Unappreciated Weekends

I've realized how much I've taken weekends for granted. . .until now. Surgery rotation has taught me to appreciate them. I was supposed to have rounding duty Saturday, but the resident I was supposed to round with told us that we didn't need to come in. I took this newly found freedom & made a spur of the moment trip North to see "Amarillo." On the two hour drive, I called a few people that I haven't talked to in awhile (including "El Paso"). Ellen, Lina & I ate dinner at Cracker Barrel & rented some movies (which I promptly feel asleep in). Saturday we were pretty lazy & just goofed off most of the day. I drove back in late last night & went to church by myself this morning. I made a new friend in Sunday School, then ran into a family from my church back home & got to go eat lunch with them. I picked up Jez from Ryan's house, (he was good enough to babysit her since I felt bad about leaving her) and am now trying to study.

My new roommate, Rachel, is ofically coming on Wednesday & our good friend Kaci will be coming in on Friday night to spend the weekend with us. I hope I don't have to work this next weekend, but I'm afraid that I'm pressing my luck since I've been off two in a role. Three weeks of surgery down, only five more to go. . .oh joy!

Paging Larissa

I was on call last night - the night started out kinda slow with the residents passing us (me & my call partner) along to each other. Finally around 1am, our intern dismissed us & said she'd page us if she needed us. I was falling asleep, so I went to the call room to sleep. Two hours later I was awakened by my pager blazing. I called the number back, it was the mid-level resident - she said "I need you to come down & sow up a lac." (note: lac is short for laceration)

So it begins - the middle of the night phone call because someone needs me. Hopefully I'll respond the same way I did early this morning. . ."sure thing - I'll be right there." I'm going to change people's lives. . .thats kinda cool. This dude will always have a scar - a scar that I gave him...well, I guess that the scar that I gave him is going to be much better than the huge wound that he had before I got ahold of him.

(funny note - quote from the dude I stitched up to my intern "I have insurance, can't I get someone who knows what they're doing to do this.")

I made a difference - FINALLY

So, I've finished up my 2nd week of my 8 week surgery rotation - and thus have also just finished up my second call night. I showed up to the hospital at 5:30 AM on Thursday morning & left the hospital 32 hours later at 1:30 PM on Friday afternoon. I came home, told Jezabell hello, call my sister-in-law to tell her Happy Birthday & then feel asleep for 10 hours. Except for the lack of sleep thing, I actually like the nights when I'm on call. There are mostly interns & residents there & they let you do more things & procedures. Last night I got to drive the camera for a laproscopic procedure for one of the chief residents, I got to stitch up a patient after surgery (I took forever & the entire OR staff was yelling at the intern supervising me because they wanted to turn over the OR room), I got to work with the anesthesia team & try to intubate two different patients for surgery, & got to work up a consult patient for my team.

All of these activies were "good & dandy" - but it was a simple bedside procedure where I was able to shine. The mid-level resident & intern were busy performing the procedure and my call partner was busy grabbing the necessary equipment for them - which left me as an observor. Since this procedure only required local anesthetic, the patient was alert & awake. After a minute into the procedure, we all realized that local anesthetic was not going to be adequate to control all the pain, so our patient grabbed her mom's hand & the residents hand and persevered. She only had one demand "TALK TO ME!" Our resdient began to describe what the intern was doing, but she stopped him and said "NO, don't tell me what you're doing - TALK about something else." This is where I stepped in and proceded to converse with this girl for the next thirty minutes about anything & everything. At the end, our patient told us that the procedure we had just performed was more painful than childbirth - but then she looked at me & said "thanks for talking me through this." That simple gesture has helped this exhausted & overwhelmed 3rd year medical student to refocus & improve my attitude. . .so, no. . .thank you!

Surgery - end of week 1

I'm exhausted! I think the total count that I worked is 77 hours & the last 27 hours of that were in one big chunk - I was on call on Friday & we were up doing stuff all night long. Supposedly I'm learning alot - I think surgery is exciting & definately is able to make a big difference in people's lives, but I don't think I like the hours - correction: I KNOW I don't like the hours. So far I've gotten along with all of the interns & residents & attendings, but I still feel stupid around them - and I get really nervous when they pimp me (aka: ask me questions.). Well, today (Sunday) was my only full day off, which means I need to get caught up on my reading & such.

