Thursday, October 27, 2016

Babies, Pap Smears, and Early Hours: Starting off OB/GYN Strong!

Adding another hospital badge to the collection!
This week is seriously flying by! I started my OB/GYN rotation on Monday, and so far it’s been a super fun experience. I wasn’t sure if I would find it awkward or amusing that my preceptor is my actual gynecologist, but my first day started off smoothly with no awkward moments at all. I am actually pretty happy to have my gynecologist as a preceptor because I originally sought him out due to the fact that he is a DO, is African-American (we don’t have enough black men in medicine), and he had great reviews. Before Monday, I had never been in his office, so it was awe-inspiring to see all the degrees on the wall, awards from the National Medical Association, and even a gorgeous painting of black physicians and patients which is included below. I even found out that he used to be a member of the SNMA, so that made me extra happy :-)

Love this picture!!!!
My first day was spent seeing patients for mostly annual exams and OB follow-ups. I was able to use the mini Doppler ultrasound on some of the patients to make sure their babies heart beats were strong, and it was fun seeing some of them get excited over it. I even got to take the initial history of some of the new patients, and since it had been a while since I performed one on a standardized patient, the doctor went over how to properly perform speculum exams and pap smears.

Ready to find that heartbeat!

On Tuesday, I headed over to a clinic that mostly caters to immigrant populations and I really enjoyed my day there. I had one embarrassing moment when I walked into a patient’s room and immediately started speaking Spanish, only to find out that her main language was Russian and a small amount of English, but I quickly caught on when she looked at me like I was crazy LOL. In my defense, over 90% of the patients that morning only spoke Spanish, but from now on, I will definitely ask the language when I first step into the room. On the plus side, the doc treated us all to a tasty lunch from a Colombian restaurant and it was one of the employee’s birthday, so there were delicious cupcakes that day too. At around 2pm we saw the last patient, and the doc told me we were waiting on a patient to deliver at the hospital but it would be a while, so I went home to relax. I figured he had forgot about me when I went to bed around 11pm, but I was woken up bright and early with a text that said to meet him at the hospital. Luckily, the hospital I am rotating at this month is only 10 minutes away from me, and my sister is here taking on the nanny role, so I quickly cleaned up, got dressed, and made my way to the Labor & Delivery section. The patient ended up not being ready until after 7am, but the delivery occurred really fast. I was all gowned up and ready to go, and the doc instructed me where to put my hands and I DELIVERED MY FIRST BABY!!!!! It was such a cool moment, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it, because he was then instructing me on where to clamp, where to tell the father to cut, and how to properly remove a placenta. There were also two more deliveries we were waiting on, so we left to go check on those mothers right after.

The "I just delivered my first baby" Selfie :-)
All-in-All, I ended up delivering 2/3 babies (the last one too big for a beginner) and 3/3 placentas, so it was a great day! The only con is that there was a lot of waiting around for the patients to fully dilate and be ready to give birth, but I had the pleasure of being able to chill out in the physician’s lounge which was really nice. I caught up on a little Netflix and even finished up some work I had been putting off, so I was able to actually relax and get some rest when I finally did make it home.

I voted! Have you?
I can’t wait to see what the rest of my month in OB/GYN brings, and I am looking forward to getting the chance to perfect my suturing skills in the OR. Today I had the pleasure of having the day off, so I took advantage of the early voting that is currently taking place and went out and exercised my right to vote. It took less than 30 min and only required an ID, so I strongly encourage all of you to go out, vote, and let your voice be heard. Welp, tomorrow will probably be another super early day, so until next time!    





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