so here's how it went down today....

3:15am--rise and shine!

3:55am--i leave the house, head downtown on 64, hit as many green lights as possible and flooring it when any of them turn yellow so i dont have to stop on shady streets this early in the morning, in the dark. [like tuesday when a drunkin' homeless man--blue jeans, blondish hair, royal blue t-shirt, late 40's--made an attempt to approach my car for a ride before i stomped on the gas pedal!]

4:10am--finish my slice of cookie cake in my car for breakfast, while waiting in the parking garage for supra.

4:15am--start the day on the floor. look over charts and then wake up my gracious patients to exam them at the butt crack of day. [oh they lOvE me] still dark out.

6:00am--finish my physical exams and my progress notes. horrible.

7:00am--lecture on chemo with attending and residents.

8:00am--pathology conference for interesting abnormal pap smears/biopsies. [we head down to the path lab and all sit at a giant like 16 head microscope as a pathologist explains different cases from the past week.

8:30am--round on patients on the floor. tough day. it has its ups and downs like a roller coaster. From one room where the sweetest little bald headed lady apologized to us because her "teeth were soakin" to the next room where we had to talk to a beautiful spirited lady who realized she needed to talk to her family about end of life planning. Wow. Rough half hour.

9:30am--head to Colposcopy clinic. get to see one, then i have to leave to grab a bite to eat before i head downstairs for surgery.

12:00pm--preop patients, wait for doc to arrive to start procedures. Upon arrival a whirlwind ensues.....running with residents back to OR, tie my facemask as we walk in and doc has pretty much started procedure already....3rdyr resident realizes doc is rip roarin' ready to go, runs out to scrub in...doc ask for med student (that would be me) but neither myself or the 2ndyr resident whom i'm with, have scrubbed in yet! Doc turns to some other random person in the OR and says come here hold this....meanwhile i'm lookin' at my 3rd year like "crap! what do i do, he's almost finished???" her response back with her eyes peeking over a mask say "hell i don't know i guess just go scrub in" so i do. Quick scrub scrub scrub.....i come back in OR ready for gown and glove...got the gloves, no gowns left so i just stand behind the attending and watch. Then I attempt to get out of everyone else's way that's actually doing something important. Uh...now that about three people have either walked in front of me or touched me i've officially broken my sterile field, and doc is about finished with the procedure so i stand there, out of the way. He then request the 2ndyear resident by name--who also didnt have time to scrub in and tells her to scrub in and come participate in the procedure, she leaves to scrub...i run to get her gown and gloves....5 min later we're finished and trying to run to the next OR before doc can make it there.

3:00pm--last procedure of the day. we scrub in on time, doc in much better mood-oddly enough. I get to help out and in 30 min we're finished and headed back up stairs to the floor. I finally get a chance to grab some lunch. We go over our progress notes with our fourth year resident who was VErY helpful, then we split up surgeries, and patients for tomorrow.

4:45--we can leave? really? we are OUTTA here!!!

*I'm actually enjoying this service, despite how early i have to get there and the some what long days. Our patients are absolutely wonderful women. They are so so sweet and I really am thankful that they don't mind students being involved in their care. They probably teach us just about as much as our residents and attendings do:)

*Tomorrow morning I have to work in clinic so no surgery for me.....but right now its 8:34 and i'm already up past my bedtime so I better ZZZzzzzzzz....................