Happy birthday Captain Collier! Welcome to age 25!

Surgery - the REAL day 1

• 5:30A-5:30P
• Saw 4 of my own patients
• Made my resident think I disappeared (it was a 1st day misunderstanding)
• Found out that the scary attending isn't that scary one-on-one
• Saw two surgeries
• Made the lab techs teach me how to gown & glove again in the OR
• Made my resident laugh because of what I wrote in the chart (laugh because it was funny, not because it was wrong - even though I'm sure it wasn't totally right!)
• Got paged for the 1st time (it was from Student Services - they needed me to sign stuff)
• Heard for the first time - "in your prep for Step 2" & panicked.
• 2 days down, only 70 more to go (yeah - surgery is a 7 day a week thing!)

Surgery - Survived Day 1

• 7am-7pm
• Learned to wash my hands
• Got a headache
• Saw blood
• Put a shower cap on my head & my feet
• Got two patinets to see in the morning
• Got to go to bed by 9:30p so I can get up & shower in time to be there at 5:30am

Pictures

Here are a few picutres of our Alaskan cruise. Today is the last day of my "summer vacation" because 3rd year Med School begins tomorrow. I'm not ready to go back to school. . .but ready or not - my Surgery rotation begins. . .hooray! I leave you with this last picture that I dedicate to all my El Paso peeps. . .I took it on our plane ride home. "Hola mis amigos en El Paso. Buenas Suerte en los tres anos!" (yeah, my spanish isn't "buneo")

Silent Night - on the 4th of July

My voice is completely gone. . .it's been kinda funny all day - I didn't realize how much I talk! Ellen is here in good ole' BS with me. We went to the festival last night & it was pretty cool. Today I showed her the sights of Big Spring, and for the first time in my entire life of living in Big Spring - I actually saw the "big spring." If you want to hear something funny - give me a call & listen close - 'cause I can only wisper.

WEDNESDAY UPDATE - Ellen & I came back to Lubbock this morning - I had to get back to buy books & such & she had to get back to Amarillo to pick up Lina from the airport. . .she wanted to stop & eat at Freebirds...it was interesting seeing as how I still can't talk. My Freebirds girl & I came up with a system of ordering - she'd say "do you want beans?" and I shake my head yes - then she'd say "black or refried" - and I'd hold up one finger signifying that I wanted the first one she said - that worked fine until I wanted multiple things on the veggie table. Mouthing words worked fine for "lettuce" and such - but words like "cilantro" don't translate as well. We made it through alright. But then the resturant was so loud that even Ellen couldn't hear me - so I whipped out my new Dell axium PDA & resorted to writting her notes.

Back From Alaska

I just got back from Alaska & got home about 30 minutes ago. We had a memorable time! I would post pictures, but my camera cord thingy is in Lubbock & I'm in Big Spring. Here is a brief run down:

Friday - flew to Seattle by way of El Paso & Las Vegas. (We did play some slots in the LV airport - we came out $10 ahead!) We stayed with my aunt, uncle & cousins who live near Seattle; Saturday - we got onboard the ship - by midnight though, my mom was sick; Sunday - we visitied the medical clinic and they were afraid she had viral gastroenteritis (Norwalk virus) - so she & her cabin-mates were quarantined for 24 hours. (Yeah - that means me & my mom & my aunt stuck in the same room together for 24 hours. . .we survivied!)

Monday - Ketchican, Alaska - we shopped, did a tour of the town & saw a lumberjack show. (i was disappointed, the "lumberjacks" were boys younger than me); Tuesday - Juno, Alaska - White water rafting & rode a tram thingy up to the top of the mountain. Wednesday - Skagway, Alaska - we did a tour of the town then rode a train up in the mountains and into Canada - it was beautiful. Thursday - Prince Rupert, Canada - we were SUPPPOSED to go whale watching, but it got canceled.

Friday - lazy day, we read, slept, ate & did some onboard activities; Saturday - breakfast - taxi -Seattle airport - Las Vegas airport - El Paso airport - Midland airport - 50 minute drive to aunt's house - 10 minute drive home.