2009 out 2010 in

Happy New Years Everyone! I am in the ER now...was told not to come in tonight or tomorrow because it will be 'too crazy!'. (that is okay with me!). ER has been good so far and I have been doing more. I have given shots, reduced a dislocated shoulder, helped with a lumbar puncture, stapled a woman's head back together, diagnosed a pelvic abscess, did several pelvic exams and several other things. I have seen so many different types of patients: elderly people, babies, drug seekers, suicidal patients and so on. It has been a lot better than I thought and I love the ER docs! Another one to keep on my list! (OB is still at the top!) Well now I am going to go take a nap and then head on down to Lewisburg! Oh and I got engaged on Christmas Eve..so exciting!

rant

Okay..so this is a little rant about boards! Why are step 2 boards so expensive! How does one expect a medical student to pay over 1600 dollars for a test! It is crazy. The written is about 500 and the PE is about 1100. You have to add in a flight and hotel room in Philly too! It is just so much to think about right now. I don't even have the money, which is why I have yet to sign up and the test dates are pretty much booked up until November now for the PE, which sucks! I don't know how everybody does it!

One positive is that I am pretty dead set on OB/GYN at this point. I started ER (today was my second day) and it isn't as bad as IM but isn't my bag either. So far I have done my first intubation though, which is exciting! I also did my first ER pelvic exam on a woman with pelvic pain. My doc asked if I need him to come me and needed me in the room and I said no that I had and I would be fine, which I think made him happy ( I did have a student nurse help me out, you have to have someone else in the room duh!). Two days down of ER 14 to go! Hopefully we get some cool trauma on New Year's! Okay I shouldn't say that..but I can't help it!

white christmas

It is snowing..a lot! whoop..too bad I can't go anywhere now.

Done with IM..thankfully!! The rotation was way too boring for me. Now off to ER on Monday!

ugh

Feeling exhausted..and have the feeling i am be abused on this rotation..HEY doc I do NOT like hospital food..if you are going to let me leave for the day please do it before lunch and not right after lunch (I would much rather go home and eat duh!). Also, just because you are working 21 days in a row does NOT mean I need to, in fact I am not allowed to by 'school rules' but since you grade me I feel like I can't say anything to you about that. Well, anyways two days down like 19 to go...or something like that!

Ps. I can't stand internal medicine..not for me! Wish I could just skip it. I am bored!

Boy oh boy

I started my internal medicine rotation yesterday..so far it is okay but just not my thing. I find it completely uninteresting..ugh! what is up with starting so early in the morning anyways lol. I must make it through the next four weeks. My doc is kind of crazy anyways. He is working something like the next 21 days in a row and expects me to do the same..I know it is silly but we are not supposed to work weekends as students..we are only students. How does he expect me to work so many days in a row! It is just nuts.

Oh and why are docs so weird for the most part?? For instance, today a nephrologist on the floor was talking about how he loves to fart in the isle at grocery stores and watching people walk by? So odd.

Also, I am stilling here worried about everything in my life right now...praying to God that he help my through it! I don't know why I put myself in these positions.

Done with radiology. I am happy about that. I loved the doctors I was with just not radiology itself. It was a lot more boring than I expected. I guess it just isn't for me. My doctors did make an effort to show me more ob/gyn related topics when we had a break. We did have a TON of mammos. Thanks breast cancer awareness month!

sleep sleep

I am currently on Radiology, which is pretty awesome I must say, however, you have hardly any interactions with other people! I have fallen asleep, well almost, the last three days. It is hard to sit in a dark room like that for hours and nod off especially when you aren't doing much! The doc I am with is great. He is really funny but just not much of a people person. Today he asked me what my top five albums were since he says he can learn a lot about someone based one what music they listen. I totally agree with that since I am such a huge fan of music myself! He also keeps trying to talk me out of being an OB (in a joking way!). He says..why would you do that to yourself? They have a horrible lifestyle! I have a great lifestyle..be a radiologist! He has also told me that he really can't stand talking to patients and hearing about their problems and that third year was the worse year of medical school for him since he actually had to talk to patients...good thing you are a radiologist buddy! He is a really cool guy though. He doesn't really have social skills though! If you had more patient interaction with radiology I might actually consider it...but since you really don't, I don't think I could handle that for the rest of my life!

