NCB

Natural child birth is seen as a badge of honor for many women. Some do it very well. They quietly moan and sigh. When it's time to push they push with all their might.

One woman I heard about had a small twitch in her cheek with really bad contractions. Quietly, without fanfare, she went through her entire labour with minimal noise. Suddenly, she looked at her nurse and said "baby is here". When she looked, the nurse saw that yes, the baby's head was ready to emerge.

We don't have many NCBs at this hospital. As much as many women come in thinking they'll go through labour without medication, they are very happy when we ask them if they'd like to change their minds. Then they go on and on about how much they love the drugs.

Some nurses as well act as though they are better nurses for encouraging her patient to go without an epidural. That's an argument for another day.

We have several tours of pregnant moms and dads who come through the L&D. One weekend, a NCB patient was being encouraged by her partner to moan through her contractions. These were loud moans. Very very loud moans.

You see where I'm going I'm sure.

The group of soon to be parents clustered together in the hallway giggling and swearing to use meds. Which made me giggle.




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Residency has tough moments

Telling a medical student what they need to do to pass. Encourage them to do what needs to be done, but let them make the decision to not fulfill any real objectives. Watching someone choose to fail at medicine is very hard to do.


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Quiet day on call

So I tried making some flowers that I'll use as decorations at a party we're throwing next year.


All recycled fabric from the final scene of our fourth year skit.

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In a nutshell, my worst nightmare

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3pbKRc-0mSs&v=3pbKRc-0mSs&gl=CA

Watch it.


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Fertilizer

As I stood, covered in a meconium and amniotic fluid shower, holding a very large baby, I wondered, did this child grow so large from being fertilized by the large amount of baby manure he had been swimming in?

It's been said before, but worth repeating, meconium happens.


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Happiness is...

Diagnosing a women with nausea of pregnancy then helping her stop vomiting.

8 months later helping her deliver a beautiful baby.

Then 1 day later having them come find me to give me a hug and thank me before they went home.

It's also getting a hug from a brand new grandma.


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Klepto vs. tattletale

Kids are pretty funny.

The children of one of my post partum patients were visiting while I was doing rounds. They were, as expected, adorable.

Thing 2: Dr Impostor!
Me: yes Thing 2?
Thing 2: my grandpa took home a thousand straws and a box of gloves!
Me: he sure is clever!
Thing 2 nods
Mom tries to crawl under her bed to get away from the embarrassment.

She really shouldn't care though. This is going to be something they can tease grandpa about for years!!


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Not a real doctor

My partner has a PhD. He constantly teases me that he's the real doctor since he's done novel research and I haven't. It's all in good fun.





Of course momma rat wants a vet. No comment about whether or not they're real doctors....

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Laughing the baby out

Today I got to help a patient laugh her baby out. Part of the success was through video clips of movies and trailers of comedies we wanted to watch. Funnest day ever.

Shattered dreams

I wonder if this is what my partner thought of me when I watched Scrubs to study for so many exams.

(803): My girlfriend is studying for the MCAT by watching The Magic Schoolbus. There go my dreams of being a househusband.

(from TFLN)


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C spine

We had a workshop today on how to read c spine films. When I saw this image of a 23 yo male who had been in a motorcycle accident, all I could think was, Gold chain on x-ray. Is that a positive Guido sign?


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Education about breast cancer

A while ago, I saw a brilliant image shared on Facebook. I haven't seen it since so today I went looking for it.


This easily, visually describes many of the types of breast cancer. According to a small study the group did, using lemons was less sexualized. I guess that makes it more palatable to some women. I'm just happy the resource exists.

The top right lemon shows hardening of the lemon - I wish that this was a bit more obviously Paget's disease, one that few women know to be on the lookout for.



Despite the few number of women that I see in my family medicine clinic, I have many who come in with their own concerns about breast cancer. I'll be sharing this resource with them. http://www.worldwidebreastcancer.com/


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New yarn!!

On vacation last week I picked up quite a few skeins of merino wool in very yummy colours.

I'm excited to get working with it but first I need to get it into a workable form.

My upside down, rotating bar stool is working really well as an impromptu niddy noddy.


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