This week in clinicals was great but I’m pooped and don’t want to get all worked up writing about it on this here blog. My legs are moaning with ache – I’m not sure if it’s because I couldn’t find my compression socks this morning or because it’s the end of two 12 hour days. I was ravenous and exhausted when I got home a couple hours ago. Now my tummy is full of tacos and my veins are coursing with happy diet coke, my legs up propped up on pillows and I’m catching up on two days of internet hoo ha (whoa, 700 BILLION?). I hope to write up my experiences tomorrow, but I may not get to it. Then the weekend will be here and I won’t every get around to it. That happens. Basically I’m writing now to at least say hello, so I don’t feel too bad about myself for not writing later. If you’re a bored passer-by on my blog, entertain yourself by figuring out what this is – I talked to a Certified First Assistant RN today (she was so cool!) and she talked about this:
Author: eaumaison (Page 169 of 210)
Did you know that fish, stage make-up latex, and dog butt musk share the same unpleasant scent?
My hoodie stank so I washed it. It still stinks. It smells like alkaline chemical, like the stuff I used in darkroom. I haven’t been in a darkroom in 8 years.
Question posed on another blog: What are your most re-watched movies? In no particular order:
The Princess Bride
Star Wars Return of the Jedi
The Lord of the Rings (all three, plus bonus features when I’m sick)
Singin’ in the Rain
Rushmore
TV shows?
Arrested Development
Seinfeld
Friends
Family Guy
Spaced
LD was very slow today with only 4 laboring patients, and mine was the only one who looked like she would deliver during our shift. The other student and I faced off with rock-paper-scissors to win the patient – I was lucky to get her. She was very sweet and pregnant with her first child. Supportive family was there the whole time. She delivered vaginally with an epidural and episiotomy. The pushing was only 20 minutes long and not nearly as gross as I expected. I followed her the rest of the day until she went to the post-partum unit.
I got to check her cervix (or attempt to – it’s very gooshy and confusing in there), remove her foley catheter, and assess the newborn after an hour. I helped her get the baby latch in order to breastfeed. I even got to put in a straight catheter to empty her bladder just before she left the unit. So even though it was a super slow morning and I sat around waiting for a long time I got to do a lot of fun things in the end. (Yes, inserting catheters is fun!).
The birth was totally exciting and happy. We were a little worried about the fetal heart rate, lots of decelerations during contractions. My nurse surmised that the cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck and she was right. We worried that having all that trouble would exhaust the baby before she could be pushed out. But pushing labor went fast enough (20 minutes) so there weren’t any real problems. The placenta came sliding out quickly with a waterfall of blood behind it. The placenta had a marginal cord insertion site so that was cool to see. I would have liked to look at it closer with better lights, but I decided it might be inappropriate for me to sneak off with the tub and poke and play with it. They might think that was weird 🙂
America’s Best Contacts and Eyeglasses rocks. As I said before, my light purple glasses I’ve been wearing for 7 years broke. I was able to hot glue the hinge back together to wear them during class but clearly this is not a long term solution. I started looking for a cheap way to replace them – cheap because I have no eye coverage with my bare-bones health plan and because we’re living on a student budget. Here’s the breakdown of what I found:
Eye exam:
Target = 55
Lenscrafters = 65
Walmart = 62
America’s Best = free with purchase (40 without)
Frames:
Target = start at 99
Lenscrafters = start at 99
Walmart = start at 19
America’s Best = start at 49, but buy two for 69, lenses included
Lenses:
Target = 100+
Lenscrafters = 125+ but had a half off deal through November
Walmart = 69+
America’s Best = basic lenses are included in the two for 69 deal. Upgrades start at 69.
So really no comparison. Any other place would total 255+ for the whole package, or just 69 from America’s Best plus you get a second pair. I figured if they didn’t have good frames then I would get the cheap exam and take my prescription to an online shop like zennioptical, where frames + lenses start at $8. But they had decent stuff and at least I could try them on. I’m glad I got some new ones ordered so quickly – not so glad I have to wait 7-10 days for them to arrive.
Those are the two pairs I ordered, but the one on top is purple/pink (I could only find a pic of the blue version). Miranda graciously accompanied me to offer much needed advice. She was very direct and honest and made me feel really good about my purchases. I’m pretty excited to have two pairs because I frequently leave my glasses in my school bag or my purse, and then when I get to the movies or lecture I realize I left them in my other bag. No more!
By the way, remember my shoe conundrum this summer? Just wanted to let you know how awesome my dansko clogs are. I would wear them everyday if that wasn’t so boring. They feel great on my feet and offer the most support I’ve felt outside of a pointe shoe. Amanda has been converted to the dansko love as well. If you need some good shoes I whole heartedly recommend them.
