A Day in the Life - Part II

AZ -

So after that excitement I thought things might cool down, but the triage waiting room was filling up with more pregnant women, all of whom had their last menstrual cycle around July 4, 2005. I guess everyone likes to celebrate our independence differently.

So the day progressed with more admits, sterile vaginal exams, ultrasounds and more H/P’s.

To jump ahead, at 3.15 pm I got an H/P on an elective repeat C-section and at 4.00 pm I scrubbed in on this scheduled C-section. This time I did a lot better. I held the retractors and cut the sutures. The whole thing was over at 5.07 pm. That’s when the sh*t hit the fan.

I left the OR with the resident and we went to write the orders and dictate the operation. After that we took a quick trip to triage and then back to the OB floor. We checked on a woman in labor in room eight. Her husband said the baby would be coming out at any time. “Well, we’ll be back in a second.” We left the room and went to the nurse’s station to make sure the room was ready.

“WE NEED A DOCTOR IN ROOM EIGHT STAT!” So the resident and I ran to the room. The woman had delivered the baby right after we walked out of the room and the nurse setting the room up for delivery had to deliver it herself.

So far, that’s three births. Almost all of the day shift leaves at 3.00 pm, and the residents stay till six, so this birth was right at the end of the day for the residents.

6.00 pm – call starts. I get a phone and eat dinner with an awesome third year OB/GYN resident. Great guy. He’s on GYN this month, so I don’t see him all that often right now because I’m on OB. I’m glad I worked with him.

At 6.20 pm there were two patients who were dilated to ten and 100% effaced, so their delivery was gonna be soon.

These two patients delivered at 8.34 pm and then the other at 8.50 pm. I literally walked out of one and went to the other room and that was my first baby I delivered. I thought it was awesome, so I sent a text to as many people as I could because I thought there would be some down time. Wrong.