one more week

one more week, 2 more calls in maternity. 5 more weeks till i'm a 2nd year!

well where are my priorities. I'm watching the spurs-mavericks game and recording american idol AND split screening while i'm at it. yes, i have caught the american idol fever and I even voted, or tried to last night, but it was busy.

i voted for clay. i love ruben, but clay gave me chills. what's even better is that clay looked like such a dork before, but he's been transformed. I love that those frog-prince stories. anyhow, gotta get back to tv.

prolonged 2nd stage

the second stage of labor is the time period from when the woman is 10 cm, or completely dilated to when she delivers. This usually takes about an hour in most cases, but last night, i was in a delivery that had a 4 hour long 2nd stage of labor. the baby looked good however and so instead of cutting an episiotomy or vacuuming the baby out, we waited for the mom to bring the baby down.

this had to be the most interesting delivery I've done yet. We had the woman in normal position on her back, but when that didn't work, we had her sitting up. Later, she was pulling on a towel and at another time we had her pulling on a bar. By that point it was already 4 am and I was sooooo sleepy. Nonetheless, the baby finally delivered just before we were going to put the mom on all fours. Yep, that's a birthing position used especially if the shoulder happens to be stuck below the pubic bone.

I didn't get a wink of sleep. again, i shall never to do labor and delivery.

the need to veg

all i want to do now is read my girlie magazines (redbook, better homes and gardens.). Despite the fact that I have a "little talk" to do for monday, i'm just too brain overloaded and tired to really put my self through academic learning right now.

80 hour work week

I have just pulled a 36 hour call in labor and delivery ( i got 3 h of sleep). Supposedly, as of July of this year, we will no longer have to work more than 30 hours at one time. post-call we are to go home as soon as we can. I was at the hospital since 6am yesterday and didn't get home to till 7pm today. I wouldn't have minded if i was in clinic post-call, but being in maternity for 2 days is not my cup of tea. Usually I have time to rest, but since I got there, it was one call after the other.

I have blood on my shoes and scrubs despite being gowned. The smell of pee and poo from a laboring women still linger in my nostrils. Yes, most women pee and poo as they push to deliver. For some reason, it doesn't smell as bad as when you happen into a mall bathroom, but it still smells.

so post call, i was happy to find a beautifully clean home per my husband.

I'm getting thick

I won't spend more than a minute complain about how i'm becoming like brooke shields. while my eyebrows are getting thick in want of some waxing, I'm becoming more brooke-esque in that i'm getting "thicker" around the waist. no, no, not pregnant. You know how brooke was a skinny little thing in blue lagoon and now she's "thick?" that's how I feel! What happened to those days when I didn't have to worry about this stuff? I could eat anything and I even remember in med school how a classmate said one day it'll catch up to me. But no, i didn't listen, I felt I was going to be like my mom who was a meagre 103 when she was pregnant. I started the pilates thing, but it just didn't burn the calories and then i walked, and that didn't do anything. so now i'm jogging and i'm thinking my calves are starting to look like a stocky soccer players.

60 sec is up.

you would think asians have straight hair

not this asian. after buying the cheap revlon straightner that no longer works, my cousins and friends urged me to fork over the money and buy a ceramic straightner. one girl bought the 150$ one, but i only bought the 40$ which is quite expensive still. but it works so far, doesn't pull the hair or dry it out like my other one.

showers

I hosted a bridal shower this weekend and was scared that only 2 people would show. Luckily of the 20 female residents, 8 of us were there. Most were on vacation and others were post-call or on-call. such is the life of residents. it's always difficult to find a day where 100% are free. we had a good time and only played one bridal shower game: "make a veil for the bride." they turned out better than the ones made at my bridal shower, although they had better materials.

gaping wounds

i've become more desensitized to ugly wounds. the beefier they are, the better. seriously. beefy means blood supply and better healing. after finishing this elective, i've realized i had better be more agressive at preventing bed sores/pressure ulcers in my patients staying in the hospital. pressure ulcers were rampant during this elective. Anywhere you have a bony prominence (ankles, heels, sacrum (butt), shoulders, you are prone to getting a pressure ulcer if you apply pressure to that area for greater than an hour at a time. these people had bad wounds that lead to amputation for some of them.

my miracle patient

months ago i wrote about a patient that kept me up at night. I had her on home health and her condition made me anxious. i saw her a week ago in my clinic and she looked great. i had her down to one medication, iron. she was all smiles. this is my reward.

puppy love

occasionally i read a 17 year old's blogger. i've read her stuff since she was 14 and have always been amazed that her vocabulary surpasses that of most of the adults i know. she is even from a third world country and hangs out at starbucks. i hadn't read her blog in a couple of months and have just found out she has a boyfriend. I felt like, "wow, my little girl has a boyfriend!" the funny thing is, no matter how grown up she likes to appear, her "teenybopperishness" is so apparent. she and her U.S. citizen boyfriend have made a blogger dedicated to "their love." i laugh, but I read the stuff like I'm a 6th grader reading Sweet Valley High books. The two have spent $2500 calling each other in the past few months. Are these kids rich or what?

sad b/c I have to go back to waking up at 5:30 am again

yes, it's back to maternity on monday. this whole week, i've been anxious that one of my co-resident's patients is going to go into labor. the resident is on vacation and i'm covering for her. that means i can be called at any time of the day or night and have to deliver the baby. YET ANOTHER REASON WHY I'm NOT DOING Obstetrics in the future!