long day

Today was my last day of OB/GYN. It was great for the most part. However, I was traumatized from watching my first circumcision. It was horrible! I felt so bad for the little guy. Who would want their two day old baby strapped to the table and screaming like that? So sad!!

One last day...

So tomorrow is my last day of my OB/GYN rotation, which I am very sad about! It has been a really great rotation with both positives and negatives but mostly positives. I am exhausted but not wanting it to be over yet! My doc and I had a great explanation of VBACs today. He is one of the only doc's around the area that will do them (at another hospital!). A woman actually came in today with a very early pregnancy. She had drove about 45 min to come see him. Together they discussed and planned her VBAC. After she left I asked him how he feels about VBACs. He said that he has done about 200 and he has not had anything go wrong yet. He feels that he can do VBACs as long as he is really comfortable with it, which in most cases he is. He even said that in most of these cases, he felt that the first c-section was not necessary. He said this ,"Most of these sections were just done so someone could get to their golf game probably". This made me laugh but it is probably very true, which is sad.

Holy Batman!

So tonight I went and heard Gloria Steinem give a speech..it was amazing! She is so fantastic and there were so many people there which surprised me! Our little group of medical students for choice got a picture with her at the end which was great and can't wait to get a copy of it! I even got the nerve up to stand up and ask her a question. I asked something like what she thought about medicine restricting the birth rights of mothers in the country (aka blocking vbacs and vaginal breeches etc) and how important it is to support the birth rights of women in this country as well as the rights of abortion. She gave a good response, mostly I can't remember right now but she did say that it is a very important part of the feminist movement and always should be. I am so tired right now..maybe I'll right more later.

ohhhh and I did my first vaginal birth today!!! So AWESOME! The mom did a fantastic job.

pressure

Today I was in L % D with my doc checking up on a patient and another physician came in. This physician is one we assist on almost all his surgeries with because he broke both wrists in a freak racquetball accident (dont ask me!). Both of them are pretty cool but the other one, not my doc, is pretty old school about things. Both of them were looking at the monitoring of all the patients on the computer monitors and he asked my doc if he would help him do a section on one of the women there. My doc looked at the girl's strip and proceeded to talk the other doc out of sectioning her and said that she would deliver naturally and the decelerations on the strip were nothing to worry about..he was 100% sure that she would deliver vaginally if he just gave her the time to do so. He actually talked the other doc out of doing a c-section..pretty cool! However, it is kinda sad because this shouldn't be a cool or different thing to see...this should be the norm..not doing sections..ugh.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense..I am exhausted and awaiting yet another phone call which is sure to come in the middle of the night. Sad that OB/GYN is coming to an end this week!

One more week to go

As I sit here waiting for a phone call from my doc to come in for a delivery (hopefully!) I am realizing it is my last weekend on call for OB, which is making me sad. After I switched doctors I have really enjoyed my rotation. I like both the OB and the GYN part, I love doing procedures in the office, I love all the baby stuff (esp the ultrasounds my doc does!) and I like the surgeries. So, it is good that I switched so I wasn't dreading everyday of a rotation that I could potentially love. My new doc is a world difference then the old one. In fact, after discussing things with my school I think they are planning on removing all students from future rotations with such doc. Yay! No one should ever have to learn from such a person!

