Do we really need sinuses?
May 5, 2006 at 1:58 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 4 CommentsI’m hating mine right now. They’ve got a nasty strep pneumo infection, which I can tell by smell, and I really just want to flush them out. If only I knew how.
Peds has been pretty fun so far, and I haven’t minded clinic so much. But the whole infectious disease issue makes it out of the question as a specialty. It’s no accident that I’m taking it during late spring and summer. The last thing I need is to hang around a bunch of little vectors during peak cold and flu season.
I’m actually carrying around my own bottle of hand sanitizer, which I’ve never done before, and I’m sure I’ll go through the whole thing and maybe another on this rotation. All my patients have been healthy so far, and honestly today on heme/onc I was much more worried about infecting them than about getting infected. But still.
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Hurricane Jill 
I’m with you on the sinus view, for sure. I’m continually suffering with mine. Nothing seems to help.
Comment by Eternally Curious— May 5, 2006 #
Sympathies on the sinus infection; did you pick it up from the kids or their families? Other staff? Hope you get rid of the bug soon.
Lol to the vectors comment. I immediately thought of birds, mosquitos and flies.
Sounds like you’re otherwise having fun on peds. So no peds surgery and no deliveries. That’s too bad; deliveries, though tending to be messy, can be quite interesting, and watching/participating in tiny babies have surgery can be both sad and uplifting. š
I’m going to take a wild guess that circs are also ob/gyn only? Remember, if you ever need to do a procedure or anything that requires permission, get it from the mother (“You always know who the mom is, but you don’t necessarily know who the dad is.”) or guardian.
Do you have adolescent outpatient clinic as part of your rotation or is that separate? Do you do pelvic exams on females admitted to the ward or as outpatients? The reason I ask is because a friend of mine never did circs, deliveries, or pelvic exams as part of her peds rotations. It wasn’t till she was in residency that she was able to do them.
I am compulsive about handwashing. I will wash before and after using the ladies room, and always after I commute to work and back home, or anywhere I will be for a while after I come in from the outside (eg, from office to a restaurant, for example). I do carry a hand sanitizer as well, so you can imagine how dry my hands usually are. And nails? Forget it. Cut scrupulously short (no whites).
Good luck with the rest of the rotation and ‘ware the tiny tiny veins.
Comment by Tea and Books, etc— May 6, 2006 #
I think I have a constant infection that waxes and wanes depending on when my last Humira injection was. Antibiotics make it better for a month or two, but it always comes back. So right now I’m holding off on my next injection and giving my immune system a chance to get rid of it.
I’m on my two weeks of outpatient peds right now. Next I’ll spend one week in NICU and one week in the well baby nursery, where I think we get to attend births. After that is a month on wards, with the option of doing a week in PICU. No gyn exams so far, other than examining external genitalia of infants and small children. I’m not anxious to do any, anyway, since I haven’t had OB/GYN yet.
As for me, most of my life I’ve been completely unconcerned about germs. My mom’s philosophy (again, ahead of her time) was that kids need to be exposed to germs to build up their immune systems. She had noticed that all the kids of germ-phobic moms were sickly and unadventurous, whereas the kids of moms who didn’t care so much were healthy and energetic. Don’t get me wrong, our house was always clean. But if something fell on the ground, and I picked it up and ate it anyway, she really didn’t get too worked up over it. It’s really a mystery to me how I grew up to have an autoimmune disease anyway.
Comment by Jill— May 6, 2006 #
Your mom was definitely on the ball.
I’m a big believer in childhood germ exposure as well, but since I did all that as a youngun (too long ago), I’m now grown up (ha!), don’t have any kids (lucky them!), am aware of many of the ickeroos out there (gulp!), I don’t want to chance getting majorly sick.
Normally, I’m quite healthy but since I’m stressing, my immune system’s been on the fritz. Bah humbug!
Sorry re the autoimmune disorder. Perhaps genetics? Hoping the Humira is helping, that you have gradually lesser flare ups, and that your immune system stabilizes and beats it back.
I knew someone who had SLE but she finished med school and went into residency and practice. š
NICU will be a different experience. All those tiny babies. Hopefully you won’t see too many extreme preemies, and there’s the possibility you’ll be in on deliveries if twins or other at-risk pregnancies are present, although no doubt the ob/gyns will have priority. Still the NICU attendings will have to be prepared, right?
Well baby nurseries are fun. Prepare for nurses calling you when the babies don’t pee. š
PICU. Are you thinking about taking up the option or staying on the ward? I know you’re not thinking of peds long term but at some point you’re likely to encounter peds neurologic consultations in the ER and PICU.
Looking forward to reading more.
Comment by Tea and Books, etc— May 6, 2006 #