Friday, 1 April 2011
Moving on
So things have been going crazy but amaZing. I was at children's hospital for a week and learned a lo from the resident there called Ali ( though he looked more like a Max). We had some amaZing cases with mostly flaps but sadly I got to see zero cleft lips/pallets. One thing I did like from this rotation was that the weekly meetings were held with everyone watching a screen where pictures would go up of each o the individual cases so far I've had to do minimal rounding as the residents feel bad or feel like it's not my responsibility so instead of waking up at 4 and showing up at 530 I get to sleep in till 530 and show up before 7.
Oh LA transit!
That week ended not so good in the OR as the attending got upset that I couldn't read his mind in where he wanted me to help him- suction, fanning, cutting etc. I left dejected.
This week I'm at cedars Sinai. .
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Thursday, 24 March 2011
The change catches you
Sometimes you lose everything in the smallest changes. I've had my iPod for about half a year now And it's been a constant problem. It was from amazon at a deal of $100 off but I think the previous owner dropped it which caused me grief in repairing it in Mexico.
But now here in LA, land of the pod, after explaining the situation, they switched it up with a brand new one. I lost the two updates to the blog in the process though!
Anyways we also had a patient with something I wished to never see: Treacher Collins. These kids are essentially born without proper facial bones and they look like they should be mentally retarded. They're not. They're perfectly aware that they look hideous to a typical person-which is tragic. This is all caused by one small mutation on one gene. This one small change caused this child to need to have all his facial bones repaired by us, including cheek implants, teeth pulling and fixing his ear cartilage implants.
And now my small change of taking the 71 instead of the 70 bus tool me to Pershing square instead of union station. I'll have to run two blocks to recatch the red line
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
But now here in LA, land of the pod, after explaining the situation, they switched it up with a brand new one. I lost the two updates to the blog in the process though!
Anyways we also had a patient with something I wished to never see: Treacher Collins. These kids are essentially born without proper facial bones and they look like they should be mentally retarded. They're not. They're perfectly aware that they look hideous to a typical person-which is tragic. This is all caused by one small mutation on one gene. This one small change caused this child to need to have all his facial bones repaired by us, including cheek implants, teeth pulling and fixing his ear cartilage implants.
And now my small change of taking the 71 instead of the 70 bus tool me to Pershing square instead of union station. I'll have to run two blocks to recatch the red line
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Ouch
We had this sweet old lady who came in because she was using an electric saw and went right through the base of her skull. She wasn't in pain and was so embarrassed.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Burn Ward
The burn ward came and went. The whole week was so fast and incredible that it felt like longer; you know that kind of time where so much is jam-packed that the morning seems as if it were the entire day yesterday (until you think about it).
I have to say the most amazing part of it seems to be how elite the doctors there were: they do everything. There's all the spectra of care all in one section of the hospital all for burns. In increasing intensity, they have a clinic, an inpatient ward, an ICU and an operating room all staffed by the same team of doctors who take care of it all. I get the feeling that this is way higher than most specialties but I've yet to be able to compare it to anything so for now I'll say that it was impressive to see doctors who were putting IV lines like any nurse, a few minutes later were harvesting skin and implanting it like the most advanced burn clinics in the world.
It was an honour to see people who were excellent do their thing.
Even if the head was a bit. . . .strident. He's well-known to be heavy-worded but fair. He definitely knows what needs to be done but is also fairly condescending when dealing with newer people: he will call you out (and talk you down) when you do something without him asking you to but he will also call you slow if you're not doing anything at all or take no initiative.
I took what I could from the experience and that was A LOT. I learned so much from physiology of burns to care and treatment to management. He really was a pro (as was the whole team) in spite of his attitude.
I was able to see some pretty insane cases too - one involved a girl of 2-something years who had her boyfriend not like something she did - so he set a blanket on fire (by putting gas or something on it? Unclear exactly how) and threw it on her. She was severely burned to 47% of her body (50%+ means you are not likely to survive) and lost all her fingers. She couldn't blink because her eyelids had scarred to the point where they were contracted and barely moveable. She had no lips. It was tragic and I was glad to be able to help her, even in a minimal capacity.
