Feels like summer

I can't help but feel like I'm on summer vacation while I am on this emergency medicine block. Yesterday I had a ride-along with the Fire Department EMS division. It was a pretty low key day, and they were pretty hilarious. I also think they would have let me do pretty much anything I wanted on calls, so it was good experience. I was glad I got to ride with the fire fighters, especially when I ran into a classmate on the ambulance. She wasn't really able to do anything.

Today I don't go in until 3pm. I stay until 11. This is awesome. Although I won't see J today, I'll still get to sleep at night when it's dark and J should at least have part of tomorrow off so I'll see him before I go in tomorrow again at 3. Plus it's a beautiful day outside and I get to take a nice run/walk with the doggies. I have stuff I should be doing for school, but I am really enjoying this "free time." Working 8 hours after my 14 hour days last week feels like a vacation in and of itself. Plus there is a lot less stress on this block since it is 100% pass-fail. No way to honor, you just show up and learn all you can. I don't have any interest in doing ED work as a career, but it'll be nice to get familiar with it a little for future ED consults, etc. The best part about the pass/fail thing is that a 70% on the test next friday shows up the same as a 100%. It just makes things seem less stressful, which is always appreciated.

I think it always helps to have something to look forward to as well! The awesome thing is that the day after our exam for emargency there is a beer tasting event at Great Divide Brewing Co. For 20 bucks (part of which goes to charity) you can try all the beer you want and they are even having food! Pretty good deal for a 5 hour event. Plus it's Saturday afternoon, leaving the evening time to get some good sleep and still be refreshed to start GYN clinic on Monday morning. So, I'm adding a countdown to the top of the blog. I do love a countdown!

Up Side

*not the real baby, that would be wrong on so many levels...
**I only tell this story because I know you'll all hear it from her, I won't say names in the interest of patient confidentiality, but among friends, I know she'll be telling the story too!

So, the week of nights turned out to be much better than my week of days. In the last two nights on service I delivered 3 babies! But by far the best story happened on the last night, Thursday! I guess technically it was very early on Friday morning. It was shaping up to be a slow night, steady in triage, but no one, not in the whole hospital, was in labor. So, myself and the residents were going to head down to the caf for a snack. As we were walking out toward the elevator, I saw a familiar face in a whole lot of pain. One of the ladies from my sorority in college was coming in to triage in labor! The residents assured me we still had time, the nurses would check her in and get her set up. I ate "lunch" and my intern checked to make sure she was ok with me being present during delivery. She was fine with it and being transferred to the low risk floor. I got her stuff together and was headed up to get her history for the admission paperwork. When I walked in the room, I knew there was going to be no history taking. She was complete and ready to go. I ran out, called my intern, and went back into the room. I realized there was no time for waiting for the docs and grabbed a gown and gloves. My intern made it up to stand behind me for support, but the little one was not waiting any longer for the grand entrance. I was able to deliver my sorority sister on my own. It was so exciting! All the docs thought it was a hilarious story, and my attending let me sign the fake birth certificate that goes in the baby book. I felt so lucky, priveleged really, to be part of it. I think my interest in ob/gyn is secure.

Tough Stuff

If I still have an interest in OB/GYN by the end of this rotation, it must be meant to be. Today was probably the toughest day of my (very short) medical career. It was my very first vaginal delivery. Yes, after an entire week on a very busy labor deck, I had yet to see a vaginal delivery that did not involve forceps. Lots of cesarean sections, not a lot of your normal births. So you would think this would be a big exciting moment. But, on said first delivery, the baby died. After just spending my last week on oncology, I thought this week would be so much more up beat and exciting. However, there have been 3, countem, 3 dead babies this week. And a multitude of other bad situations. This was such an anomolous week, the head of the OBGyn department footed the bill for a nice lunch for all the residents and students on service, about 8 of us, and talked to us for about an hour about all the great things that so often happen in this field and why he feels it is the best field there is. It was really nice of him to do that, and much appreciated by everyone, but certainly by me. I have always known that regardless of what field in medicine you go into there are horrible low points. But keep in mind, this is my very first clinical rotation of medical school, and it's been full of badness. My first ultrasound I looked at was a confirmed miscarraige. The first big surgery I was scrubbed for took 9 hours and involved a much more advanced cancer than the patient was aware of, causing her to wake up from anesthesia with no spleen and a colostomy bag. It has not been an easy rotation. To say the least. If it weren't for J I would be a puddle of sadness on the floor by now. It does put your problems in perspective. At least there's that.

I am on OB nights next week, and I"m cautiously optimistic. I can't let myself believe anymore that it will be nothing but exciting and fun. I don't think any part of medicine is that. Sometime this week the rose colored glasses fell off and I stepped on 'em. But I keep going in, because I've tried other things, and nothing else makes me want to come back for more. For now, I"ll enjoy my awesomely understanding husband and my tired and affectionate pups and just enjoy the fact that I am home for the weekend. Sunday night is the farthest thing from my mind.

