Greetings From Ohio!

General Surgery Essentials

It has been entirely too long since my last post, so time for another update! After my general surgery audition rotation in Philadelphia, I landed right back in Georgia for a required 4 week rural family medicine rotation. I had a lot of autonomy, nice hours, an awesome preceptor, and plenty of relaxation time, so I was really happy. Plus, I really enjoyed my time back home, and I was able to spend time with my daughter who I hadn't seen in two months. We both enjoyed much needed mommy/daughter bonding time, and it made me really happy that she is still doing okay despite me being away so much for 4th year auditions.

Selfie with the Georgia Family Medicine crew

After a pretty chill month, it was time to get back into the operating room, so I hit the road to Ohio where I am at now for general surgery audition #3. Today marks the start of week three, and so far I am enjoying my experience. As with any surgery program, the hours are long, but here, there are a huge variety of surgical cases every day, the residents and attending physicians are all super nice, and I enjoy working alongside the other auditioning medical students. Plus, over the past few months I have become super comfortable with suturing, hand tying, and patient management, so everything is a lot less overwhelming now.

Snagging in a little extra study time in between surgery cases

In addition to being on the surgery grind, I also had to fly to Philadelphia last weekend for the Student National Medical Association's (SNMA) National Leadership Institute hosted by the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. As National President of the SNMA, I was responsible for securing the location, finding speakers, putting together all programming, and making sure the weekend ran smoothly. To say I was stressed would be an understatement! Thankfully, I had the help of amazing individuals who helped me with everything from planning these past few months to handling minor things during the event so I could tend to meetings and such last weekend. Team work truly does make the dream work, and I continue to be reminded every day that I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything without the support and help from the fantastic people who surround me. I am super blessed, indeed!

Thank you to everyone who attended the SNMA September 2017 NLI!

Lastly, in terms of general 4th year updates, I have submitted all my residency applications, and now I'm just praying for a decent number of interviews. This waiting game is sooo stressful! The good news is I have one more general surgery rotation after this one, and then I'll be able to head back to Georgia and breathe again.

I think that covers everything for now. The next time you hear from me, I should be in Delaware finishing up the last rotation of my fourth year general surgery grind. I hope everyone reading this is doing well, and I look forward to updating everyone again soon!

In Love with Plastic Surgery!

The OR: My Happy Place :-)

So much awesomeness has occurred since my last post, but I could never find the time to sit down and write about it. I’ll try to do a very quick recap for you all, since I have a conference call coming up in less than an hour. In a nutshell, I am getting ready to start week 3 of my plastic surgery rotation tomorrow, and I am absolutely in love with this rotation! There is just so much variety and every last bit of it fascinates me.

All smiles :-)

On the very first day of my rotation, I got the chance to assist on a 5-hour procedure that involved reconstruction of an infected knee. The procedure included everything from wound debridement, muscle flaps, skin grafts, and negative-pressure wound therapy. During my general surgery rotation, I had previously given a presentation on muscle flaps, but I had never actually seen one done in person. It was the coolest thing ever! The surgeon even let me suture up the leg and he allowed me to handle the Bovie (a tool used to cauterize and coagulate tissue), and all this was on my first day! There really is no greater feeling than being able to repair a person, and we did just that.

Nope, that's not a breast implant. It's a butt implant

Other surgeries that I have assisted on have included bilateral brachioplasties (aka arm lifts), breast reductions, breast augmentations, and liposuction. I absolutely love that even with all the swelling, you are able to see immediate results with plastic surgery, and I love being able to help patients transform themselves. There’s nothing more fulfilling than seeing a woman who survived breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy, cry after a breast reconstruction and augmentation surgery, saying that she can finally feel like a woman again. It’s also pretty cool to see a patient go from having a huge hole in their backside from a pilonidal cyst removal, to looking completely normal again (with the exception of a minor scar). When I was a child, I always loved putting puzzles together, and to me, plastic surgery is all about being able to see the big picture when there are only mixed pieces in front of you. It just makes me so happy!

I will say that surgery is definitely not at all for the weak. The hours are long, and there have been some days where I have gone as long as nine hours standing with no food, drink, or bathroom breaks. I don’t notice it when I’m busy helping, but when I get home my whole body hurts and I am just tired! It’s a good taste of what’s to come during residency though, so hopefully I can build up my tolerance. I am definitely building muscle having to hold up breasts, arms, and legs though, LOL.  

But all-in-all, it’s been a pretty fun rotation and I am happy to be back in the OR. I don’t know why it makes me so happy, but there is just something to be said about working to fix people while jamming to your favorite music, and having interesting conversations with the OR nurses. I know I’ve said it before, but I can definitely see myself becoming a surgeon and having a very happy and fulfilling career.