Anyways, my new doc and I had a good conversation on Friday about fetal monitoring during labor. He actually said as good as it is he feels like it hasn't really decreased fetal death rates that much or decreased cerebral palsy rates that much either..it has only, in his opinion, increased c-section rates which is not beneficial to mom or baby. He talks a lot about how things have changed since he started practice and how things are now and this is just another one of those topics. He loves to teach and I really am happy that he is so good with his patients and has some of the same opinions as I do on the birthing process!

Also, I am trying to read as much as I can..but it is sooo hard when you don't have tests! haha

I am site representative for my hospital site, that means if anyone has a problem they can talk to me first before the school or if any second years have questions about coming here then they can email me and I'll figure out the answers for them. UGH it is becoming really annoying! I can not believe some of these second years. They are really freaking out about this decision. I have finally emailed most of them saying you will get what you want to get out of your rotations, they are what you make them! Any place you choose to go will good docs and bad docs, you can't avoid that! They are driving me nuts.

Fall seems to be here but it is rainy and cold outside and almost feels like winter...besides it is supposed to snow here tomorrow! booo! Even though I love winter, I would like some nice fall days and nights too!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/15/hospitals.ban.vbacs/index.html

To induce or not to induce

Today my doctor and I had a discussion on when to induce and when not to. I feel like I am in learning a lot from him, both in things that I don't want to do as a doctor and things I do want to do (if that makes any sense!). Today he tried to talk two women out of induction. Both women are in their 39th week of pregnancy and are having a miserable time, at least that is what they both said last week and this week. In fact, one of the women starting crying today saying she just wanted the baby already! Both asked him if he could induce them. With both he told them he would rather wait until the baby came naturally on its own terms. He told them that natural labor compared to induction is easier and better for mom and baby. He said if natural labor is 100% good then induction is only about 30%. He said some other things to them but it didn't matter. Both wanted to be induced, so I have two inductions tomorrow! Afterwards we discussed the whole induction thing. He says he tries to talk women out of it but what can you do when a woman, your patient, is asking you and begging you to induce her. The hospital I am at has an induction rate of ... 80%! He said that is just crazy and doesn't understand why it is so high. He says he does his best not to give in. He says if a woman really just wants to have the baby because she is being 'broken down' by the pregnancy then he will but only after 39 weeks. He says anyone who does anything before that point is really endangering the baby and its health. We even read an article together on induction and elective C's before 39 weeks and how much worse the baby's stats are compared to after 39 weeks. He says he is really ashamed of some of his fellow OB's. I can't blame him. I feel like he is a good doctor and does the best that he can but in the city we are in/state we are in the people are just a certain way and follow tradition..or what they see everyone else doing. If everyone else they know got induced, they want that too. It is frustrating but you need to make your patients happy as well as healthy which is a balance in this case. I just hope I can be firm in not allowing this when I become a doctor and have my own practice but I know I will have to be able to make money and I hope that not inducing will not be a problem.

my first call!

Today I was called to the hospital for my first emergency. A 35 year woman in labor at the hospital, I was so excited! She had had two previous vaginal births both almost 9 pounds. However, she was breech in this delivery. Our hospital doesn't allow breech births really unless there is "no way to stop it to do a c-section"..sucks I know!! Well, they let her labor for awhile but off to the OR she went eventually. The c-section went great. When the doc pulled the baby out I was like WHOA that is a big baby! Almost 10 pounds! Crazy! Too bad she wasn't able to deliver vaginally because of the breech (stupid hospital rules!). Even my doc says the hospital rules really bothers him sometimes because he feels like a lot of his patients could deliver vaginally (he means mostly VBACS I think) if the hospital would allow it. I think the other hospital in town does offer VBAC deliveries but I am not sure...but a lot more people deliver there I know.

a complete 180

yes! the school is great and has given me an OB that is great. He has his negatives too but I really am enjoying him. He loves to teach which is great.

