Work Hard, Play Hard Part 2

This past month was full of weddings and other fun things. I was fortunate to have a surgery rotation that had a manageable schedule so I still had time to play every now and then. Next up, Internal Medicine which starts bright and early tomorrow morning! Looking forward to it!

                                     St. Louis weekend, for Jen and Ryne's wedding celebration!

                                   My own personal heaven with the world's best carrot cake. Ever.

                                 This was the their first dance, obviously. Just kidding, guys.

                                                                   Alpha Phi reunited.

PA girls at Thursday Night Live.

                                                       Kyle and Courtney's wedding in IN.

                                                 My mom, the best person in the world.

                                               Abby and Timmy are smitten with each other.

Fashion Police

Okay, how many of you wake up in the morning and think to yourself, "Gosh you know what would go great with this outfit? A great pair of chunky leather clogs." No? You don't do that? Probably because big black chunky leather clogs do not look nice with anything....ever.  I vowed to myself that I would never personally own a pair of Danskos. Guess what I am the new proud owner of? Yep, those heinous Danskos. And guess what else I'm going to be the proud owner of? A not broken back and feet that I can walk on.

I still stand by the fact that the shoes are atrociously ugly and ruin all my outfits, BUT I wore them for one day in the OR and my back already didn't hurt. They are kind of hard to break in, meaning they are literally hard material. I understand why everyone in medicine wears them....standing for hours and hours takes a toll on your body. I don't think I can justify wearing them in an office setting at this point (I'm sure I will eventually, they are carving out a soft spot in my heart), but for ER and OR they are a must have folks. Invest in the darn things already and invest in your back as well. Hey, you can even get them brand new on eBay. AND...rumor has it Steph Smiy from www.whitecoatwardrobe.com will doing a Dansko giveaway soon!

Until then, just imagine me parading through some hospital in these. Awesome.

A Great Day

Last Thursday was my last day in the OR with my preceptor. This week we have clinic and I spent today in the colonoscopy/endoscopy suite, but no more one on one OR time. I never thought I would say this, but I'm kind of sad about that. Last Thursday was actually a lot of fun in the OR. I thought the world was ending or something because I found myself actually enjoying surgery...didn't think that would ever be possible. It was kind of awesome, at least I felt awesome because I was armed with a stapler and felt invincible. You try putting 25 staples in and not feeling like a total rock star....just stayin. I don't think they have ever seen someone get as excited about a stapler as I did. They got to see full on bubbly, cheerleader Kaitlin....over a stapler.  My preceptor let me close 2 other cases and even make the laproscope incisions and insert the trochars by myself. I've been doing a lot of nursing things as well such as removing drains and NG tubes, putting in catheters and wound care. I kind of like it?? No no no I highly doubt I will be the next Meredith Gray, but at least I have survived my surgery rotation and actually enjoyed going to work every day instead of hunkering down in a corner and crying like I thought would happen. Since I am currently being overly positive about my feelings on surgery, I will also add that it is nice to legitimately fix someone. These patients are in pain, miserable, have an infection etc...and they wake up all better. See ya appendicitis, adios abscess, never liked you anyway pilonidal cyst. They don't need years of treatment or to make drastic lifestyles changes, you just fix the problem and most of the time you have one happy patient to send on their merry way. :)

Not Free Pizza

Last week Steph and I were offically hazed by the ER frat party. You get a group of guys together, young or old, and it becomes some type of frat I swear. Whether you are a medical professional or a khaki shorts and sperry wearing IU guy, you still have the same capability to bro out when needed. By "bro-ing out" I mean playing jokes on the PA students to make them look like idiots. (Obviously I am making this out to be a bigger deal than it is because I it was embarrassing/funny and cost me $4.25 hello!!)

1. It is not polite to tell two little PA students that the pizza is free when in fact it is not.
2. It is also not polite to leave said PA students after you obtain your own free pizza and leave them to beg helplessly to the cafeteria employees to give them free pizza.
3. Cafeteria employees will not give you free pizza because you are "junior doctors" and not real doctors and only they get free pizza.
4. Those rules are stupid.
5. Today was again "not free pizza" day and I looked longingly as all the doctors got to enjoy their Dominos and I ate my peanut butter crackers in silence. One day I will be worthy of free pizza you just wait.

When Needles Attack.

"Welcome to medicine :)" That was the text I got after I informed my clinical coordinator I was sitting in the ER going through needle stick protocol. Don't get me wrong, exposure to another person's bodily fluids is never a good thing and there is definitely risk involved, but this happens every day and typically is not an issue if you follow up like your supposed to. But, then there's me.