Getting in the holiday spirit!

But other than that, life continues to be busy and fun as usual. The little one and I finally put up the Christmas tree today, so I’m finally starting to get in the holiday spirit. I also went to see The Hip Hop Nutcracker last weekend, and that was such a fun show. I seriously can’t believe the year is almost over, but I’m definitely looking forward to enjoying the rest of the 2016 holiday season while soaking up as much surgery as I can. Well, my next call is starting in less than five minutes, so until next time! 

Ending a Super Busy Month of OB/GYN

A simulated version of my month in OB/GYN

Whew! The past month has been extremely busy! My OB/GYN rotation officially ended Friday, and although I had many great experiences, I just never quite had the time to sit down and write about them all. I was busy with rotations, working on my executive agenda, trying to keep a good work/life balance, and my daughter even turned 10! Right now, the entire month seems like one big blur, but the above picture of one of my school’s patient simulators pretty much describes the month perfectly: delivering babies and examining lots of women.

Developed so many skills this month

At the end of every rotation, I’m always amazed at the things I have learned and my growing knowledge base. Before this rotation, I didn’t know how to enter patient information in electronic health records, write prescriptions, use my hands to tell how many centimeters a patient is dilated, perform a GBS test on my own, or how to deliver a placenta (we practiced delivering fake babies during my clinical skills rotation). Now, I not only know how to do all of these things, but I feel pretty comfortable doing them as well. I also enjoyed getting the chance to go into the OR and assist with a tubal ligation, and I was extremely happy that my preceptor allowed me to be hands-on with as many patients as possible. It was even better that most, if not all, of the patients were okay with me taking their histories, performing exams on them, and answering their questions. OB/GYN is a field with a lot of variety, and it definitely has its perks. The only thing I really didn’t like about it was the unpredictability that came with the timing of deliveries, and the time spent waiting around for deliveries to occur, but on the plus side it allowed me to catch up on other things I was getting behind on, so I can’t complain.  

Growing up so fast!

Mommy/Daughter Paint Night

If I had to choose one highlight from this month, it would be my daughter’s birthday. To be able to see her reach another year of life and spend time with her is always a special experience, but this year started off a lot differently. I was called to come to the hospital that morning to help a woman deliver a baby, and in the moment of helping the patient deliver, it hit me that I was in that exact same position 10 years ago. Thinking about the many milestones I’ve encountered over the years and how when I first gave birth I didn’t know if I would ever achieve my dreams, to now being in a position where I am on the path to fulfilling my dreams, made me kind of emotional. I feel incredibly blessed to be where I am at in life, and it feels extra good that I can be a blessing to others each and every day.

Love coming back to campus and reconnecting with awesome people

Outside of that, I took my OB/GYN shelf exam Friday followed by a 3-hour practice exam for my COMLEX PE exam in February, so that officially ends this rotation and I am excited to start another. Tomorrow I begin my four-week Plastic Surgery rotation, and I am beyond excited! I absolutely love all forms of surgery, but plastic and reconstructive surgery is definitely at the top of my list. I can’t wait to be back in the OR assisting and learning as much as possible. Hopefully, I’ll have more time to write weekly about my experiences, but if not, feel free to catch me on Instagram as I’m pretty good about posting pics about my daily experiences and adding to my story section. It will be another early day tomorrow, so I’ll end here, but I hope everyone has an awesome week. Oh, and if you don’t hear from me again this week, have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!! 

 

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!    

Goodbye Pediatrics, Hello Psychiatry!

Goodbye Peds!!!!

I’m a little late on the updates, but I’m a week and a half into my psychiatry rotation, and so far I’m really enjoying it! I was happy to finish my pediatrics rotation without getting sick the entire month, and while I learned a lot, I was happy when it was finally over. Between the screaming kids, endless colds, and what seemed like every other parent demanding an antibiotic prescription for viral illnesses, I think it’s pretty much safe to say peds isn’t for me!