My current OB/GYN attending did his residency at Yale and was even chief resident there so he knows his stuff and loves to teach which is great. He told me he agrees with VBACs but he can't do them at the hospital since they don't allow them. He has said to me a lot that labor is natural and should happen naturally...but his patients ask him so much to be induced that he does but not til 39 weeks...ugh I can't believe the patients that do this! I can't believe he does it and lets his patients do it too! He does not do elective C-sections. He actually had a woman last week who was in labor in +1 that would not push. She actually said no when he asked her to push..he said you can push this baby out in like three pushes or less and she said nope I will not push. He said well I will have to section you and she said yep I know so do it! ahhhh I couldn't believe it! He is also very pro breast feeding and has no information in his office for formula or anything like that which is great! He has a great relationship with a lactation consultant in the same building as well. I am doing so much better in my new office and am loving it! We have a lady in labor now..she has been for almost 3 days! I am hoping she will deliver tonight so I can see it!

New, Fresh Start

My school has decided that this is not the best situation for me. They are moving me to a new physician tomorrow! Yes!! Hopefully tomorrow will be a lot better..I just hope this next doc doesnt suck..but I must stay positive!

Tonight I wanted something sweet...so I made the best chocolate icing ever! yummy

I also had an amazing weekend with the boyfriend..it is so nice when he comes to visit!

I dont even have words..

of how disappointed I am! I am currently on my OB/GYN rotation. I love OB...it is what I want to be I think. I, however, am hating my rotation. It has nothing to do with OB itself. It has nothing to do with OB itself...it has everything to do with my attending. I can't stand him and it has only been 4 days! So here it is

The second I walk into the office on Monday morning I smell something weird but don't think anything of it at the time. I wait around for an hour til my doc finally shows up...why no doctor can be on time is beyond me and why all of them are at least 30 min late! I hope I am somewhat on time! Anyways, I start talking to my doctor, he seems okay. We go to see a patient and he...no joke...says to the patient "well, you know women can't do anything without a man so...". I say to myself okay is this doc going to be one of those guys? The day goes on, he pimps me a lot, I talk to the staff etc. Pretty normal stuff. Then I am talking to him in his office and he LIGHTS UP A CIG and starts smoking. In his office. in his OB/GYN office! No wonder I smelled something! This is a. illegal b. unethical c. not safe for his patients or office workers! I get up and leave the room. Since then he has said stuff like Male docs are superior to Female docs blah blah blah. He also told an 18 year old today ..who has 2 kids already that she should get preg and not take birth control because he doesn't think women should take BC since they are meant to have children! Who would advise that??? Who??? So frustrated because I cant do anything. Can't say anything. AHHHHH. This is horrible. I want to tell someone but who? I need to talk to my advisor about this to see if I can somehow switch to someone else's service. I hope I can. I also want to tell on him..but how and to whom? He should not be smoking.

any advice?

surgery...surgery...surgery

So I have one week down on my surgery rotation and three to go! I actually relaly enjoyed my first week and was not as stressed as I belived I would be. I like seeing the surgeries too. Next up I have OB-GYN which I can't wait for!! Should be really great!

I dont understand what the big deal is with the President's speech to school children. I heard that my childhood school is not showing it which I think is just crazy. I know that is just because I live in a republican area. The school said they are taping it but I have heard from several sources that is a lie and the school will not tape it and not permit teachers to show it to their classes. A speech to children about the importance of education and hard work should not be political..and it should not be someone's own political views that diecide whether or not the child hears our president speak to them on such matters. What is the big deal? Why shouldn't children hear their president speak to them? What is wrong with a speech on education? ugh...http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/07/obama.school.speech.pdf . One of my parents' VERY conservative friends even said this - who gives the right to schools, school boards and teachers to override what the president thinks is best! He said he didn't see any agenda being pushed and didn't see anything wrong with talking to them about education. It is just so sad to me that our country is so polarized that conservatives won't even let their children hear a speech from the president. So Sad!

