Coke dadgummit!

At an awesome sandwich shop. 

Waitress: " I get you something to drink?"

Me: "Could I have a coke please?"

Waitress: "Is RC ok?"

Me:(For a second I flashed back to the South where "what kind" is your response to requests for a coke. Note: Pepsi is a perfectly acceptable answer. But, my cola of choice is coke, and pretty much nothing else). "I'll have a ginger ale thanks."

Sad...but true

...that I recognized the music playing overhead as the theme from On Golden Pond. 

I Didn't Know Carrots Were Served That Way

Had one of THE most interesting cases in the OR today. I was going through pre-op and saw a patient who wasn't on the schedule (always a good sign) so I asked the secretery. 

"Removal of foreign body from the rectum," was my answer. Oh goody! We had one of those last year and it was a Starbucks frappucino glass bottle. Genius. I asked the patient, discreetly as possible, what happened. He states that he was drinking Saturday night and does not remember much of anything. He states that his friends must've inserted whatever the object was into his rectum. Ummm, ok, sounds like a stretch but let's keep everything open to possibilities. Said patient also knew his birthday, but was seven years off on how old he is. So we're looking a patient with memory (likely related to alcohol) issues. Which means he's going to need higher doses of anesthetic. 

The ER report made note of an X-ray that indicated the foreign body so I finished my pre-op stuff and went to have a look. I wish I could post it but blast that HIPPA. What we saw was a rather non-descript but definitely distinct object that did not belong there. We all took guesses (yes folks medical students do discuss their cases).  Some said a bottle. Some said dildos. One person even said a plastic bottle (which I'm not sure how that would work). Anyway, it came time to take it out. After a few attempts the doctor requested that the patient be completely paralyzed because he just couldn't get it to come out. He could feel it, however, and said that whatever it was it was "wrapped in a condom." By this point half the OR staff and all of the students within earshot are in the room (the poor patient), waiting for the moment when it is extracted. It finally came out, and it turned out to be a carrot, and a rather large one at that. 

Yeah dude...your friends are such douches that they'd shove a carrot up your ass but they were nice enough to bag it up. I'm not buying it. 

Rolling right along

Anesthesia has been ok. Nothing terrific. Nothing that I really feel has been overly enjoyable (or unenjoyable for that matter) so I'm just kind of getting through it. Meh. What can you do. 

I don't have a ton of stories to tell, because a lot of the patient interaction is short, limited to pre-anesthesia stuff (I'd love to but I don't have time for your story today, I just need your meds and surgical history, kthnxbai that's all). I frequently get called to help out my partners because neither of them speak Spanish and at least half of our patients only speak Spanish, and I speak enough to get through an interview. So that's that.

In the OR I've tried intubation almost every day, but it isn't clicking yet. IVs I've been pretty successful with, but the tricky ones still prove...well tricky. Beyond frustrating are the IVs where I get the needle in the vein, but then lose the blood flow for various reasons such as bad veins, collapsed veins, the needle going through the other side of the vein because I inaccurately anticipated a curve in the vein. When such events happen I have to inform the patient that a nurse will be sticking them a second time, because I the lowly student am only allowed one stick. 

Mad Men

Thoroughly enjoying this show. But why is every man a louse. And every woman a bitch? Is it just period satire or a metaphor for life?

Interview Season Has Begun!

...and I'm (predictably) a neurotic mess on the inside. I try to contain it outwardly--because who really cares. I make little jokes about myself and how I check my phone all the time like I expect to get an email from a program. I have a few interviews lined up, but I always want more (insert laugh here). 

In reality there is no rhyme or reason to which program selects me for an interview as opposed to programs that have chosen to decline me for an interview. And that drives me nuts. 

In local news, anesthesia is rolling right along. And I find it not my favorite. But it's still somewhat interesting. I'm trying to do more intubations and IVs. I'm attempting more difficult ones so my success rate has gone down. On Friday I attempted one with tiny veins, and I ended up going through the vein. Today I tried one that not only rolled, but only half of it rolled so a straight line turned into an S. I have a new respect for nurses.

Anesthesia...but I don't feel anything...

The past week or so I've been back at Chicago Hope Hospital. It's been quite nice, and a little surreal. I spent close to a year at this place, being here every single day, and then I left for quite some time, to return and have a lot of things look, sound, and smell the same. A lot of memories came flooding back. It's quite rare for me to return to a place once I've left it. I must say it is a much more pleasant environment than Chicago Memorial Hospital. Getting here is much easier and/or pleasant than Chicago Memorial because I can take an express bus to an el line, and it moves much quicker. The staff is infinitely more pleasant and friendly, and much more open to interaction than the staff at Chicago Memorial. I'm glad I decided to schedule my last three electives here. 

So...now to anesthesia. How boring can one discipline be?? The science is indeed quite interesting, the practice of it does nothing for me. It's about ten minutes of work, then over an hour of doing nothing in the hopes that indeed nothing happens. The anesthesiologist and CRNA spend a lot of time on their eReaders and what not. I've been able to do a few things such as:

 Insert an LMA

Attempt an intubation -- due to uncertainty I haven't quite landed one yet.

Successfully figured out how to insert IVs

Spinal

Induced with general anesthesia, which with the IV isn't that thrilling.

Observed a prostate ablation -- which looks quite frightening when done with a laser.

All in all I'm confident in saying that I'm glad I didn't  choose anesthesia or ever have strong interest in it.