early night.

gonna sleep after I write this...

stuff I did/saw/learnt today:

- spent 8am to...7pm in birthing suite today. could have left earlier but I just hung around not doing much. it was so busy in there that the team on call and the midwives were all quite stressed out.

- watched the last bit of a normal delivery. the patient actually declined a student initially but the midwife got me in to help at the last minute. I was in there for only like...a few minutes of labour? then afterwards for a while after the baby was born.

- (which means that I've completed the total number of births needed for the run!)

- assisted in 2 C-sections. I think I wouldn't mind doing a C-section cos it seems like one of the most straightforward surgeries that I've seen being done. cut, blunt dissection, cut, apply pressure, remove baby, stitch, stop bleeding, stitch, steristip, done! although it's easier said than done obviously.

- attended a C-section of a lady I coincidentally met earlier in my run. although the baby was born prematurely, he looked quite well other than being smaller than term babies. and you know it's so cool how they put the baby straight into a plastic bag to keep the baby warm and the skin humidified such that it doesn't break down?

- watched an ECV being performed (external cephalic version, for breech presentation, ie. manually turning the baby when still inside who has its legs down instead of head down a few weeks before being born). although the baby got stuck halfway and is now lying horizontally.

- one of the consultants did a "lotus caesarean section", where the placenta remains attached to the baby and is left there until it disintegrates and drops off. first time I heard about this.

- I didn't learn anything from pharmacology. went for the lecture, was awake for the first 5-10 mins, heard something about drug metabolism and the liver, then fell sound asleep for the next half an hour until the lecture ended. was totally out of it and I don't think I've done it that often.

- last but not least, something random. I can get so engrossed reading a book (novels usually) that I am lost to the world around me.

anyway. I actually have to work on my topic presentation which is due tomorrow. at the moment the summary is all I've got, haven't read the articles properly. but too tired right now. will wake up early to work on it.

another long day tomorrow, after the presentation in the morning I'm on gynae on call from 1.30-9.30pm. lol. which I'm not going to stay the whole time for! it's the last day of O&G...!