Late Sunday night Sarah was arriving on a bus from Detroit. She had taken the megabus, and it was set to arrive in Chicago at 1 am. But as with all public transport it was set to arrive late. Now, a side note about megabus. This company puts large graphics on their buses, but they failed to acknowledge the mechanical parts of the bus's layout first, resulting in this.
This my friends is an unhappy accident. I give you the Hitler bus.
Unfortunate mishaps aside, Sarah arrived at 2am and we drove home quietly along Lake Shore drive. I had to be up at 7am the next morning so I went to bed promptly. My current rotation is OBGYN or everything related to women, birth, babies and reproductive studies. I had a very long day at the Clinic today. We had so many patients back to back to back that I managed not to eat for 10 hours. (This may not seem like much but for me was a special kind of torture.) Nonetheless, a long day without eating on only a few hours of sleep made me have an early night (9pm bed time , which is also the earliest I've gone to bed since I was a child)
So I close my eyes and fall asleep.
My phone rings at 2 am with my Doctor on the line. (The one I follow at the hospital) "We have a delivery and we'll see you at the hospital ASAP!"
Up I went. I got dressed in record time. I packed up my backpack with my lunch, my computer and something to drink and out the door I went. The average time it take me to get to the hospital in the morning when leaving at 8 am is 40 mins. When you leave for work at 2am though, 19mins. I was the only car on the road for most on my ride. So I cruising down Lake Shore drive and make a few turns here and there. Before I knew it I was 5 minutes out. I was going along and came to a cross street under a bridge with limited visibility. The light was red. So stopped quickly. (And I didnt learn from my mom all these years when she would put out her arm to prevent my head from slamming the dashboard when stopping quickly) My backpack that was on the passenger's side seat took flight and after doing a graceful back-flip, landed on the floor with a nice crunch. And here is the result:
My poor laptop took the hit, but luckily I'm using it to type this very blog... for now.
So I continue to the hospital, park, and fly up the elevator to Labor and Delivery. I got my scrubs on and walked into the room and within a minute I was there to catch the baby with my doctor. The Doc let me essentially deliver the baby. I delivered the placenta no problem and mom and baby are doing great. I describe this delivery passively because like I said earlier, I'm working backwards in my storytelling. This was my second delivery :-)
I've been in my OBGYN rotation for 3 full weeks now. I've learned and experienced so much in so very little time. In this rotation I've gotten to watch and perform Ultrasound. I've been able to tell a new mother she is pregnant for the first time, I've been able to identify fetal organs and heart beats. I've been able to identify the gender of the fetus and see the smiles of happy couples and now I've been able to hand over the newborn child for the mother to hold for the first time. Its a very rewarding rotation.
The time in the clinic is very similar each day. We see very common infections, and other STD's. We also doing prenatal care (care for mom /fetus for 38weeks prior to delivery). The routine of seeing patients and writing logs on patients has become second nature (although I still need more practice).
The first delivery I helped perform came on my 1st ever overnight shift at the hospital. It was a surreal feeling staying overnight knowing that anything,( or nothing) could happen. I spent my time working with a resident that night. After getting acquainted with the floor and layout, I spent a few hours studying in the lounge. That's when we got a call. The mom had come in with contractions 5 mins apart. The resident and I saw the pt and went back to the lounge to start writing a pt log and received a call a minute later. Her water broke. So we rushed back to L&D and got gloved and gowned . and before we knew it.
The baby came out in a matter of seconds. The resident taught me everything I now know about delivering a baby. he showed me the proper way to get the head out, Checking to see if the cord is around the neck. (It's better if it isn't!) And using suction to get the gunk out of the baby's airway. How to clamp and cut the cord, Taking a sample of cord, and delivering the placenta. He even showed me how to examine the baby and after all the commotion has slowed down. I had a smile on my face the entire time.
Going back further to the end of my pysch rotation. First off, I got an A in my Pysch rotation and nailed my Shelf exam! YES. So that made me pretty happy.
Moving on. So life in the city has been a lot of fun. For my birthday Sarah gave me some super stylish cufflinks of the caduceus :
The cats have been a special kind of "good." The new guy we adopted we named Spock. and before too long we started calling him "Suck." he is trully wonderful being, but he is the equivelent of a child in the terrible 2's. He cries and poops and constantly needs loving... but only from the hours of 2am-6 am. (We like the last part most of all). The kitties get along like dropping Pure sodium into a bucket of water. (if you dont know what that looks like you're in for a real treat)
(put the link above into your web browser or click it and watch)
We actually went as far as to give Spock a middle name of Ulysses, just to make his initials :
SUK.
So is name is basically suck. :-)
Here they are in daily life.
And she also got me a portable disc golf basket! So the weekend I got this we went to the beach and I practiced my throwing (putting) and had a great time.
That's it for now!
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