Today was my first month doing dedicated regional anesthesia as a CA-2, and my goodness, blocks galore! I swear, if I had done zero neuraxial or peripheral nerve blocks coming into this month, I’d easily meet my minimum requirements for RESIDENCY by the end of December. The volume is crazy,…
What a crazy day – the first epidural I’ve ever had to abandon, a myriad of acute pain consults, continuous block of the brachial plexus at the axilla, rectus sheath block x 6, post-op TAP block… and more Tegaderms than I want to remember right now. The culture here is all…
It’s so difficult to buckle down and study for another in-training exam (ITE), but the next one I’ll take will be somewhere between February 18 – 22, 2016. With about three months till then, I need to find the motivation to study!
Prior to my current rotation on the acute pain service, I had three months of obstetric anesthesia – the world of lumbar epidurals for labor analgesia and surgical anesthesia. I experimented with several epidural techniques but initially settled on intermittent pressure with a saline filled glass loss-of-resistance (LOR) syringe. This allowed me…
It’s fairly rare for anesthesia residents to pursue a dual fellowship, but for those who do, the combination of critical care and adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology is common. After being asked by family members and friends why I want to extend my training by another two years, I decided to outline the…
What a beautiful day in Houston! I’m halfway done with my first acute pain rotation and really enjoying my time back at the #1 cancer hospital in the country – MD Anderson Cancer Center. :-)
The San Francisco Match (SF Match) opened up for critical care anesthesiology earlier this week ($50 fee), so I’ve scrambled nonstop to finish my applications ASAP. Compared to the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) and Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), fellowship applications are much less centralized.
It irks me when nurses, attendings, and more senior residents from various specialties complain about having to cater to a junior resident or medical student’s intellectual or procedural ineptitude. Please wake up and realize where you are – academic institutions are for teaching.
I’m tired… like really tired. I’ve been working over two weeks without a true day off. I’ve got one more call shift beginning this afternoon before I’m officially done with obstetric anesthesia as a CA-2. More importantly – three days off! :-D
Before the 1840s, the advancement of surgery was hampered by a lack of anatomical knowledge, poor aseptic techniques, and especially a lack of safe, reproducible anesthetic techniques. Beyond remedies like alcohol and opium, patients had very little in the way of anesthesia prior to surgery. In 1842, pioneers William Clark…