Here we are again, Dr. Girardi was out of the office for most of the week, and I wasn't feeling well the end of the week and have some personal things to take care of so I spent a little less time in the OR this week than usual. However, when I was in the OR, I was with a really wonderful 3rd year med student who explained SO much to me. We went over not only what all the lines and tubes going to and from the patient were, but also what the read outs meant and why that lead to the decisions it lead to and why certain drugs were given at some times and others at other times. This was particularly helpful because he also asked me questions instead of just giving me answers. There have been major pay offs this week, and I'm sure for the rest of my time here just in terms of comfort. It's also a lot of fun to look at the monitors and think to myself, "they're probably going to ask for epi," or "seems like they're gonna need some amiodarone". For those of you looking to go into the CT OR in the next few weeks I would suggest making friends with the med students and the anesthesiologists. Also, I'm planning on putting together a cheat sheet of helpful terms, tests, and roles in the CT OR to keep track of it all myself - I'll post it on the BME Immersion facebook group for everyone to look over if they want.
Aside from starting to feel at home with the orange team, I also got to go the the morbidity and mortality (M&M) meeting in CT. In this meeting the chiefs, fellow and a few others discuss difficult cases and try to trouble shoot what went wrong. Last week there weren't any mortalities, and honestly most of it went over my head....I'll give a better report next week. =)
I did take a step into the land of babies this week. I spent Tuesday on Labor and Delivery, and wow, it is another world. It's pretty much like a whole little hospital all of it's own. There is a triage, which is like a small ER, the delivery rooms, the recovery rooms, and the OR for C-sections. It was pretty much as different as you could get from CT, but just as intense in a crazier sort of way. Everyone is always moving and always busy. But, I learned a lot, and did get to see some patients with the residents. I'm planning on going back another time to see a C-section and hopefully a delivery!
The next day I saw pediatric cardiac surgeries. The first case was a ventricular septal defect (VSD) in a 5 month old. The hole was shockingly large, about the size of a nickel! That procedure seemed to go well, and we were very quickly onto the second surgery which was a patent ductus arteriosis (PDA), or shunt between the pulmonary artery and aorta. This is there so that in utero the fetuses blood doesn't need to circulate through the lungs since it is getting oxygenated by the mother and typically closes on its own after birth. However, there are patients where this doesn't close and surgical action is needed. This procedure is done via thorachotomy (incision through the ribs) and is fixed with a simple metal clip.
Overall, the sites, sounds, smells, and pace of the OR continue to be fascinating, but overwhelming. Moving forward I think I'm going to only spend three full days in the CT OR, and my other time working on a research project (which I may have identified!) and visiting in other areas.
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