said something about how I would rather start a shift earlier in order to get off earlier. I may be slightly retracting that statement - this morning I had to be at the hospital (a 20min drive) by 5:20-5:30 this AM for pre-rounds which meant I was kicked out of bed by Steve before 4:30am. That may be a little to early for my liking. Anyways, there's an update and I will try to post something tomorrow about the surgery.

It's the little things that make me happy!!

Because Steve and I don't have kids yet, I have to find other things to blog about. Before I try to force myself to fall asleep, I decided to post the exciting day I have planned for tomorrow!!

How great does this sound....Waking up and spending more than 15min getting ready and putting on REAL clothes to go meet Steve for a lunch date to watch the Zags! Then coming home, cleaning our disasterous house, watching the shows I missed this week online (and commercial free) and then going for a run before cooking dinner. Last but not least, cuddling up with Steve and sleeping at the same time.

I also have to squeeze in some studying time but I didn't want to put it in that last paragraph because it sounded so perfect.

The Night Owl vs. The Early Bird

I finished my LAST overnight shift of my ER rotation at 9am today (well yesterday technically) and because I slept through most of the afternoon, I am now awake at 1:30am. Through a random assignment of the student schedules, I rather unluckily received a lot of night shifts for this month. I did the 6p-6a shift last week and the 9p-9a shift this week. I quickly learned that I am not a night owl - Not because I have a hard time staying awake at 4am, but because being the Type A control freak that I am, I can't stand having my schedule thrown upside down. Getting off at 9am is bizarre - the sun is up, the radio DJs are discussing the winding down of morning commute traffic, and my husband is already at the library beginning his day. It feels unnatural to go home, put on your PJs, wash your face and go to sleep in your partially dark room. Not to mention how weird it is eating a bowl of cereal for "breakfast" at 6pm and lasagna for "dinner" at 4am. Talking to the nurses and physicians who consistently work nights, they love it and say you get used to it, but I've decided I would much rather start at 6am and be done by 6pm. In my opinion, the early bird gets the worm.

ER week 2

This week I'm working the 6pm-6am shift. Tonight is my 3rd night in a row, and then I have a 3 day break!!! The nights are better than I thought they would be. I've been going to bed around 7am and getting up around 2pm. That gives me a few hours to lounge around and get stuff done before going back at 5:30p. Nights in the ER are pretty variable. The first night was really busy and last night was the exact opposite. I had one patient from 3am-6am. Last night I got to suture!! I was so excited. One of the other medical students had actually picked up the chart but he had already sutured before so he let me take it. My patient was a 12yo boy who told me he "cut himself while playing with a knife." Why this boy is playing with knives is a whole other issue but he had a 2cm laceration over the joint of his pinky finger. I got to do a digital block, where you inject lidocaine into the nerves on both sides of the finger in order to anesthesize the whole finger and then I put in 5 stiches. I took me a while but I think they looked pretty good. The kid was really tough and after I was all done he said, "How many times have you done this before." First rule of being a student - you only admit that it was your first time AFTER you are done.

The ER is going better than my first post. The hardest part about this rotation is the adapting to each attending that you are working with. Medicine is so far from black and white and the treatments for some conditions vary depending on the situation. So I could suggest the same treatment for two patients with the same condition to two different attendings and their responses would be completely opposite. You have to learn quickly who likes this particular cocktail for migraine headaches vs. another and who likes one antibiotic for urinary tract infections vs. another because they are both appropriate treatments.

I'm off for day 3. Will post more soon!

NEW HAIR-DO

I've been threatening to cut my hair for a month or so now. The hour long blow-drying regimen has really been getting old and after some persuasion from my sister today, I chopped it all off. Here are some preliminary pictures...not my most flattering and the style had fallen out by this point cause I kept playing with it over and over again. I'll post more soon.





Also notice the ugly curtains that have still maintained their presence in our living room. Hopefully they will be gone soon! If I can decide to chop off all my hair, I should be able to decide on window coverings :)

Thoughts from a 12-hour shift

Things I learned yesterday on my first ER shift....

1) I don't like the ER (perhaps I can't evaluate this yet since I have only completed one shift. I was very much looking forward to this rotation because I had such a great experience working in the ER in Portland)
2) I don't know anything!!! Unless it has to do with the heart, I'm clueless.
3) I don't like doing pelvic exams, especially on an 18yo girl with a malodorous vaginal discharge
4) I know nothing about dentistry - one of my patients last night was a 48yo male complaining of dental pain for the past 6 months. He had 4 severely erroded teeth and was already taking two VERY STRONG painkillers for it. There was nothing I could do for him at 10pm other than a referral to a dentist.
5) I function suprising well between the hours of 11pm-1am
6) I love wearing scrubs and comfortable tennis shoes
7) I thoroughly enjoy rotations that provide even the slightest hint of an orientation regarding expectations of students and how to document the patients you see...unfortunately the ER is not one of them. Upon my arrival yesterday, I received the following - "Hi, I'm Dr. ___. The charts are over there, go see your first patient and document accordingly."
8) All I really want to do in this rotation is suture - bring on the lacerations!!

That's all my thoughts for now. I have today and tomorrow off, and then have four 9am-9pm shifts in a row. I've heard weekends in this ER are especially busy!