April Newsletter

April has been OB/GYN month, and I realized I had not given this specialty much thought in the past. I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially Obstetrics (pregnancy-related health). I got to catch about ten babies during the month, and saw several more delivered by C-section. I wasn't thinking I would use much of this knowledge beyond my tests, but I was talking with an old friend today about the work he does. He's a missionary pilot and the region he's going to be stationed in has some unhealthy childbirth practices. This is relevant to me because I was hoping some day to use his connections to do medical work overseas, and when you're in a third-world environment, "orthopedic surgeon," "obstetrician," "neuroradiologist," etc. are all seen as "doctor," and I'll need to be able to address at least the basic issues outside of my specialty area.

One memorable event this month was seeing the vaginal delivery of twins. There are so many things that can go wrong around the time of delivery with twins that at least one is usually delivered by C-section, but the stars or at least these two boys aligned just right and out they popped. Plus, since they were identical twins, they were the perfect teaching opportunity for me to learn to do circumcision. They made much less of a fuss than I would have expected, considering what the procedure entails. Of course, neonates' primary goal in life seems to be to fall asleep, regardless of circumcis... er, circumstances. Outside of medicine, a memorable event was heading to the airport with my preceptor in between surgery and clinic and taking a quick flight in his plane. The first time I tried flying a plane was with my uncle, and I did a lot better this second time, but I can see where one would need a lot of training and hands-on time with a more experienced pilot before being able to handle a plane solo. Anyway, it encouraged me in my desire to get into sailing by showing that I don't have to take a large block of time to engage in hobbies - I can fit them in a work day sometimes.

I was going through some old notebooks and wanted to share some funny quotes from a preceptor. Regarding a new medication compared with a discontinued one: "It's kind of worth it for it not to work as well to avoid the side effect of death." Regarding an insurance company's lack of coverage of psychiatric treatment by primary care providers: "[The company] doesn't take any mental health diagnosis codes, which is retarded."

This was the last of my required rotations for 3rd year, so I'll do electives now, starting with two weeks of Nephrology, then two weeks of Radiology to finish off the month.

Scott