Cinco de Mayo!

And I'm home at 5:30! OB/Gyn is pretty great as services go. I don't have OB until next week, and I know that will be more labor intensive, pun intended. But overall, I have learned a lot and I"m seeing interesting patients. The great news is that boards went really well. I set a goal for myself and I got just over it! So that's fantastic. I have noticed that since I have been getting less sleep my eye is bugging me quite a bit more. I'll have to keep the other eye peeled to see if it's something that needs attention. It probably just needs some time to adjust. Good thing for the weekends. J calls me a sleep camel, because I'm storing up sleep for the rest of the week! It seems to be working! Haven't had the urge for a nap all week!

Just Awesome....

Did I mention I don't have to go in tomorrow until 8:30? I think I am going to love clinic.

Here we go!

Well, so much to catch up on!

First of all, I regained my sense of taste just in time to enjoy my trip to San Fran! We had such a great time! As soon as we dropped off our bags we walked straight to the Ferry Building for the farmer's market. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we ate some delicious eats while looking out over the bay. While doing some research online I found out about this little Mexican food cart that is at the market on Saturdays and J was naturally super excited. He got a plate of chilaquilles, I got my salumi cone. My vice is mystery meat after all... It was super funny though because as we walked through the ferry building a girl came up and started to offer us a sample of some organic produce, but then saw my cone and asked "did you get meat in a cup?" I said yes, and she said "oh." and just stopped offering anything to us. Oops. We spent the rest of that day doing all the touristy stuff along the wharf, heading over to Ghirardelli square, then bussing it back to our hotel. We made a trip to Trader Joe's to get stocked up on some snacks and wine and then walked to dinner at Tommy's Joynt, which we saw on Diners, Driveins and Dives. The next day we spent mostly in Golden Gate park. I'm super jealous that such a huge, gorgeous, GREEN park is in the middle of a great city. I wish we had it here! I also got to meet up with a friend of mine from high school at San Francisco brewing company. I haven't seen her since I was a freshman in college. I was pretty pumped. We had a great time and then had some dinner at yet another diner we saw on triple D.

Monday in San Fran was the highlight of the trip. In case you couldn't tell, we are beer people. I set up a tour of Anchor brewing a long time ago and I'm so excited we went! It was a great tour, with great beer (in unlimited quantity...) and we even met some fellow Coloradoites who we talked with for quite a while. It was a really good time! We walked up to Coit tower and had a nice dinner overlooking the bay. For some reason I'm having problems uploading pics right now, so I'll skip through some of the details and save em for picture captions. The next two days we spent in Napa, and that was a lot of fun too. I was really sad to leave, as usual, but happy to get home at the same time. At one point on the way to a bus stop, I walked us right through the heart of the Tenderloin in SF. Not a great place for tourists to walk. I'm just glad it was daylight and we weren't too far off the beaten path. Makes the suburbs of D-town look a little brighter.

Right away when we got back my mom and sis came to town! Also super exciting! We had a great time, except for the giant snow storm we had!! I can't believe that they came to Denver from Fargo and we had such a snow storm. But I was able to bring my sis (who is recently turned 21) to Coors brewery, and that was awesome! We also had some great meals and went out for a "Ladies' night" on Saturday with some family friends. It was a great trip!

All of last week was spent in orientation sessions getting us all ready for third year. I think it was pretty helpful for the most part. Only time will tell. Yesterday and today we have had 2 days of 10 hours of lecture straight (no breaks, no not lunch either). I'm starting my OB/GYN clerkship and this is all material we should know before we all go to different sites. I am so looking forward to this rotation! I am really lucky because I am able to spend the rest of this week in the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility clinic. I think this is something I might really consider for my career, and I am the only student in this session that is able to spend any time in this clinic. I feel really lucky. The best thing about this clerkship? No weekends! That's right! I will have every weekend free!!! That means I'll have two blocks in a row with weekends off! I might not forget what my husband looks like afterall!

I know I have lots of phone calls to catch up on and emails and everything else. Lots of people to meet up with in the near future! I promise I will get on it starting this weekend!

Apparently tomorrow is "score day" for boards. I sure hope that's true. I am really looking forward to getting that behind me. Then I can really move on to third year!

Recovery

Yikes. So, I have a way overactive immune system. So much so that even when J got really sick at Christmas, even though I was immunosuppressed with high dose steroids, I never got as much as the sniffles. However, apparently the long term stress of preparing for and taking the boards is a much more effective immune suppressant than prednisone. I am SICK!!!! So sick. J had it last week and is just feeling better. I can't really get solid foods past my gigantically swollen throat. It is no fun. I figure, I have 3 days to get better before my awesome trip. I've been planning this trip for months and months, so I will do absolutely everything I can to make sure this thing gets better quickly. We're already planning to bring all those symptomatic meds just in case we're both not up to par. But I'm willing to try any home remedies that might have some validity. If you have any ideas, let me know! And I promise I'll be resting with loads of fluids. So outside of those, please send ideas!!!!