Week 5: Emergency at the Maternity Ward

I was supposed to go to a Woman's clinic this week but my doctor ended up not being available so on Sunday night they switched me to Emergency at La Maternidad.  I was a little disappointed about the change, but excited because La Maternidad was my favorite rotation thus far.

On Monday I met my doctor for the week, Dr. Gomez. He was kind to me and took time to teach me things but he was not a very friendly man. He also had a strange obsession with his stapler. I'm not exaggerating. Every single paper that came to his desk he would carefully remove the existing staple, throw it away, and replace it with a new one.

My first day I helped the nurses roll the beds down the hallway (totally Grey's Anatomy status) and watched a few ultrasounds. Emergency is very hit or miss with activity so that was as exciting as Monday got. Other than that, virtually every woman that came in this week was either in labor or diagnosed with a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection). I learned how to identify the symptoms of a UTI and diagnose it using a urine sample. 

Urine test

Many women here don't know how many weeks pregnant they are so Dr. Gomez taught me how to calculate the number of weeks from the date of her last period. It took me forever because I haven't done long hand math in ages but he was able to calculate all of them in his head in seconds. He also taught me how to examine the pregnant abdomen and how to determine the position of the baby. I got pretty good at this, and by the middle of the week Dr. Gomez had me preforming the full exam and find the baby's heart beat. He would only come over and check my work afterwards.

For some reason this week, everyone kept mistaking me for a nurse. There was one morning when I was standing in the waiting room and one of the nurses asked if I could help her take down patient information. Okay not really ask, she kind of just shoved a clip board and chart into my hands and sat me down with a patient. I had been listening to the questions they ask all week so I figured I would pretend like I knew what I was doing and give it a shot. I made it through about two questions before I realized that they used a bunch of acronyms in the charts that I had no idea what they meant. When I confessed to the nurse, she looked shocked and apologized because she thought I worked there. Another doctor asked me to take a patient's blood, and when I told him I was only a student and didn't know how, he responded that it didn't really matter. I still didn't do it because it seemed pretty unethical.

Dr. Gomez's office

There were also several doctors who told me my Spanish was excellent this week, but I'm pretty sure its because I have learned the art of disguise. I have become very good at nodding my head and responding in short 3-4 word sentences. I also do everything in my power not to conjugate verbs. Plus it helps that I have heard most of the vocabulary used in emergency already, when I was in the maternity ward so I could pick up on what was happening faster than usual. 

I had a good week in emergency. For the most part it was slow but I got to participate a lot more than usual. Also, I was able to talk with the other medical students who are fascinated with the school system in the states and kept asking me how much I pay to go to college (its free here). They were horrified when I told them! 

And this is my face after seeing what seems like my 100th pregnant woman this trip.