Week 10

Week 4 at Texas Children's. The end is starting to feel a little more real. Two weeks is nothing! I'll be done here before I know it.

Monday:

Today I was with Shelley. She covers the pediatric respiratory care unit. I believe it's a step down from the ICU. Don't quote me on that. She also works with a lot of developmentally delayed kids. She is really friendly and bubbly. She is so good with the kids! I went over the competency since it was a new specialty. It's so interesting to learn all of the differences between the different types of patients. Depending on the patient's medical problem, history, and current medical picture, it changes how you estimate their needs and even which weight you use to calculate. I think the best take away from my clinical rotations is developing my clinical judgement. There are so many things to learn from textbooks and the classroom, but until you put things into practice, you really don't understand how all of that knowledge applies to patients. You're probably thinking, "Duh Megan. I could've told you that." It just makes sense, right? Shelley's also really good at helping me feel involved and answering my questions. Definitely enjoyed my day with her!

Tuesday:

Today was another day with Shelley! She's still fun to work with on day 2, so that was good :) We attended rounds for her patients. I think I like rounds at Ben Taub better. It's either because they were more interesting, or there were more young, attractive residents leading rounds. We'll never know for sure...We also did mid-upper arm circumference on one of Shelley's patients. We were pretty sure her recorded weights were unreliable, so we decided to take some measurements of our own to determine how malnourished she was. It was really sad how tiny she was!

Wednesday:

I was back in the NICU today, but I was with Lindsay. There are seriously so many different dietitians in this hospital. I'm positive I won't meet all of them before I leave. We attended rounds. I always add to my list of "words I've never heard of" while attending rounds. The physicians are always throwing around procedures or disease names that are unfamiliar to me. I also got some more practice calculating baby tub feeds/TPN today. It's insane how tiny the numbers are for those premies. I also learned that my case study baby had a seizure over night. He just can't catch a break!

Thursday:

Today I was with Luci in the outpatient special needs clinic. Outpatient always seems a little slower paced to me, which can be nice sometimes but is usually more boring to me. Luci was fun to work with and answered a lot of questions I had. I've enjoyed working with (most of) the outpatient dietitians, but I don't know if outpatient would be as enjoyable for me. I suppose I'd enjoy it more if I had a relationship with the patients. Plus, I haven't been as involved in the assessments for outpatients, so I guess it makes sense that I haven't liked it as much.

I also ended my day by going to another high school football game. I know, you're thinking I'm a weirdo, but these games are community events! Plus, it was homecoming so I went with all of the Weaver's. There are so many traditions around the homecoming game. It was fun to watch them from the stands instead of on the field with the marching band.

Friday:

I switched things up again today, surprise...surprise...Today I was with Suzie who handles the lung transplant patients. Again, another really fun dietitian to work with. I feel like a broken record, but I like most people I guess. Ask anyone and they'll tell you I love talking to strangers and meeting new people. Some people might call that weird, but I call it fun. I've also really enjoyed being able to see how nutrition interventions change between all of these patient populations. It keeps me on my toes and always learning.

Another week done! After I was done at the hospital, I met up with Ashlee, also an intern. We met up at the Memorial City Mall, which was awesome! It was fun to walk around the mall and relax after another week. It's a pretty nice mall! They have an ice skating rink and some cool stores. We had to walk through the American Girl Doll store of course. It made me wish I was a kid again! We headed from the mall to a Malaysian restaurant in China town where a bunch of friends from church were meeting for the monthly restaurant rush. They choose a different restaurant every month. It's a pretty fun idea! I even ate a tiny octopus. I wouldn't recommend it.