Sunday, August 9, 2009

Babies, Bagels and Bloody Bowels

My pediatric surgery rotation ended last week, and I am quickly finding out how spoiled I was. My new rotation in general surgery is going to be insane. I've been on this service since Wednesday and have worked 53 hours!! I was lucky enough to get Sunday off.

I already miss working with little kids. My last week in pediatrics got really busy and I never blogged about some of the exciting things that happened. Our little preemie who was born at 25 weeks didn't do as well as expected with the drains they put in and ended up perforating his cecum. His X-rays showed a ton of free air in his abdomen - not a good sign. The little one went to the OR as soon as they could get an opening. The surgeon didn't know exactly what was wrong but knew he had to operate because of the X-ray. This was going to be an exploratory abdominal surgery to find out what was wrong. Can you imagine an exploratory surgery on a 25 week preemie?!? This little kid would consider my two hands held together as spacious. This whole experience was surreal. Half way through the surgery I thought I had entered a really bad dream. Here was this little tiny creature with a hole in his belly and little iddy biddy bloody intestines spilling out all over the operating area. They found the defect and sewed the ascending colon to the ileum and began to put him back together. When I left the hospital that day I ran into the parents in the elevator. They were anxious to hear any additional insight into what took place. The mother started crying when I told her the surgeons were very pleased with the outcome. It made me hold my boys a little tighter when I got home that night. I'm so lucky to have such healthy children.

There were plenty of other surgeries during that last week: Intussuception, volvulus, appendectomy, hernia repairs, circumcisions, and the most heartbreaking - perianal wart excision of a 2 year old. These weren't just a few warts. These were finger like projections sticking out of the girl's bum. I don't even want to imagine diaper changes after the surgeon was finished with her. This case almost made me consider becoming an advocate for the HPV vaccine. "One less, one less"

My diet during the pediatric rotation consisted of a lot of bagels. They always had free bagels in the resident's hall. Whenever I had a chance, which wasn't often, I would run up and grab a free bagel. I discovered the free PB and Jelly from the cafeteria condiment bar worked great on the free bagels! PB&J bagel sandwiches!! No free bagels at my new rotation. :(

3 comments:

  1. Wow, that made us cry. How hard to deal with parents of a tiny baby who is so sick. You'll see a lot of sad things and it really does make you thankful for a healthy, happy family. We are certainly blessed. Hope all went well with that particular baby. At 25 weeks he'll probably have a whole lot more to overcome.

    Are you able to work out and maintain your weight? That would be extremely hard with the schedule you're keeping.

    Good thing you're not a picky eater.

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  2. What a funny title ... good thing they all made sense by the end! :)

    I'm sorry there are no more free bagles! It can get pricey to eat when you're gone from home ALL day.

    It is so amazing the miracles doctors can create.

    Good luck finishing up with this new rotation.

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  3. WOW! That is all I can say. What a story!

    Kent- you need to make sure you eat! I know what it does to me if I don't eat and you are just like me. So make sure you are eating!

    Love you tons. Can't wait to see you!

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