Pure wonder

Early start this morning...got onto the floor a little before 5:30 to meet the intern. I got to hang out in the nursery while we were waiting, so no complaints there. Shortly thereafter we began helping out with postpartum rounds. Once more the issue of contraception came up, as one of the expected questions for the new mother is "what kind of birth control do you want to use?" It's kind of sad, really...you're talking to this woman, often holding her child, and you're supposed to ask how she wants to make sure that she won't be holding another one anytime soon. Anyway, once again the intern (different intern this time) rather surprised me with the pleasantness of her reaction to my statement that I could not and would not counsel about contraception. Of course, the patient I saw had had a tubal ligation after her delivery, rendering the question rather pointless...

The next thing for the day was grand rounds, which was a pretty decent account of the history of obstetric anesthesia. The presenter's occasional references to religion caused a bit of eyebrow raising on my part (I may have been reading too much into it, but it seemed like she set up a sharp contrast between the logical, humanistic view and the "religious" view which was exactly the opposite), but it wasn't a focus of the presentation. From there it was back to the clinical floors.

At one point when all three of the MS-3s were together in the central team area, one of my classmates asked me about what I had said on rounds about contraception, wondering if I could clarify a little about my moral stance and the reasons for it. In the end, it turned into a pretty decent discussion among the three of us; I'd like to think I did something to clarify my understanding of (and the Church's teaching about) abortion, contraception and sterilization. As a quick aside, if anyone has questions about any of those things, I'll be more than happy to speak with you about them.

After that came the true highlight of the day. I had signed up to participate in a 10:30 C section, but when I got to the OR at 10:17, I was just in time to see a real live miracle. One moment there was nothing but a hole in a woman's abdomen; not ten seconds later the surgeon was holding a baby girl. She was pretty blue (which I'm told is fairly common), but otherwise looked great. I couldn't see mom, but the look on dad's face told a story more eloquent than any ever written. It took a couple of minutes for the pediatrician to assess the infant (she was a breech baby, relatively cyanotic as previously mentioned, and needed a bit of a workup, which I was blessed to be able to help with), but when he was finally able to bring the child to her father...it'll have to suffice to say that no words exist that could do justice to the beauty of the moment. Everyone should have the opportunity to witness that at least once...it was an instant of truly pure wonder.

The rest of the day was pretty smooth, although nothing nearly so exciting as the delivery happened. I met a few more expectant mothers and nervous families, went to a lecture, and did the standard clinical-ish things. So far, two days in, things have been ok; I'll be hoping and praying that that continues.

That's all I've got for now...back with more updates tomorrow. Till then, peace and God bless!

...Well, I guess that wasn't so bad...

Actually, today could have been a lot worse. The day started off with an orientation by the course director and course coordinator, which was fairly routine. During one of the breaks, the course director asked me to hang around and chat for a minute. He told me that my beliefs would be respected completely during the rotation, but warned that there might be a few "hiccups" along the way. These, he told me, he wants to know about so that he can take appropriate action to prevent recurrences in the future. That was promising, if slightly ominous. After lunch, we began the clinical part of the rotation. I'm starting with labor and delivery (L&D), so two classmates and I reported to the central control area in the L&D suite. There we met our residents, who began to orient us to our surroundings. They seemed genuinely interested in teaching and began doing so immediately. One of the things that came up was post-partum rounds in the morning. The PGY-2 we're working with had compiled a one-page summary of key questions to ask, facts to include and abbreviations to know for progress notes. One of the questions specified that the patient was to be asked what kind of birth control she would be interested in going forward. A few moments later, I had an opportunity to go see a patient with the intern. On the way over, I took a deep breath and explained that I wouldn't be able to recommend or counsel patients about birth control. I frankly expected her to be annoyed, but she just nodded and basically said "Ok, just remind me that you haven't discussed that with the patients." She kept teaching, too, and didn't seem to treat me any differently. She even let me use the ultrasound (highlight of the day, definitely!). She and the PGY-2 also taught us how to read the fetal monitors, which promises to be a useful skill for the rest of the week. All in all, I was pretty happy with the residents and had a fairly good clinical experience today. The day finished with a lecture on peripartum care and the delivery process which was OK but pretty scattershot; the lecturer often went off on tangents before completing full thoughts. Oh well, given that the rest of the day mercifully went pretty well, I can deal with a disorganized lecture.

Anyway, that was day #1 on Ob-Gyn. All in all, I have to say it was a pretty decent day. If all my residents and attendings are like the ones I met today, maybe this won't be such a nightmare after all. We'll see how it goes...day #2 starts at 5:30 tomorrow morning. Back with more tomorrow evening; till then, peace and God bless!

A true "defining moment"

Actually, it's a "defining month," but that's just semantics. So here's what's going to happen...each day for the next month (while I'm on Ob-Gyn), I will be chronicling my adventures (and my misadventures) in this space. I will attempt to be as fair and objective as possible, but I will warn you now: I WILL make editorial comments on both the good and the bad. Also, in case you haven't gathered from the title of the blog (and from my bio), I am a practicing Roman Catholic and I have strong objections to abortion, contraception, and sterilization. Part of the objective in my taking time to do this each day is to give a firsthand account of how these issues arise in daily practice at Magee and to what degree a pro-life student will be affected by them.

All I can say now is that I'm terrified. I don't quite know what to expect...I've heard so many different stories from so many different people, and I have no idea what my experience will be like. I guess I'm hoping for the best, expecting the worst, and praying for the strength to stand strong and not falter. Orientation starts at 8 tomorrow...prayers would be tremendously appreciated, both then and throughout the rotation.

One last thing: I've decided I'm going to make a conscious effort to be as positive as I can, so as a theme song of sorts I've decided on one of my favorite hymns (sorry, this was the best version I could find on YouTube). Peace and God bless!



"And whether our tomorrows / Be filled with good or ill, / We'll triumph through our sorrows / And rise to bless Thee still!"