Rotation 13: Oncology/Neurology

This week was full of assessing patients with all types of cancer as well as some with neurological diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. It was very hard to see so many patients with such pain and suffering due to the side effects of chemotherapy treatments. I felt a lot more confident this week when I went into patient's rooms to do assessments and educations, but I still have a lot of learning to do.
I worked at Suze Tuesday and Wednesday night. I am trying to get to know who the regulars are so I can call them by name. The owners would like me to bring them some cheese curds from Wisconsin.

Rotation 12: Gastroenterology/Surgery

My first week of clinical was about as stressful and hectic as I thought it would be. There seems to be a massive amount of homework that goes along with clinical rotations. I guess its a good thing because I manage my time a lot better. I spent the evenings doing homework assignments like reading, defining terms and medications, writing annotations, completing a mini-case study on a patient that I saw, converting a high-fiber recipe to low-fiber, and converting a low-fiber recipe to high-fiber. Every Friday I will have to take a test on the material I learned throughout the week. I started out a little slow because I had to learn how to use the electronic charting system. I was given a patient with some sort of gastrointestinal disorder then I studied their medical history and all of the doctor's notes. I came up with questions to ask the patient to do either an assessment or a follow-up on them. Based on their condition and symptoms I came up with a nutritional diagnosis then recommended snacks and supplements for them.

The coolest part of the week was watching medical procedures. I got to watch a colonoscopy and an esophagogastroduodenoscopy(EGD). They are both the same type of procedure except one goes in the mouth to the small intestine (EGD) and the other goes in the butt(colonoscopy). It was very neat to see the whole inside of the GI tract! The doctor doing the procedures explained what he was doing and pointed specific parts of the body out. I also got to watch a Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy(PEG).

Thursday night was my first night to work at Suze Restaurant. I got hired to work there as a hostess during the week.

Saturday the interns had to be to the hospital in the morning for the internship open-house. We gave prospective interns tours of the hospital and answered questions they had....brings back memories. Saturday night the interns had a Christmas party at my internship director's house. There was lots of good food and great conversations. We played Catch Phrase...let's just say I need practice...I think my team wanted to trade me :) We did a fun ornament exchange. I got a big pink glittery jingle bell!