Shepherd's Anatomy: A Journal Read Through

Hit The Wall

** 2 months later **

Hey! Sorry for not updating more often and leaving you with no update whatsoever for the past 2 months, neuro rotations have been torturous. Long story short, Nai and Sam came back after they left and invited Addie and I for a week-long holiday in Hawaii in December. Also, Addison chose to stick to OB/GYN and Mark's still deciding between ortho, plastics, and urology, with very Mark Sloan reasonings.

Anyways, the trip is already payed for and I really don't think I can make it. December months usually have the best, most-exciting surgeries because of the holidays and I absolutely do NOT want to miss possible once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. I mean, I can probably just let Mark take my ticket and take care of Addie for me since she does get scared of the water at times, but I feel so bad for ditching Sam and Naomi; but I guess sacrifices come with the job... I'm they'd understand, Addie would at least. Either way I'm sure Mark would make the trip 100x more fun. I don't know.. I'll deal with it later. I already have enough on my plate.

Today I have to check in on post-ops and pre-ops, then I have a mound of charting to do, and then I'd have to work the pit for 9 hours I believe, yay me... Let alone my 8 hour craniotomy and the research for a coma patient after being struck by lightning. I'll have to stay overnight too because we have a rare trigeminal neuralgia patient coming in who's at great risk of paralysis and experiences terrible headaches and jaw pain. I'll try to write as much as my schedule allows me. See (??) you tomorrow!

It's 3 A.M. I'm unable to sleep. I have 3 more hours till I go to the hospital. I think I'm going to change into my scrubs and try to get as much sleep as possible. Don't mock me, scrubs give me a sense of comfort and warmth. It's weird I know, leave me be.

6 in the morning now. I got some sort of sleep and I had my coffee so I think I'm good for the day. This brings back intern year memories haha. So today's post-ops are mostly from the pediatrics neurology section and pre-ops are from orthopedics and neurosurgery wings. There's this one ped's patient that I can never get enough of. Addie's seen me with her and could see the 'chemistry' we had together. She finds it cute how well I get along with these kids, especially this one. Her name's Angela Adams, and her parents are also super sweet. She always lightens my mood: she's sweet, innocent, pure, happy, and she believes in magic. Magic. I would love to go back to when I used to believe in magic, and Santa and the tooth fairy. The world is always so absent of worries and negativity when you're a child. I think I've gone to enough detail hahah! Long-story-short, looking very forward to seeing Angie (yes, she did tell me to call her that) today and get her prepped for the OR while she tells me about her week at school. Oh crap, I forgot to mention, she has a condition called chiari malformation where her brain tissue is extended into her spinal canal which could cause a number of things. She experiences an unsteady gait as well as numbness at her hands and feet, and occasionally has problems speaking. Thankfully we'll get all of that fixed with a surgery called posterior fossa decompression where we would make an incision at the back of her head and remove a small piece of her skull to relieve pressure from the spinal cord. If you want more information you can look it up on the Gray's Anatomy textbook I have from med school, or you can ask me I don't know.

Crap I didn't realize I spent so long writing. I'm running a bit late so I have to rush. Next paragraph will probably be after my post/pre-ops.

I didn't realize how nasty the ortho wing can be. I just saw someone with their os coxae (hip bone) come out of their piss whole after a car wreck. I would say the word but I don't know if it's appropriate considering who will be reading this. Post-ops went pretty great. Pre-ops on the other hand were a wreck. Almost all relatives of the patients were in the rooms with them. Their parents and family members were constantly yelling their lungs out at me to take the patient in quicker when they knew their scheduled time was later in the day. Not to mention two of my patients randomly crashed and I had to shock them a few times with their loved ones around me crying. This is exactly the reason why people should follow visiting hour rules and let healthcare workers do their thing without screeching like a dying pig in our ears. That was rude but it's the honest truth. I'm about to scrub in for the craniotomy - for which i won't go into much detail because you'll hear of so many more in the future - then I'll go straight to doing my never-ending paperwork and charting, then I'd have to go to the pit in 3 hours. The charts most probably won't be finished so I'll bring them with me to do in between patients. With that being said, next update will be after my torture.