On Call

When you think of a doctor on call, images of someone in scrubs walking briskly down a hallway, white coat flapping in the wind, and the sound of a pager incessantly beeping and the words "Code Blue Room 114" probably come to mind.

However, when you think of an M3 on call, a more accurate description would be two students sitting in a lounge, maybe sleeping on the couch or playing on the computer wondering when they'll get to go home... no beepers, no Codes...

Yeah... I'm the one at the computer...

Senior Planning: Part Duex

Senior Planning Day came and went. Yes, I even turned in a schedule. But have I made a decision on what I'm going to be when I grow up? The answer to that is a resounding heck no...

Instead, I have turned in a schedule that allows me to postpone the decision a few more precious months. I actually don't think I have to have an answer until November when applications are due, and even then I can delay the inevitable by applying in more than one specialty.

So, for anyone out there who is sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to know which clinic to make an appointment with in 2010 for Dr. Miller, you might want to start some prophylactic heparin for the DVTs you might develop.

Birthday Baby

As fate would have it, I was assigned to be on Labor and Delivery the week of my birthday. And as my pure and undeniable bad luck dictated, I was working L&D nights.

Well, trying to be positive, the good news is I had the opportunity before me to deliver my very own birthday baby. And just to keep it real special, my resident was no other than my very own sister, Dr. Can-O'-Whoop-Ass.

I would like to believe this baby knew the gravity of the task at hand. It had pretty big shoes to fill to share my birthday (my silver annivesary of birth, if you will). So, instead of coming into this world the regular old, fairly undramatic way of through the birth canal head first, at about 1am this baby decided to send it's umbilical cord as a scouting party. This condition (called cord prolapse) is an emergency. So with Dr. COWA on the OR table underneath the drapes desperately trying to hold the umbilical cord in the uterus to prevent the baby from essentially suffocating itself, I scrubbed in to help cut the baby out in a STAT C-section (skin cut to deliver time less than 90 seconds).

So, it was dramatic, maybe a little over the top. But, I have to admit, Birthday Baby, you did me proud. I like your moves. I like your style.