The last eight years as a medical student and now as a resident have been filled with timeless memories at Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH), and as of yesterday morning, I’m now finished with all of my pedi rotations.
We’re all excited about the holiday season at Texas Children’s Hospital! The Santa hats… the stockings… the lights and trees… it’s awesome! December is also a time when many patients are scrambling meet their deductible deadlines, so it’ll be a busy month indeed.
A final second-call shift tomorrow stands between me and completing this three month rotation in pediatric anesthesiology. What an experience its been!
I’m finished with my very last in-house call as a CA-2 (PGY-3 resident), and it was a grueling one indeed! The calls on this pediatric anesthesia rotation have progressively become more demanding as everyone is out on summer break wanting to get their elective surgeries done early. From my end,…
Total intravenous anesthetics (TIVAs) are awesome. For cases involving neurophysiologic monitoring like motor evoked potentials (MEPs), TIVAs become necessary as volatile anesthetics (ie, anesthesia “gases”) will alter the monitoring. I wanted to share an anesthetic recipe of sorts which has worked great for several idiopathic scoliosis repairs I’ve done on…
I’ve always been unorthodox with regards to my sleeping habits. I tend to stay awake post-call to study, complete chores, and pursue hobbies. After staying awake for 36+ hours, I fall asleep that night with all of my work done. On “regular nights”, I sleep 4-6 hours, caffeinate/hydrate in the…
I’m done with my first of three consecutive months of pediatric anesthesiology as a CA-2 resident. In four weeks, I’ve come to appreciate the nuances of perioperative care with neonates, infants, and children of all ages undergoing a myriad of procedures ranging from craniotomies to ear tube placements. Pediatric anesthesiologists…
I’m finished with my third call shift in my first six days of pediatric anesthesia. Varying levels of fatigue have definitely set in, but this falls short of the profound impact the critically ill pediatric population has had on me. Although I will be pursuing a critical care fellowship, taking care…
Although I’ve rotated through different disciplines (trauma, neuro, cardiothoracic, regional, obstetrics/gynecology, pain management), my patients were all adults who could communicate with me. I knew the first day of this rotation would be chaotic with the orientation process, but I was more fearful about dealing with children. What if I hurt them?!…
Friday was my last day in the Progressive Care Unit and marked the conclusion of my 2nd month as a resident. I learned so much about the “art of medicine” from my attendings and was honored to work with a great bunch of colleagues.