Week Eight

Now I can check hysterectomy off my list of surgeries to see.

During the hysterectomy, I had the pleasure of meeting the general surgeon, Dr. Serrano, and two medical students from Midwestern Medical School, Ashley and Jessika. While Ashley scrubbed in, Jessika talked me through the surgery, gave me more insight on applying for medical school and told me about her clinical rotations.

I have to admit, I haven't taken much from giving out the questionnaires yet. My experience with Dr. Brotsky continues to go beyond observing or shadowing. Every week I learn more about her job and all that it entails, the surgeries that she performs and the adversity she has faced being a female doctor.

Week Seven

If I could describe last week in one word, it would be intense!

Monday I observed the first C-Section of the day. Then I got to scrub in for the second one! It was like being in an episode of Grey's Anatomy! Scrubbing in for a surgery, what an experience! I was shocked when Dr. Brotsky asked if I wanted to scrub in but excited at the same time. I was nervous to say the least and very paranoid of touching anything that wasn't sterile. I obviously didn't do anything to the patient or with the instruments while I was at the table. I kept my hands in one spot and made sure not to bump into Dr. Brotsky while she was performing the surgery.

DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVE A VERY WEAK STOMACH

Following the adrenaline rush from scrubbing in for the first time, I stuck with Dr. Brotsky for an emergency laparoscopy for a patient who was having acute pelvic pain. We discovered that the patient had an ovarian cyst that ruptured and resulted in her pelvis being filled with blood and blood clots that needed to be suctioned out.

I continue to learn that there is more to being an OB-GYN than ensuring a good pregnancy and a healthy baby as a result. Women's health is a huge umbrella and that is something I didn't give much thought to prior to my project.

Some problems have arisen this week with my surveys. I decided to include another Dr. Austin's patients in my study however, she didn't pick up the surveys so I'm behind on meeting my goal for my study.

Hopefully I am closer to my goal this week!

Week Six

March 30 was National Doctor's Day so shout out to all the physicians out there!

At this point, I've gathered 10 completed questionnaires, not as many as I was hoping for. So, Dr. Brotsky encouraged me to include Dr. Austin's, a friend of Dr. Brotsky, postpartum patients in my study so I can meet my goal of 100 questionnaires.

I didn't meet with the social worker this week due to our busy schedule in the office. (How is a doctor supposed to meet with eight patients in an hour?) 

Instead of solely observing appointments in the office like the first couple weeks, I alternate between the office appointments and working on my SRP (my paper, analyzing the data, researching). However, when Dr. Brotsky has a planned surgery or needs to visit a patient in the hospital I am ready to go. 

Last week I was so happy to find this article about the largest ever postpartum depression study conducted by the PPD Act app, which is part of Apple's ResearchKit that allows researchers to develop apps with a global reach. 
I'm excited to see how Apple can change the face of postpartum depression with this study. If you'd like to read this article here's the link. 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/22/health/postpartum-depression-app-study/