Enough already

Well, it's been two weeks...and I'm pretty much tired of the whole baby/vagina/uterus stuff. Sorry...after a few vaginal deliveries/C-sections/hysterectomies...I'm pretty much done. The actual procedures itself aren't that bad. In fact, the days down in the operating room (OR) go by quite fast, it does get old...but it's the closest I've been to an OR in a few months, and it can be quite refreshing. The deliveries on the other hand suck, because there is so much sitting around and waiting. I've tried to master the art of predicting the time in which the babies will deliver...but that doesn't always work as planned. The things I look at on the monitors, is how much the cervix has dilated (full dilation is at 10cm) and the station; station refers to the position of the presenting part of the baby (head/arm/etc, whatever is coming out first) in relation to an anatomical imaginary line in the female pelvis. The OB nurses usually go in every hour or so to check these two parameters by doing a manual exam and then they document it in the computer. Supposedly, the approximate rate is 1cm of dilation per hour, but that never really happens. For instance, two days ago, I sat in my "office" and was lounging around, because the patient was only dilated to 4cm; 20minutes later, the little bastard popped out, and I missed it all....I probably should have gotten an idea that something was happening when the stampeding herd of nurses ran by...but I thought...nah...couldn't be...she couldn't have dilated that quickly....boy was I wrong. To contrast that, on the same day, I went into the delivery suite when a patient was dilated to 10cm and ended up standing there for over an hour before the baby finally came out. It took forever because the woman had a small vagina and the baby's head was huge...it rivals Shaefer's dome. Then for one last example, today when I got to the hospital at 6am, one patient was dilated to 2cm, by the time I left at 7pm she was only up to 6cm....so you just never know.

I did come up with a small theory I've been discussing with the other student that is with me. He was commenting on several of the nurses and how, outside the hospital we would never really find them attractive, but somehow on the "inside" we do. Strange?!?! Well, my theory is that we develop "hospital goggles," similar to the familiar "beer goggles" that everyone is aware of, but instead of the opposite sex looking better with an increasing number of alcoholic goodness, the level of attractiveness is instead directly proportional to the number of hours stuck in the hospital...ie. 13hr work days...makes the 34wk pregnant nurse...slightly appealing....I know, I know....just ridiculous...and the 6-8cups of coffee really doesn't help either. Anyways...enough of that.

Lastly, I just wanted to make a comment about all the stuff happening about the terrorists and their plots that has been all over the news today. I am amazed at how long it has taken people to start accepting the reality of our times and how many more acts like these or attempts that we will probably see in our lifetime. Sadly, this is the fear that many overseas have lived with daily for decades...it just that we have been blinded to it all. As successful as today was in thwarting the plot...it still doesn't make me feel safe. It won't take long, before the security gets lax again...and people start to forget. I'm not sure if the purpose today was at all to simply cause mass destruction...or if it was just to continue causing disorder in all our lives...if that is the case, then they have surely succeeded.