update from the nicu
long time, no blog. the action at the nicu has slowed to a crawl, but grace and i have found a few things to do with our time.
yesterday: early morning colonoscopy on a baby. late morning cholesystectomy on a fat-fertile-forty year old. afternoon craniotomy to remove a right frontal tumor. before the brain surgery, the (nice) nurse asked, “you guys are straight A students, right? ’cause the doctors are going to ask questions.” grace and i braced ourselves for the worst– we have been embarrased before in the operating room. a-hem. the docs, however, asked nice happy questions: layers of the scalp, what is this little suture here and there, blood flow thru the brain.. etc. yay! we rocked it.
while our patient was being prepped for brain surgery, the nurses discovered a gargantuan hydrocele– think, two large oranges (or small grapefruits) in a baggie. poor man. i wanted to get a flashlight and light that puppy up! the other ugly thing about the surgery was this little nurse-man-thing who was absolutely obnoxious — he kept trying to flirt and made poor excuses to touch the poor medical students. such a sad little man… kinda like the other tech guy who carried his PSP into the surgical room with him in a little purse.
sometime since my last post:
- breast feeding consultation (AKA how to not get sore nipples. the coordinator was very adamant about the fact that this is BAD).
- my tetrology of fallot baby plus an ASD. apparently called a “pentology” cute face, bad heart.
- baby eye exams amundo. retinopathy of prematurity. TORCH retinitis. Nasolacrimal duct obstruction.
- PDA ligation: up a LOT closer this time. cutie surgeon. PDA 2x bigger than the aorta. whoa.
- lap appy on a pre-teen. nice wormy appendix complete with masses of pus and junk.
- C-sections amundo, one complete with a tubal ligation.
- ECHOs: ASD, ToF, mitral and tricuspid regurg, PDA
- baby with a cleft palate
- nearling puked in an ambulance from motion sickness. so sad.
- new baby with a right pneumothorax and a heart murmur
- RDS baby: we gave Survanta! it’s like… spreading oil around on a pan. tip the kid left, right, up, down, all around… so the surfactant gets into all the lobes of the lungs. fuuuuuuuuuuuuun. my presentation topic was “surfactants”– so it was particularly exciting.
- glycerin enema
- oh yes, and our turner’s kid had an interupted aortic arch.