Call begins today!!

Currently 10:55 am. SAT

10:55amSat: Call began 8:00am today and ends 8:00am Sunday. I hope its going to be a slow night. I currently lounging in my room and surfing the net. Well after a slow afternoon (no one in labor). Later in the evening the crowd of pregnant ladies started to stroll in. My Intern and senior resident visited 2 cases in the ER one for VB (vaginal bleeding) and another for a urinary tract infection. The first case was a threatened abortion. Remember from class that alot of women miscarry early in pregnancy.
After that, at night I assisted in my first SVD (spontaneous vaginal delivery) with a senior resident. First the mother comes in aching in pain from contractions she kinda looks like she's groaning. She immediately asks for the epidural. Then we stick what looks like a big plastic toothpick and rupture her amniotic sac. So in awe of what I saw with that tooth pick thing. My mouth dropped open and in awe, my intern says outside umm try not to make faces like that in front of the pt. I mean usually I can keep it toghether, but man birthing is just another world of its own. Then a couple hours later of labor we start to gown. Man everything happens so fast. I am hurrily trying to put on my face mask, gown, and gloves. I am such a klutz I switched the L& R gloves on my hands so they felt really tight, like when you wear the L shoe on your R foot. I completely had no sterile technique. I should have been wearing booties but no one told me about them. Then my mask fell off one of my ears and I put it back on...Oops. The mask didn't hit the floor, but in the world of Surgery and OB/gyn that's a NO NO. So my attending is this 70ish yo guy who is just hilarious, starts to help me suit up. After suiting up he literally pushes me into the frontlines.
OH my, was I in the shock and horror of my life. I have never known a woman's vagina can dilate to like 10cm. Pt's mother who looked incredibly young, and pts husband were there to enourage the pt to push. After being given the epidural, the MOM was so out of it, she gets really angry and tells her husband are you watching?, are you looking down there at the baby? LOOK down there!!! Haha this went on for about 30mins. So after lots of screaming, moaning from the mom and pushing we see some hairy ball peak out of the vagina. I didn't really get to touch the baby. My resident did the grab the head and with a towel and start to pull the baby out. I held down the perineum to facilitate the baby's head coming out. I must say, it was a total freak show to me.
Babies are not born cute. They are born blue and purple much like a smurf. After the baby was out, o my I was not ready for the blood and rest of the amniotic fluid to gush all over my WHITE NEW ADDIAS running shoes (remember no one told me about the booties). I tried taking a step back, but I was too late, blood splattered and some gooey stuff were on my shoes ...YUCK. Then after delivery 8lb 5oz purple baby, we were waiting for the placenta to come out. So what you do is clamp down the umbilical cord to prevent more blood gushing out and you start to yank on it. While yanking on the placenta, your PT the MOM will groan...and say that hurts. Eww if it doesn't start to come out, the resident will then start to put her hand up into the vagina and start pulling it out. All of this goes in a big plastic bag between pts legs. Also as you push the baby you are actually doing a Valsava and mom will start pooing. All that said and done that big purple baby tore that mom's perineum up = 1st degree laceration. So her perineum had to be sutured up. All that said and done... Delivery #2 came along this time I was too slow, so I didn't walk into the delivery suite and I just waited outside. After what I saw, I don't want to have children via SVD~~ C-section for me please!

So the night goes on....without rest and sleep the delivery was around ~10pm, so 12am, 2am, 3am, 4am I'm still in LD checking other pregnant ladies, ladies being transferred from other hospitals for other RUQ pain.~ suspected appendicitis~final DX : cholecystitis. So back up at 5:45am being rounding on Ob pts on the hospital floor (those who recently gave birth and recovering). 8am comes round being presenting to the new call team on Sunday. 9am leave the hospital. 10am shower and crash in my bed.

# of hours worked 8amSAT-9amSUN 25hrs
#of hours of sleep: 3 on call
#times I wanted to topple over b/c of lack of sleep : countless

Baby delivery is cool and gross at the same time. Part of what makes it so cool is that its one of the most bloodiest things I have seen. Ob/Gyn ~doctors are some of the most sleep lacking people, I really don't know how they can be so perky the next morning. Ob is cool b/c Mom's are generally healthy, happy people.