The learning goes on. Would I like to work in a burn ward? Probably. We'll have to see. The funny thing is, I did more surgery in one week at a burn ward than a whole month at that hospital I have a lot of spite for that I did my rotation in.
I have to say the most amazing part of it seems to be how elite the doctors there were: they do everything. There's all the spectra of care all in one section of the hospital all for burns. In increasing intensity, they have a clinic, an inpatient ward, an ICU and an operating room all staffed by the same team of doctors who take care of it all. I get the feeling that this is way higher than most specialties but I've yet to be able to compare it to anything so for now I'll say that it was impressive to see doctors who were putting IV lines like any nurse, a few minutes later were harvesting skin and implanting it like the most advanced burn clinics in the world.
It was an honour to see people who were excellent do their thing.
Even if the head was a bit. . . .strident. He's well-known to be heavy-worded but fair. He definitely knows what needs to be done but is also fairly condescending when dealing with newer people: he will call you out (and talk you down) when you do something without him asking you to but he will also call you slow if you're not doing anything at all or take no initiative.
I took what I could from the experience and that was A LOT. I learned so much from physiology of burns to care and treatment to management. He really was a pro (as was the whole team) in spite of his attitude.
I was able to see some pretty insane cases too - one involved a girl of 2-something years who had her boyfriend not like something she did - so he set a blanket on fire (by putting gas or something on it? Unclear exactly how) and threw it on her. She was severely burned to 47% of her body (50%+ means you are not likely to survive) and lost all her fingers. She couldn't blink because her eyelids had scarred to the point where they were contracted and barely moveable. She had no lips. It was tragic and I was glad to be able to help her, even in a minimal capacity.
The learning goes on. Would I like to work in a burn ward? Probably. We'll have to see. The funny thing is, I did more surgery in one week at a burn ward than a whole month at that hospital I have a lot of spite for that I did my rotation in.
Saturday, 26 February 2011
So far it's been a very incredible day. The week has flown by here in LA - and I've been doing some awesome things from the get-go
The first few days were basically in-routine and orientation where I had to walk in between the three main campuses to hand in information and get my ID card going - went to the city of Commerce, LA to get an ID card from there too. All throughout I have to say that my host, a friend of a friend, has been amazing. Marco's set me up in his living room and I'm using a blow up mattress with a foam-topper bought at costco, and got a little portable closet at ikea. So far so good!
The first day I had a 3rd (Kais) year med student help me along, and had a resident in 3rd year in orthopedics (Diego) who is rotating through plastics and a 5th year resident who is about to graduate (Gheretti Ho - went ring shopping with her fiancee!). Then there's the attending (Dr. Baker) and then the chief (Dr. Ureto I think?) - so I was two down from the attending which was amazing because I got to do a lot of assisting even though I only had two days there with them - and they were SO cool!
But my time there was short and now I'll be rotating through the burn unit next week, with Dr.Garner who is the head of the department (!)
Marco has given me some pretty awesome mini-tours in La and it's been fantastic getting to know the area, even if it's briefly.
The first few days were basically in-routine and orientation where I had to walk in between the three main campuses to hand in information and get my ID card going - went to the city of Commerce, LA to get an ID card from there too. All throughout I have to say that my host, a friend of a friend, has been amazing. Marco's set me up in his living room and I'm using a blow up mattress with a foam-topper bought at costco, and got a little portable closet at ikea. So far so good!
The first day I had a 3rd (Kais) year med student help me along, and had a resident in 3rd year in orthopedics (Diego) who is rotating through plastics and a 5th year resident who is about to graduate (Gheretti Ho - went ring shopping with her fiancee!). Then there's the attending (Dr. Baker) and then the chief (Dr. Ureto I think?) - so I was two down from the attending which was amazing because I got to do a lot of assisting even though I only had two days there with them - and they were SO cool!
But my time there was short and now I'll be rotating through the burn unit next week, with Dr.Garner who is the head of the department (!)
Marco has given me some pretty awesome mini-tours in La and it's been fantastic getting to know the area, even if it's briefly.
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