Last week was the end of my first clinical rotation. I parted ways with my patient the Friday before that, which was actually quite sad. He said that he would miss me. I didn't know what to say. Hopefully he continues to get the help that he needs and can eventually become well enough to leave the hospital.
This week, I began my Ob/Gyn rotation at Jacobi Medical Center, our next-door city-owned teaching affiliate. I happen to be starting off on the Labor and Delivery floor for the first ~1.5 weeks. Today, my first day up on the floor, I witnessed 4 births: two natural, and a pair of twins by C-section. Theoretically the C-section was interesting and cool to see (my first time ever in an operating room!), but really it just made me resolute that, given the choice, I would never want to go through that. The mother couldn't really see what was going on, and thank goodness. Surgery is, by its nature, a violent act (cutting open tissues that, in this case at least, are perfectly healthy), but on top of that, the surgeons aren't exactly what I would call gentle. I'll leave it at that.
Obviously this is a lot different from my psychiatry rotation. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm entirely done with psych. Today, I saw a patient who believed she was 42 weeks pregnant and scheduled to be induced this evening. She believed. Well, she wasn't pregnant, not even a little bit. She probably has pseudocyesis, a condition in which patients believe and even experience symptoms of pregnancy without actually being pregnant. I felt well prepared to talk to her and her family, who were obviously all going through some very intense emotions when they found out that she actually wasn't pregnant and about to deliver a baby. It was really rewarding that the doctor and nurses allowed me to essentially take on the patient for myself. Mostly, they didn't especially feel like dealing with someone who wasn't actually supposed to be there (no baby = no reason to be on Labor and Delivery floor), but one of the nurses later told me that I did a good job. That was rewarding. I had a feeling psych would come in handy after the rotation was over...
This week, I began my Ob/Gyn rotation at Jacobi Medical Center, our next-door city-owned teaching affiliate. I happen to be starting off on the Labor and Delivery floor for the first ~1.5 weeks. Today, my first day up on the floor, I witnessed 4 births: two natural, and a pair of twins by C-section. Theoretically the C-section was interesting and cool to see (my first time ever in an operating room!), but really it just made me resolute that, given the choice, I would never want to go through that. The mother couldn't really see what was going on, and thank goodness. Surgery is, by its nature, a violent act (cutting open tissues that, in this case at least, are perfectly healthy), but on top of that, the surgeons aren't exactly what I would call gentle. I'll leave it at that.
Obviously this is a lot different from my psychiatry rotation. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm entirely done with psych. Today, I saw a patient who believed she was 42 weeks pregnant and scheduled to be induced this evening. She believed. Well, she wasn't pregnant, not even a little bit. She probably has pseudocyesis, a condition in which patients believe and even experience symptoms of pregnancy without actually being pregnant. I felt well prepared to talk to her and her family, who were obviously all going through some very intense emotions when they found out that she actually wasn't pregnant and about to deliver a baby. It was really rewarding that the doctor and nurses allowed me to essentially take on the patient for myself. Mostly, they didn't especially feel like dealing with someone who wasn't actually supposed to be there (no baby = no reason to be on Labor and Delivery floor), but one of the nurses later told me that I did a good job. That was rewarding. I had a feeling psych would come in handy after the rotation was over...
No comments:
Post a Comment