By the way, I got another A on my OB test today. So far I’m rockin’ the 4.0.
Studying pre-eclampsia and other pregnancy/labor complications.
Watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Burn Notice.
Shopping for new glasses. My frames broke yesterday 🙁
Snacking on Fruity Pebbles leftover from my fro-yo for cooking club.
Loving the cold weather turn. Bring on the sweaters and long sleeves!
Knitting a lovely project that will be secret for now.
Desperately needing a haircut. A color job wouldn’t hurt either.
Contemplating getting my ears pierced.
So what am I still interested in?
- General Med/Surg (but not rehabilitation)
- medical or surgical ICU
- Wound care
- OR nursing
- ER (I at least want to try it, I’m not sure it would be a match)
What have I nixed?
- Postpartum/NICU
- Long term care (especially Russian speaking Alzheimer’s units)
- Hospice
- Mental Health
- Pediatrics (I’m pretty sure, but I won’t know until my peds rotation later in the year)
I can cross OB off my list of possible specialties. I had two days of clinical this week at our local hospital. The first day was spent following the lactation consultants. Boooooring. Boobs boobs everywhere. We visited postpartum moms to make sure they are feeding well. We had an open group session where 5 moms with babies of various ages up through 3 months came for assistance and weight checks. The rest of the day was private appointments of the same thing. Mom and sometimes Dad came in. Undress baby and weigh him. Change the diaper. Weigh him with the dry diaper. Nurse for 20 minutes on one side. Weigh him. Nurse for 15 minutes on the other side. Weigh him. Hmm, he could go for more. Nurse and weigh for anothe 30 minutes. Chat while they dress him, say good bye, and another couplet comes in. All. Day. Long. My eyes were drooping by 2 pm.
Yesterday I was in the postpartum “Mom Baby” unit. I had a good nurse who explained a lot of things and let me pass out all the medications. Unlike my med/surg unit we weren’t allow to access the pyxis drug carts or log onto computers to chart. So I spent a lot more time just observing. I did one newborn assessment and one mom assessment in a 12 hour shift. I had a whole hour where there was nothing to do so I studied class notes. I was lucky. Another student in a different MB unit read a novel for 3 hours. We’re all packing reading material now. It seems that aside from the labor and delivery unit everyone just needs to rest. I hear that Special Care Nursery (their NICU) is even more boring because you’re SUPPOSED to leave the babies alone as much as possible so they can rest, feed, grow, and be unstimulated. Even the girls in LD yesterday were bored. One was assigned to a nurse whose two patients wouldn’t let a student in. What was she supposed to do all morning??
I talked a lot to my nurse in MB about what specialties to go into (she had a marvelous Boston accent, I suppressed giggles all day). She said OB was always pretty quiet. Even in LD you just don’t get much experience. It’s just uteruses and boobs in and out all day. It would be hard to get another unit to accept you once you’re done working there. She said it was great while she had kids in school because it was so mellow, but it wouldn’t be good for new students. I noticed that most of the nurses were more laxed, doing wimpy assessments and chatting an awful lot. A bit more bumbling, forgetful, and slow. Most have been working in OB for 20+ years. I got the feeling that OB was looked upon as the easy nursing specialty. Kind of like how psychiatry is at the backend of the MD specialties (not that there’s anything wrong with psychiatry! They just don’t get much respect).
So I haven’t had my LD days yet, but I’m pretty sure OB is not for me. I want more exciting critical care.
One of the worst things about clinicals is forcing down breakfast before 6 AM. It does not taste good and goes down unsettled, making me queasy. But if I don’t then I’ll get faint by 10 AM. Yuck. This oatmeal tastes like boggy tissue paper.
Weird story. I have my first exam tomorrow covering embryonic development, labor and delivery, and newborns. After studying for a couple hours I called Ben upstairs to quiz me from my study guide. When we got to the section on amniotic fluid he made the most disgusted face when he discovered that fetuses “drink and urinate” the amniotic fluid. “That’s totally gross.” Fish do it too, I offered. “Yeah,” he said, “and that’s gross too. But I’d eat a fetus.” We cracked up, me knowing that he said that to be outrageous (as he often does) and to make the comparison to fish. Then he went on, asking if any cultures ate fetuses. I said I didn’t think so, that it’s probably taboo. Surely someone eats, like, goat fetuses he said. No, I said again, I really don’t think so. I know about lots of weird things people eat. He said, “Well, I’m sure people eat goat fetuses. People eat gross things. Like a delicacy, you know?” With that he popped online and typed this search and came up with this video. What do you know? People eat goat fetuses.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/flash/syndicatedVideoPlayer.swf
I can’t believe he was right about the goat part. And the name (kutti pi) is hilarious to boot.
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