Ps. I just watched Oudin play and she is just really great!

whew

so...another post finally. see i dont have internet at my apartment so it is hard to update and when i do have access i never really think about it...my life has been crazy since i started rotaitons. i am doing about 12 hr days on average, sometimes less and sometimes more. i am all over the hosptial, admits, er, icu etc. i do everything the doctor does and i feel like i am learning a lot!! it is hard work but it is pretty great and i feel lucky to be with such a great doctor. i have a break this week though because my doc is at a conference. i am taking the time to catch up on some school readings, school papers and some research for some of my docs patients. i also bought a car! whoa i know...a 2010 subaru forester. crazy! other than that i have nothing to report.

interesting things i have seen in the hospital: drainage of a perianal abscess (sick!), sinus transverse totaltis, the swine flu..ohhhhhh, a super high serum calcium (18!) for no reason at all (this is one of the cases i am researching seeing what i can figure out), klienfelters, and lots of other things!

First week done of FM1! It was actually really great...although I worked on average 11 hour days, which is fine I just get really tired! I have been doing H and Ps, orders, discharges, progress notes and all kinds of other things. It is really busy, but I at least am getting way more comfortable just talking to people about their problems! I love this soo much more than school..haha

Finished my boards!! Feels so good! I just hope I passes so I dont have to redo it!

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/watch/under_our_skin/

Here I am...about two weeks away from boards. soo scared.  not sure what to read next..micro, pharm, path ??? just so many options.  kaplan has become my best friend over the past few weeks.  I just hope I can manage it all to pass! taking this test again would suck.  I think I am going to take a practice test either tomorrow or Sunday...well not a full one just a half one (I already took the full practice one our school offered to us).  I can't wait til this is over, I start my FM1, which I just found out is here so I can stay with my boyfriend for a few more months and it also counts for my RHEP!  My posts should become more exciting after this test is over and I actually start working

can't wait to see this..

http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/awaywego/

Board studying is so hard right now! Two more weeks ahhhhh.....starting to really freak out about the amount of material...

Really excited about next weekend..wedding in Columbus. It will be a great day off for me!

What else..

I am officially finished with one more school thing..ACLS.  I am so glad that is over with..now only OSCEs next week and I am in the clear for board studying.  Studying for boards is becoming like a big black cloud over my head and I'm trying my best not to see that its there but eventually I wont be able to overlook it.  It is just hard for me to focus on school work and board studying and finding a place to live next year.  Why is it so hard to find a place to live in Charleston, it is like people dont know what the internet is or how to return an email or phone call.  It really makes me mad.  

this though makes me happy:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/13/new.york.same.sex.marriage/

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/13/new.york.same.sex.marriage/

http://www.rubbishfreeyear.co.nz/index.php

seeing the light

Well..I'm done. finished with second year (at least the test aspect).  Its been a long haul this year but I got through unscathed.  Now  I'm sitting here finishing up on some mandatory modules for our clinical skills class and preparing myself for a night of board studying! fun stuff I tell ya.  Figuring out what to study first is hard..biochem, pharm, micro, immuno, blah!  More and more studying to come in the next few weeks, hopefully I can manage it all.  

The boyfriend is going out of town tonight...boo. However, it is greys night with the girls, so maybe I wont miss him too much since he doesn't watch the show anyways.  

Ps. trying to find housing in Charleston is hard, esp when you don't have time to go look for it...hoping something will work out in the near future so I can stop stressing out about it!

onward i go

Last systems exam ever!!

Now on to studying for my last OPP practical!! 

One step at a time...eventually I reach that light at the end of the tunnel

giving it a go

so. here i am. 

Decided I should create a journal to document the up coming time in my life so I will have something to look back upon later.  I am finishing up my second year of medical school (last tests on Monday and Tuesday!).  I will be studying for boards and then off to rotations in June.  This is going to change my life, hopefully for the better.  I am so happy to be done with classes and craming for exams.  blah. well, I guess i'm going to get back to it...study study study!