Island Med Student

Today was a fun day. I didn’t really get to do all that much in the hospital in the morning, but I had a fun afternoon. We had a suturing clinic to learn how to inject a local anesthetic and place sutures. We each got our very own severed pig foot to practice on. What did I learn?

1) I don’t like severed pigs’ feet.

2) When injecting a local anesthetic, you push the plunger on the syringe as you’re pulling it out.

3) I suck at suturing and definitely need a lot of practice.

4) I’m going to be going through a lot of grapefruits in the near future.

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From today:

1) How to avoid leaving surgical instruments or gauze in a body by doing a proper inventory before and after a surgery. If there is even a slight discrepancy with the instruments, an x-ray is in order.

2) All the steps involved in performing a total hysterectomy.

3) All the steps involved in performing a tubal ligation.

4) What a massively enlarged uterus with fibroids looks like in real life.

5) How quickly I can change from street clothes to full surgery scrubs and gear if time is limited.

That’s all I can think of for now!

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Check out my post on Medscape about finding inspiration.

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Okay, so I’ve been slacking and haven’t been keeping up with these posts like I said I would. But here is what I can remember from the last week or so:

1) How to take a proper obstetric and gynecological history, and how to present the information in a logical manner.

2) How to perform a dilation and curettage (D&C).

3) When doing a D&C, you can tell that you’ve gone deep enough when you start seeing bubbles, and you can feel that the uterus is somewhat “gritty.”

4) What tests need to be done at the beginning of a pregnancy.

5) How to determine the gestational age by measuring from the fundus of the uterus to the pubic symphysis.

6) Indications and complications from a cesarean section.

7) Doing lunges, eating lifesavers, and drinking lots of water will prevent me from passing out. (I learned that it’s not even really the sight of blood, but more so the lack of food and pooling of blood in my legs.)

8 ) The smell of burning flesh doesn’t bother me at all, though it seems to bother some people.

9) Developing a good rapport with patients is something I’m good at, and it really helps when getting (especially sensitive) history information.

10) I really enjoy getting pimped. It makes me really happy when I know the answer, and it doesn’t bother me when the attending physician makes me look stupid. It just motivates me to learn my stuff.

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• Leaving Dominica
  (tags: friend)

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I have a million things I could do right now. I could respond to emails. I could watch Kaplan videos. I could practice physical exam skills. Yet I don’t feel like doing any of those things right now. I can blame the weather. I can blame the island. I can blame apathy. But really, it’s just my fault. I’m just so unmotivated to do things I should do. I’d rather do things I want to do. I’m trying so hard to not get pulled into this cycle, but I just can’t sharpen my nails quite sharp enough to dig them deep into the walls and get out of this pit of despair.

I just went through my photo library to find a pic to post with this entry. I couldn’t find anything relevant, so here’s a random pic of me years ago. I’m driving along in my Honda Del Sol, on the way to NYC. I miss that little car. It doesn’t start (you have to pop the clutch). It doesn’t pass inspection. It sometimes smells funny (especially when I leave the top off in the rain). It’s got different sized wheels. It’s got a lot of junk in its trunk (actually, it’s an art collection…long story). It’s got a million dents and bruises. But I love it anyway. It has character. It has spirit. It gets a lot of strange looks (especially when I blare my loud opera music). It eventually makes it up the hills. It’s seen a lot of things and gone a lot of places. Sometimes I feel like I am just like my little car.

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It’s official. Today begins the last year of my life in my 20’s. I turned 29 today. Last night, Micah and I celebrated my birthday by getting a hotel room at Fort Young, a nice hotel in Roseau, the capital. We drank champagne and enjoyed a night of fun away from home. Now, it’s back to reality again. But first, I am going to go have one last celebration with cake and my friends at the Tomato Cafe. Here’s to growing old!

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Yesterday and today were the last two days of Carnival here in Dominica. For these two days, everything closes down and people basically party in the streets all day and while dancing to loud calypso music. Since I missed Carnival last year, I decided to check it out last night. I put on a festive outfit and my friends and I headed to the streets of Portsmouth. I was surprised that I only saw one other person wearing a costume. But we had a lot of fun drinking rum punch, dancing in the streets and “jumping up” as it’s called.

Here’s a short video from last night. That’s the kind of music they play all night.

I was so busy dancing that I forgot to take many pics, but Micah did snap a few before we headed out and when we were dancing.

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Check out my post on Medscapeabout me losing my study groove.

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• NPR: Automated Marijuana Machines Unveiled in L.A.
  (tags: news)

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