A new stage in learning

omg, I'm still alive. It's true. Anyway, I've just completed my first rotation for my 3rd year of medical school, and I thought it would be a good time to update. For those on the outside of the med school world, the 3rd year involves 6 core rotations including 6 weeks each of Ob/Gyn, family medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry, and 12 weeks each of internal medicine and surgery. That's the order I'm going in, so I started Ob/Gyn on September 6 and finished Friday with the dreaded shelf exam. Now this post is dedicated to what I've learned.

I'll start off with the best part: I got to deliver 3 babies. :) I saw like 12 new people come into the world, but those 3 I actually got to deliver/help deliver.

Ok, so during my 2 weeks in gynecological surgery I saw/learned about:
-dilation & curettage & endometrial ablation (getting rid of the endometrial layer of the uterus)
-hysteroscopy (a camera that looks inside the uterus)
-total abdominal hysterectomy
-robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy
-vaginal hysterectomy (didn't even know that was possible 6 weeks ago)
-repair of cystocele (cystocele = the bladder losing support & bulging backwards)
yeah, sadly surgery was the most boring part

2 weeks on labor floor, including 1 week of nights:
-preeclampsia (high blood pressure, protein in urine, & swelling)
-HELLP syndrome (Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, & Low Platelets)
-postpartum hemorrhage
-Cesarean sections (both low transverse & an inverted T-shape)
-twin delivery (apparently most of the time twins are delivered by C-section, but this was a natural birth & the 2nd baby came out butt first/breech)
-ectopic pregnancy
-non-stress tests (to check on how the baby is doing before it is born - when the baby moves its heart rate increases, just like exercise makes your heart rate increase)
-fetal heart tone monitor
-AFI (amniotic fluid index to make sure the baby has enough fluid in there)
-how to tell if a woman is actually in labor or if her water has broken
-aaaand, something NON-related to the Ob/Gyn field: the effects of smoking bath salts (no, it's not really bath salt, it's like cocaine & causes hallucinations, racing heart, paranoia, and suicidal thoughts, among other things)

and during clinic, I did a whole lot of measuring pregnant bellies (fundal height) & using a Doptone to listen to fetal hearts. Also did a few speculum exams, pap smears, bimanual exams, and breast exams. And I learned about colposcopy and got to play with an ultrasound machine a little - much harder than you'd think.

Ok, sorry if that was boring. I'll try to throw in an interesting post about my summer soon. Or something.