Adventures in Women's Health

Hey Gang,

Well I was thrown right into the fire first day. I showed up on time in the place my preceptor told me to meet her. The only problem was she was not there. About 20min pass and there is a call at the nurse’s station. My preceptor wants me to meet her in the operating room. “Where the F_ C K is the OR?” Any way, I find my way down there, change into scrubs, scrub in, and find myself preparing to assist in a D&C. The doc explains to me that this is a very routine procedure and very rarely do thing go terribly wrong. Well…things went terribly wrong. The short story is the 20min procedure turned into a two hour procedure. The patient lost 2.5L of blood…yes…2.5L. We had to stop and get her to the PACU for fluid resuscitation. Her hemoglobin was 4.4!!! She spent the next three days on the floor recovering, but did go home.

Other than that first experience the rest of my rotation has gone very very well. I am delivering babies, assisting in C-sections, measuring effacement, dilation, and station, writing progress notes while on the floor. I am also seeing patients on my own in the clinic and measuring fundal height and fetal heart tones. Most exciting is all the experience I am getting in the OR. I have been first assist several times. I am learning all the names of the surgical instruments and have begun to ask for them by their proper name. I have done abdominal hysterectomies, vaginal hysterectomies, endometrial ablations, polypectomies, D&C, hysteroscopy, you name it I probably did it in my first week.

I am having an absolute blast!!! If the doctors in this practice had a position open to hire a PA I would apply for it in a heartbeat. The women’s health floor is so full of excitement and joy nearly everyone walks around with a permanent smile on their face. I may not want this rotation to end if it continues to be like this.

See you all in four weeks,

Richard