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Then, when I got home Val just found out that her sister had her baby. She had a baby girl who was born at 33 weeks and is 5 lb 6 oz (I think). She was given prenatal steroids to help develop the baby's lungs, which must have done a great job because the baby has been in the neonatal ICU without any oxygen supplementation or any difficulty breathing. The baby should be able to come home in a couple of weeks. I will post a picture once I have one...Stay tuned.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Baby Toes
Well, I have completed two weeks and come to the half way point of Vascular Surgery at the VA. Things have been going great. We are not too busy, so when there are cases in the OR I get to watch or even scrub. My team is amazing. The chief resident has said good things about me both to the general surgery faculty and the ENT residents. I got to sew some wounds and tie off some vessels that were bleeding. But, yesterday I got to complete my main goal of vascular surgery: I chopped off some toes! The surgeon let me use the Bovie (basically an electric knife that helps decrease bleeding) to cut off the tarsal (part of the toe you see) and 2 metatarsals (the bridge of the foot) and then debride the infection out of the wound and finally sew the wound up. I am on call this Saturday so I will work a 24 hour shift. I just hope that nothing comes in that I can not handle.
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Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI'm curious. Why did you remove the toes? What was wrong? Diabetes, etc.?
Reminder that nervousness pushes you to excellence. Save me from a Dr. who thinks they can handle anything, they get careless. Great news about baby.
Big Cheese,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, Diabetes strikes again. The patient had uncontrolled blood sugars for many years. This is not something that happens overnight or even over a year. He developed an ulcer on his foot. The problem with Diabetics is that they lose sensation in their feet because their distant nerves start to basically die off. In result, they don't really notice when they get a wound. Also, their distant blood vessels don't work as well either, so when toes get infected, good blood cannot deliver cells to fight off the infection. It's a vicious cycle that really needs to be prevented, not cured after your feet die.
Val's niece, Meira, is doing well in the NICU and should be able to come home in a week or so. Her lungs are developing well. Correction, she was 4 lb 6 oz at birth.