My first day of psychiatry "gifts"

As for psychiatry, I am currently working with geriatric populations, and it is super interesting! I would have never thought psychiatry would offer a ton of variety, but in just a short time, I have been exposed to so much. I have seen patients with various mental illnesses including schizophrenia, bipolar I disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and delirium, to name a few. Last week, I even had my first electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) experience. This is a procedure done under general anesthesia, and it basically involves inducing generalized seizures in patients experiencing severe depression, Parkinson’s disease, and other mental illnesses. My attending is pretty aware of my interest in surgery, so he made it a point to have the anesthesiologist teach me a few things. What’s even more exciting is that I got to ventilate and administer the anesthetics to the patients! I seriously thought the anesthesiologist just wanted me to hold the syringes when he handed them to me, so I couldn’t contain my excitement when he told me to administer them. I got a little grilled afterwards when they asked me what I had just given to the first patient and I didn’t know, but lesson learned! Never administer an anesthetic without first looking at it and verifying. That same morning, I also had the chance to feel pitting edema on a patient, which I thought was pretty cool to experience in person.

Couches and psychiatry are a perfect match!

Today was spent visiting patients in assisted living facilities, and I really enjoy the personal aspect of visiting patients in their homes. Seeing pictures of their families on the walls and hearing their back stories somewhat helps me gain more empathy for they are experiencing. The memory care section of the facility also brings about some interesting moments. Yesterday, I saw a patient with Broca’s aphasia, had another patient poke me from behind and whisper asking me if I was scared, and I also had a chance to witness the inappropriate behaviors that come with frontotemporal dementia. I also enjoy the days when we’re in the office, and I’ve always envisioned psychiatry as a profession where people lie on a couch and discuss their problems, so I am just tickled that there is a couch in the office. I was tired of no one actually lying down on it though, so I took the initiative and lied down on it for a few seconds, LOL.

But other than that, I am excited about what is to come for the rest of this rotation. Tomorrow, I will be back at the hospital bright and early for more ECT sessions, and then afterwards we will make our rounds at the assisted living facilities. I am looking forward to hopefully sharing some more interesting experiences this month, and hopefully you all will find them just as fascinating as I do :-)  

Halfway Through Pediatrics!

Stethoscopes and Dressy Clothes :-)

Happy Monday! It’s been a while since my last post, but that’s just because I’ve been super busy (as usual, LOL). I’m also pretty behind on reading my emails, but I plan on being caught up by tomorrow night at the latest if you sent me a message and are waiting on a response.

I finished up my surgery rotation last month and now I am making my way through pediatrics. It’s definitely been a huge adjustment from surgery, but I am learning a lot and everything beats sitting in a classroom all day. I was absolutely in love with my general surgery rotation though, and I found every minute of it exciting and full of great learning experiences. My preceptor even gave me an Honors Pass at the end of the rotation, and hopefully I performed well enough on my shelf exam at the end of the month to keep it. The way it works is a student has to honor the exam in order to keep an honors grade, but if you just pass the exam with an honors evaluation grade, you end up with a High Pass. Since I’m interested in surgery, I probably won’t be happy with just a High Pass, but we’ll see how things go. The shelf exam wasn’t too bad, but I had quite a few questions on cases I hadn’t encountered at all during my month of general surgery. 

When it comes to pediatrics, I’ve completed two full weeks of the rotation, but it feels like I have been on it for six months. I had really long days during my general surgery rotation and would come home extremely energized, but eight hours a day on pediatrics has me super drained! It’s not even the children that I have a problem with, as they tend to be really interesting. I think I just thrive in intense environments, and it’s been a huge change going from being a member of a surgical team and seeing patients on my own to essentially just shadowing all day long and not being able to do much. Either way, I will make the best out of it and try to learn as much as I can, because I will never have the opportunity to have some of these same experiences again.

So far, I have seen some interesting cases that before now I only had the chance to see in textbooks, so it is nice being able to tie what I’ve learned in the classroom with what I see on a daily basis in the clinical setting. The other plus side to pediatrics is the variety of cases. I’ve had the chance to see orthopedic patients, patients with neurological issues, hematology and oncology patients, and pretty much a little bit of every subject I was taught my first two years of medical school. I’ve also been doing pediatric UWorld questions nightly, and it’s kind of fun getting questions similar to something I saw earlier during the day.

Anyway, it’s late and I still have work to do, so I’ll end here, but until next time!

Loving my General Surgery Clerkship!

Future Surgeon Happiness :-)

I made it through the first week of my general surgery rotation, and I loved every minute of it! It’s no secret that I’m interested in going into surgery, so that’s probably affecting my judgement, but so far this has been the best experience ever! If it’s true that most medical students change their minds about what specialty they’re interested in once they start rotations, then it’s already looking like I’m going to be one of the inexorable few, but I am thoroughly enjoying every moment of my third year of medical school.

I started my rotation last Monday, and that day was spent attending different orientations, driving around to each hospital I’ve been cleared at and picking up my badges. My preceptor was also out on vacation last week, so we had to plan which surgeons I would be with and so forth for the week, but other than that, my first day wasn’t too bad.

