Week 9

Can't believe it's already my third week at Texas Children's! By the end of this week, I'll be more than halfway done with my rotation here, and then I'll be done with all of my clinical. Time really is flying.

Monday:

Today I was with Libby in the Cystic Fibrosis clinic. She is super nice! I really liked working with her. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that causes the production of really thick mucus. This mucus affects a lot of important organs and glands (lungs, intestines, pancreas, etc.) This disorder especially affects the lungs. These kids get this thick mucus in their lungs, which increases their susceptibility to infection. Nutritionally, a lot of these kids are underweight. The mucus coats their intestines or affects the enzymes that help digest their food. As a dietitian, your job is to pack as many calories as you can and help keep these kiddos healthy! It was sad to see the families with multiple children affected by this disorder in the clinic. One of the patients we saw was the recipient of a Make a Wish trip to Disneyland! Her prognosis wasn't good, but it was so cute to hear how much fun she had on that trip.

Tuesday:

Today was a NICU day with Nidia. I was able to update my flowsheets on my case study baby. I chose the baby that was more of a "classic preterm" infant. The other baby started developing some other medical issues that would've taken away from my prematurity research. I attended rounds with Nidia. Rounds are interesting in the NICU. Some days we just round with one attending physician. Other days we round with the attending, residents, and nurse practitioners. The NICU is also huge and there are multiple different teams rounding all at once. It's all kind of a blur! Today we went to intestinal rounds. All of the dietitians rounded with the team that sees all babies with intestinal disorders/problems. Today I was able to spend some time researching for my case study presentation. Nidia has lots of great resources from her nutrition fellowship with Baylor.

Wednesday:

Today I switched gears completely and spent a day with one of the eating disorder dietitians. Texas Children's has outpatient dietitians that meet with eating disorder patients, but today I was with one of the inpatient dietitians. All of her eating disorder patients are admitted to the hospital. Pam is really good at her job and is really an impressive dietitian. This was her last week of working at Texas Children's before she left for another position, so I'm really glad I could spend a day with her before she left. We helped some of her patients fill out their menus for the next few meals. We also helped some of the patients plan meal ideas for when they discharged from the hospital. We attended an interdisciplinary meeting with the physicians, psychologists, etc. that work with the eating disorder patients. That is a whole different world. I think it's really interesting, but I don't think I could work with eating disorders long term. It'd be really hard! I don't think I have the right personality for it.

Today was our weekly (more like every other week) intern meeting. Instead of having a meeting, we all went to a really good pizza place with Claudia (our program director). It's fun to see everybody outside of meetings and internship business. The pizza was really good too. You can't beat when your program director pays either :)

Thursday:

Today was another day in the NICU! I spent the day with Amy. It's been really fun to work with so many different dietitians. I love meeting people and talking to strangers (weirdo, I know) so I've really enjoyed getting switched around! My case study baby is on one of Amy's team. Interesting development with my case study baby. He started developing meningitis! So sad! His list of complications keeps getting longer and longer. The other baby that I almost chose ended up being totally fine and is just a "normal" preterm infant. Funny how it turned out opposite of what I thought. Should've expected that, right? It just gives me more to research and learn I suppose. Today was also journal club. I think the dietitians do journal club about once a month? I may have made that up. From what I understand, journal club is when one or two of the dietitians give a presentation on a certain topic. It's informative and helps the dietitians earn continuing education credit. Today's journal club was on all of the different types of milks there are! Cow's, almond, soy, hemp, coconut, etc. There are so many different milks! It was interesting to have them all compared and learn more about them.

Friday:

Today I was with Monica. She works with the cardiac patients. A different specialty means another competency. I'm getting quite the collection of good information. Nothing too crazy this day. I really liked working with Monica! Can't beat a good Friday to end the week! Officially more than halfway done with my rotation!