Granted , you are not expected to like every rotation that you participate in during your third year, you still want to learn something from it anyways.   I felt this way about my ob/gyn rotation and pediatric rotation.  During my ob/gyn rotation , I was so sure that I would shed a tear after every baby was born whether it was a vaginal delivery or a c-section, I only thought of bring in life or should I say helping to bring in life. I also expected that studying for it would be so much fun and it would come so easy.  I was completely wrong.  The first time I saw a vaginal delivery I thought oh my gosh what a wonderful miracle of life the other 8th or 9th time I would think to myself , come out already.   It was still interesting and breathtaking to see a baby born but sometimes it just took a lot longer than I expected.  Since, I have already told my readers that I have absolutely no interest in surgery, the surgical aspect of ob/gyn was tedious for me.  My first observation or should I say my first few observations were interesting and informative but the rests after that was just boring to me.  I saw quite a few D&C’s (dilatation and curettage), and after observing so many I began to think I could do one which was probably wrong but that didn’t stop me.   The time I enjoyed the most was while i was in clinic for two weeks.  During this time, i confirmed to  myself that I definitely want to go into a an area of medicine that allows for continuous care.  I enjoyed interacting with my patients and learning about prenatal care.  Like I do with every rotation, I do my best and hope that I have made a good impression.  I also got to practice my spanish quite a bit during this rotation.

Now, I am in my pediatric rotation, well in the third out of six weeks.   I spent 1 week in the pediatric clinic interacting with patients from a few days old to teenagers.  I came across quite a bit that was discomforting.  one thing that stood out to me was a mother rolling her eyes at the attending when she attempted to advise her on things that she could do at home to reduce her child’s weight.   As much as there are news reports, newspaper articles, talk shows and many more informative outlets about obesity and how it is now become an epidemic some people stll just don’t get it.   I did my best to reiterate to many patients the best way I could but the fact is that if we think we are dealing with so much hypertension, so much diabetes, so much heart disease right now, it doesn’t compare to what will be dealing with in the future if nothing changes.  I also met with a lot of young girls that were already sexually active and felt very uncomfortable about talking to them about Plan B (emergency contraception) but it was required and I had to get comfortable with that very quickly.  I also spent a week in the pediatric emergency room.  During my time here I just felt that the emergency room was been abused.   Kids were brought to the emergency room for the slightest thing, people would stay in the waiting room for hours because their 10year old child had an episode of vomiting the day before.  I had to makesure that I didn’t have the craziest looks on my face because frankly I was in disbelief that they don’t see anything wrong with keeping their child out of school, taking time off work because of 1 episode of vomitting.  I do realize that some of this cases turn out to be serious cases but majority of the time they were just sent home.  At one point I asked one of the parents why didn’t you go to your primary care physician and she told me it was because the appointment they had available was not till the following week and and the physician told her that if she can’t wait till then to go to the emergency room…hmm… I will say no more about that.

I am now in the nursery, and will be there for a week.  I had to get comfortable today doing the newborn exams  which i think I am now okay with.  Will see how it goes.

Stay Blessed!