I arrived bright and early the next day, and could definitely tell things would be a lot different from my previous rotation. It was a clinical day and I thought I would be following the surgeons around and just shadowing, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Patients were already there waiting in exam rooms, and it was my job to go in, take their history, examine any areas of concern, and then come out and present the patients. Luckily, I’m pretty comfortable dealing with patients, so I thought this was pretty fun. I also learned how to go into the computer system to see the cases and patient information since it is expected that I know all of this before the surgeons arrive.

The next three days was where the surgeries started and the real action began. I thought as a medical student I would be stuck outside of the sterile zone observing surgeries, so I was both shocked and excited when I was asked why I hadn’t scrubbed in yet during the very first case. They didn’t have to ask me twice though, as I went right away to put on my scrub gear and tried to remember the proper technique to scrubbing in. The surgeons each let me assist whether it was holding retractors, working the laparoscope camera, blotting away blood, or cutting the suture string, so I definitely felt like a part of the team. They even introduce me to patients as one of their colleagues or doctor, instead of calling me a medical student, so that just makes my soul smile. One of the surgeons even let me suture a patient, which was the highlight of my entire week. My goal is to make at least one incision by the end of the month, no matter how small, so hopefully it will happen. Even the anesthesiologist said that he will teach me how to intubate a patient, so I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to do that this month as well.

Other than that, my first week in general surgery was super fast-paced, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. In just a few days I had the chance to see and participate in things such as port placements, inguinal hernia repairs, colonoscopies, upper GI endoscopies with Bravo placements (EGDs), lipoma removals, appendectomies, and crazily enough the list doesn’t even end there. My days were long, but there was so much action that the time just flew by. Also, I was prepared for super hard questions, but so far the questions have not been too bad and I can tell the doctors are really interested in just making sure we learn as opposed to making the students feel dumb.

Today was a lot slower than last week, but I welcomed it. The best part of the day was not having to go in so early this morning which meant I was able to take pictures and see my daughter off to school on her first day of fourth grade. I also had a chance to meet my general surgery preceptor this morning and he is super nice. We spoke for over an hour about what we would be doing this month and just getting to know each other in general. He also assigned a couple of topics that I have to present tomorrow, so I will be spending the rest of the evening reading up on that and getting my talk ready, as well as making sure I am read up on the patients we will have tomorrow. So with that being said, I will get back to work, but I look forward to what the rest of the month has in store, and of course sharing it with you all!

Saying Goodbye to Dermatology and Hello to General Surgery!

Last Day of Dermatology Selfie :-)

Happy Sunday! My dermatology rotation is officially over and I’m kinda sad to be finished with it. The past month has been nothing short of amazing and I couldn’t have asked for a better first rotation. I got the opportunity to see a number of pathologies such as basal cell carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, seborrheic keratoses, melanomas, cherry hemangiomas, and the list goes on! 

The future surgeon in me loved observing Mohs surgeries on Wednesdays where cancers were cut out, observed under a scope, and skin grafts were performed. I also had the opportunity to go to the cosmetic side of the practice last week and see cool things like laser hair removal and the laser lipo sculpting procedures. Dermatology has a variety of things to offer and I can definitely see why it’s such a competitive specialty. Plus, you really can’t beat the hours, the free samples, and the free food from the drug reps, LOL. 

My favorite part of the rotation was last week when a patient who I had previously seen on my very first day came back for a follow up appointment and immediately greeted me by name and remembered all the little details about me that we had previously talked about during the patient’s previous appointment. The patient was super sweet and told me I would be a great physician. It’s the little things like this that really make me happy to be on this path through medicine. I was also very fortunate to be under an amazing physician who took time out of his very busy schedule to answer my questions and thoroughly explain what was going on with every patient to me. The nurses and other staff were also the absolute best and were pretty much my lifeline throughout the entire month. I also had the chance to rotate with medical students from other schools, a PA student, and even a podiatry resident, so it was great getting different perspectives and meeting new people. 

Tomorrow I start my general surgery rotation and I am super excited for the month that is in store! I’m also a little bit anxious since surgery is a field I would like to go into, so I definitely want to make a good impression. I’ve already checked out a ton of surgery textbooks from the library and I’ll be making my question bank purchases this week to make sure I can rock the shelf exam at the end of the month. I’ll also be back in mommy-mode as my daughter is gearing up for school and our normal schedule again after being away from me the entire summer, so this month will definitely be an interesting one. I’m not sure how hectic my schedule will be this coming month, but I look forward to updating you all on this wonderful journey. Wishing everyone a fantastic week!