I was in the OR assisting on a port placement for chemotherapy and I went to access the port with a Huber needle. My preceptor told me it was difficult and to really choke up on the syringe so I did. But as soon as she told me that I knew something was going to happen, I could just feel it. I don't know if I didn't choke up enough or what because it happened so fast, but I was struggling to pull the needle out of the port and the next thing I knew I jabbed my own hand with a pretty sizeable needle. Had blood in my glove instantly and had already pulled the patient's blood into the syringe so as the ER doctor told me, "this is a moderate risk exposure." Holy embarrassment. I had to leave the case and immediately wash my hands while the RN called the ER and told them I was coming. Still, not a huge issue because it happens. Cue my crap veins.....

After a needle stick you have to get blood from the patient and your own blood drawn right away to check your baseline liver function, HIV screen, Hep panel etc... I'm a hard stick on a good day, but after being in the frigid OR all morning I was frozen and dehydrated and no one could get a vein to save their life. It got to the point where the ER doctor came in the room, took off my socks and checked the veins in my feet....still not good. Then, he put the bed in Trendelenburg and started scoping out my external jugular vein in my neck. I said absolutely not, sir. I almost lost it at that point. After six attempts, hot packs, a bottle of water, and three blankets, a precious angel nurse finally got a vein in my arm. I felt like a pin cushion and still had 2 injections waiting for me. Blah, anyways everything worked out fine and the nurses in the Georgetown ER are so sweet, they tried so hard.

So, all you little PA students out there, stay hydrated before you go sticking yourself with needles :) My only hope is I can make it out of this rotation without doing it again because I know there are multiple port placements next week....yikes.

Win!

Had some big wins this week in surgery...don't worry, had a big loss too because of my stupid hands that STILL end up being in the wrong place at the wrong time (read next post for my recent catastrophe).

I, Kaitlin Diskey, did not contaminate anything this week. I repeat, I did not contaminate anything this week. It is a Christmas miracle!!! I put in the foley catheter prior to surgery and all I could think about was how I was going to contaminate something major on the surgical field but I didn't!! Praise the Lord! Funny side note, the tech asked me if I knew how to open the sterile gowns...I look at him like duh, obviously I can open a package. So I tear the top off and hand it to him so the gown is poking out and he can just grab it out of the package and he just starts laughing. Apparently I had a stroke or something in that moment because he wanted me to remove the gown completely, unwrap it like a banana and then hand him the unwrapped, sterile gown. Fail.

Other than not contaminating anything, I assisted a lot in surgery this week and am feeling more and more comfortable. Dare I say I almost had fun? In surgery? I just might have....but read on to see why surgery is still not my thing and an occupational hazard.

Procrastinating....

I really need to be writing my progress notes from today, but it was a really complicated case and I know I will get frustrated so I will just write about the gem of a man I met today.

We shall call him, Mr. R. I'm calling him this because his real first name and his nickname both start with R and he gets confused signing his name because he doesn't know which one to put down. So precious. Anyways, Mr. R has stage IV cholangiocarcinoma which is terminal. He is receiving palliative chemo every couple weeks to control his pain.  I saw him today because he is getting a port put in soon because his veins are getting hard to stick and this will make things more comfortable for him. Why is it that the most beautiful souls and wonderful people get cancer? God must pick them for a reason but it sure is hard to understand. Mr. R has a smile that melts your heart and calls you mam. I know he is exhausted and in pain but you would never even know he was sick. I had the pleasure of "driving" him back down to the infusion center after our consult. By that I mean I pushed his IV pole and wheel chair. He asked to see my license and registration. He wanted to make sure I had driven one of  "those things" before and said he would navigate (it was the next door down the hall). I loved him instantly and really hope I have the pleasure of seeing him again before his surgery.

Thinking about him and what he is going through doesn't make writing this heinous progress note seem so bad...

Yoga and Champagne

Whoever thought of this idea is a pure genius in my book. I really wish I was a hard core athlete and worked out intensely on the reg, but...I just...don't. I do however love yoga and of course champagne (in my opinion, champagne is always an appropriate drink because if you think really hard you can usually find something to celebrate). When I got the text that the studio where I have tried Barre Amped was trying this for the first time I was all in. It was fabulous, and I hope to go back every Friday if they continue to offer it. The best part, it was only $5! Is that real life? Yep. The class was so relaxing, but you still worked up a good sweat all while sipping on some pink bubbly. Cheers to fitness classes that don't make you hate your life the next day because you can't move. :)