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oh the horror, the horror. today, i watched as a doctor stretched, clamped, and sliced through a poor baby’s foreskin. it was my first time watching a circumcision– and it was quite an ordeal [think: the netter slide with the millions of clamps pulling skin every which way]. the poor boy screamed, cried, and struggled against his restraints from the beginning of the dorsal nerve block to the insertion of the plastibell to the tieing and slicing of the skin. what’s worse, he had adhesions all around the penis, and the doctor had stick a probe in and remove all of them. by the end of it all, i felt a bit ill.

the rest of the day wasn’t quite as traumatic. i learned to do a head to toe assesment of a baby– which included palpating the fontanelles, listening to the heart, lungs, and belly, taking a pulse in the armpit, and taking the temperature. my first baby had a recently closed PDA [yay for indocin!] and a very noticable heart murmur from a narrowing of his pulmonary artery. my other baby was a teeny tiny girl on CPAP with an OG tube and a lopsided head. it was like one side decided to be “bert” and the other side, “ernie”.

later in the day, i got to hang out with my favorite baby, and remove his PICC line, feed him, and rock him to sleep. i’ll be doing a short presentation on PIH because of him. woo.

before i left, a 9 pound monster of a baby came in after a vaginal delivery with vacuum extraction. the poor guy had a big ol’ lump on the back of his head. i wonder if it’ll go down by tomorrow. we’ll see.

tomorrow… life as a respiratory therapist.

ahh. the first day of rotations. ever. we sat thru a short orientation, gorged ourselves on free food [yay for the doctor’s lounge!], and wandered around the the hospital. g and i were assigned to the NICU. babies everywhere! i love how every section of the NICU is themed: the sand box, the toy box, the “bug” rooms, the puzzle room…

we met one really friendly nurse who told us about a baby who was born with gastroschisis and how they hung the intestines above the baby and every day the doctor shoved a little more back into the abdominal cavity. she’ll show us pictures on friday. cooool.

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so… tomorrow i start orientation again– which means 5 more days at schoolio — and no more days of goofing off with the boy. my last day was spent in slimey valley– lunch at daphne’s, movie with the kids (madagascar), tennis with the kids (jenny and ryan and ryan), and the bball game on the big screen. yay spurs!

ahhhhhhhh. i love not studying.

this morning, against my will, i woke up before 8am and couldn’t get back to sleep. so… i did the next best thing. i lounged around the house and was absolutely useless until lunchtime. ryan and i caught the train to K-town and ran around LA looking for things to do. apparently, things to do = wandering around strange stores and eating tofu soup. mmmmmm. tofu.

my feet hurt now.
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after picking up my morning bagel from the belligerent old woman behind the counter at noah’s, i headed down to diamond bar to take my last exam (for at least 12 or so weeks, anyway). it’s all a big blur now– numbers and arrows and countless patients coming in with weakness, malaise, and overall grumpiness. i remember a lovely pink picture of a fungus somewhere… and a bunch of x-rays. there were too many questions where i had to decide between 2 very pretty looking choices… let’s hope i made the right guesses.

i came home, watched the spurs get kicked around by the pistons, and spent some time in old town having a lazy dinner.

tomorrow… i unpack.

1. i stalked some people from my old schools on myspace. fun!
2. ryan and i made a pizza. mmmm.
3. i ate too many cookies.
4. i’m taking the USMLE in 2 days. be afraid.
5. my brs path has taken a beating in just one short day.
6. i start rotations in two weeks and i have nothing to wear. nothing.
7. there’s a machine at the gym that induces piriformis spasm.
8. “nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it would be this hard”
9. the nice italian man will make me breakfast this morning… if he ever gets up
10. it’s not 8am yet.

: leucine
: isoleucine
: histidine
: methionine
: valine
: threonine
: lysine
: phenylanalaalnine
: tryptophan
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