like kids in a candy store!

my classmate, LP, and I

Seriously, when the clinical coordinator took us back to the locker room and told us to change so we could go observe some of the morning's cases you would have thought we were two kids in a candy store. We were so excited to be putting on surgical scrubs and getting to at least observe surgeries. Today was one of my most fun clinical days by far. Not to mention I dig the whole scheme of the surgery center...and the work hours aren't so bad either! That's some food for thought for later...

I observed three cases total. The first two were Ts&As, or tubes and adenoidectomies. The CRNA, MD and RNs were awesome as far as letting me get in right over their shoulders and seeing every little thing they were doing. My last case was a GYN--hysteroscopic D&C of polyps, and what was supposed to be an operative laparoscopy. The polyps turned out to be the size of large peanut M&Ms and the lap ended up being only exploratory as the surgeon didn't find anything problematic. He was as great as the CRNA and MD from before, and so was the CRNA from the GYN case. The GYN surgeon let me get right in their over his shoulder and get a bird's eye view of the whole procedure.

Everyone we encountered today was awesome to be around. It was sort of a utopia of medical facilities! So after an exhilarating morning LP and I left as high as if we'd sucked down some gummy worms, sour patch kids, and pixie sticks!

Tomorrow (I'm going out to lunch with a friend, getting my hair trimmed and a pedicure), which would normally be a clinical day is instead a day off, since LP and I are going to a local wound care center on Friday. That's as exciting to me as all the other things I've been doing. Next week we head up to the hospital and start our regular rotations where we'll be doing med/surg, telemetry, ortho, etc. We'll have a total of about 8 weeks doing that, which should also include trips to the ED, OR, IR, and other such places if we're lucky. Then our last four weeks, which include Turkey Day break, will be spent in OB/peds. I just have to make it through the in between stuff and suck up as much good experience from it as I can. I just do not see me doing med/surg for any great length of time once I graduate. Who knows I may love it. I can't wait for the OB/peds rotation though!