Jen's Last Week in a Nutshell

Jen- Sorry I seemed to have fallen off of the face of the internet! Monday I spent the day in bed with a terrible cold/cough combo. There has been a couple of cases of H1N1 in Cochabamba and with the way I was coughing I thought that it would be better to stay home and not run the risk of getting thrown in the H1N1 clinic. Tuesday I spent my first day in Peds ER and PICU. I started out in PICU reading charts and listening to medical students round on patients. After rounds I listened to a presentation by Dr. Monroy about ventilators and assisted respiration. I was pleasantly surprised to understand the majority of what was said. Peds ER consisted of mostly kids with the flu. Everyone was wearing paper masks to help cut down on the number of germs they are exposed to. Wednesday was pretty much the same deal, except the PICU presentation was about renal failure. One of the medical students gave the presentation and I missed most of what she said, because she was talking so fast! Thursday was fairly uneventful in both the PICU and the Peds ER. There was a new baby patient in the PICU with sepsis, dehydration, malnutrition, and a possible umbilical hernia. It was heart wrenching to watch the baby being hooked up to all of the machines. Friday I spent the morning in PICU. There was a new admission early in the morning, a two year old boy with a head injury. He was whimpering throughout rounds and I had a very difficult time concentrating on what the attending was saying. The attending was drilling the med students about metabolic and respiratory acidosis and alkalosis and anion gap stuff, which I remembered from physiology class. The second part of the morning I went to the maternal ER because Dr. Farrell was on duty. Since there were not many patients I ended up showing him all of my pictures from my trip and taking some of the OB ER as well as some of the med students working in the Peds ER. It was a bittersweet day since I am sad to leave the hospital, but I am excited to start traveling!