Week 8

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with my first week at Texas Children's. I think I had built it up in my mind too much and it ended up being a really different week than I expected. I also was surprised by how much I liked being at Ben Taub, and I was a lot more sad to leave than I expected. Luckily my second week at TCH was much better than my first and I'm starting to really enjoy it.

Monday:

I got the day off for Labor Day! So much for the "interns don't get holidays or breaks"...I actually wish that I could've come in to get more hours, but since I don't really know what I'm doing at this hospital it didn't make sense to come in with the "skeleton crew." Not the best learning opportunity when the staff is so few in numbers. So, instead I slept in and enjoyed my day off!

Tuesday:

Today I was back with the ketogenic diet dietitian. I was supposed to be with a different dietitian who also covers these patients, but she was sick today. She taught me some more about the ketogenic diet as well as the low glycemic index diet and their uses with her patients. We saw the patients she had scheduled for the day and I finished up a chart note from the MDA clinic on Friday. Apparently outpatient dietitians have up to 5 days to finish charting on their assessments. I don't know how you're supposed to remember stuff from 5 days before, but it's nice to have some extra time if your work load is really heavy.

Wednesday:

I switched things up today! I was with Kari who is the dietitian that works with all of the bariatric patients. She sees patients pre and post bariatric/weight loss surgeries. It takes a lot for pediatric patients to qualify for bariatric surgery. We're talking severly morbidly obese kids who often also have significant cobmorbidities of being overweight. It's so sad so see such young kids already in danger of high cholesterol and blood pressure. A lot of insurance companies require these kids to go through about 6 months of a supervised weight loss program in order to qualify for the surgery. Kari helps with the nutrition counseling portion of this. She also helps kids post surgery adjust to their new lifestyle. Obviously if you had your stomach surgically shrunken, your portions are going to have to significantly decrease. Kari makes sure these kids are receiving all of the vitamins/minerals/etc. that their bodies need after having their GI tract altered by surgery.

I also attended a presentation in the NICU. The physician's presentation was titled, "Neonatology Physiology Lecture Series-Cardiac Surgery." I like attending these conferences. There's always a ton of information! The NICU is so foreign to me. It's nice to be able to gain more medical background on these patients. Plus, you can't beat a free lunch! It's the little things when you're an unpaid intern.

We also had our weekly intern meeting on campus at UH. We finished up the last few pathophysiology presentations. I've enjoyed these, especially since I've been doing my clinical rotations. I have definitely seen quite a few of the diseases in my patients.

Thursday:

Today I was with Brittany, the dietitian that covers the bone marrow transplant patients. She was really nice and so fun to work with. Brittany and I reviewed the competency and were able to see some of her patients. Her floor is really neat. It has special air filtration and is more strict on its visitor policies. Most of the kids aren't allowed to leave the floor after they receive their transplant. Their immune systems are so suppressed that any kind of infection could be really harmful. A lot of the kids on her floor have ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia). I learned a lot about pediatric cancers while with Brittany. It was kind of sad, but the kids are so cute! I also received more information on 2 different babies in the NICU. I'm deciding which one to follow for my case study. Both are very premature and have their fair share of medical complications.

Friday:

Today was another day with Brittany. In addition to seeing her patients, I also attended a lunch conference in the NICU on Midgut Volvulus. Basically this means that the infant's intestines have become rotated because of a malrotation during formation. It was really interesting. I'm always learning about things I've never even heard of before in the NICU. Brittany and I also practiced calculating TPN for her kiddos. You can ever have enough practice with TPN, that's for sure.

After my rotation, I went a football game at my high school alma mater with some good family friends that I've known since kindergarten. It was so fun (and weird) to be back at my high school. It was a fun way to mix up the week! Can't beat those Friday Night Lights!