Today: 4 hours
Running Total: 27 hours
Yay! Finally done with all of my hours! Today, I went in early in order to see some of the newborn babies. Turns out Dr. Kelly is on vacation this week and forgot to tell me when we scheduled this meeting two weeks ago, but Dr. Pickering was nice enough to let me shadow her for the day.
We started off by talking about the girl from two weeks ago who had the foreign body in her foot. She was negative for Hep B but it turns out her antibody count was low, so she has to retake the dosage of Hep B, which takes 6 months to complete. What a bummer. We also talked about intussusception and how a 10 month old had it and had to get surgery.
We saw a 3 week old girl who was completely healthy. Her eyes went a bit cross-eyed at times, but it's normal for newborns and will straighten out after 2 months or so. Her breathing is a lot faster than that of an adolescent because her lungs are smaller as well as her heart. Dr. Pickering made sure her soft spot was okay, that the pulse near her legs were there and that her hips didn't dislocate when they were pushed down on. The back was also checked and all of the skin, and small joints as well. This girl was very healthy and very happy.
We then went to see 6 month old boy from France who was also very healthy as well. In America, at childbirth, a shot of Vitamin K is given to ensure blood clotting so that the babies don't bleed out too much. However, in France, they take Vitamin K orally every week, which is quite strange. They even have a baby booklet that documents absolutely everything the baby is taking.
After the 6 month old, we went to check up a 12 day old boy who hasn't been gaining the normal amount of weight within the first few days. Supplements were added to the breastmilk, and the dosage has been increased in order to ensure that he is progressively gaining weight and the right amount of weight. We believe that the mother just isn't making enough breastmilk to satisfy the child's needed size. He also had these dark spots on his legs and back that look almost like bruises, but they're little birth marks that actually fade after a few weeks. And no, I didn't think his mother was abusive.
A 6 day old baby later came in who was also very healthy as well, however he had a bad case of jaundice. The mom explained that she wakes the baby in order to feed him because more feeding helps the jaundice go away, but jaundice makes the baby very sleepy and sometimes the baby refused to eat. So it's a bit of a Catch 22 on this case. However, he was very healthy and very alert. He cried very loud as well.
I then shadowed Dr. Taylor for a while because Dr. Pickering had a teenage girl physical. We saw a 10 month old boy who was very sociable and very happy. He rolled over for the very first time today and I was able to witness it! He had redness under the armpits but only because there's no air circulation there so some hydrocortisone was suggested. No baby powder! It supposedly could cause lung problems if inhaled.
After that, Dr. Taylor and I went to see a baby who had wheezing last month and several ear infections before. When I listened to the lungs, there was distinguishable squeaking, but there was no traction and he seemed very happy, alert, and not sick anymore. His lungs will definitely clear up in a few days. His left ear also has a landmass, but very nice light reflexes and no pussing in both ears. So hopefully the nebulizer helps with the breathing. And when feeding, he should not be laid down because it could push stuff into his ears and cause more ear infections.
To end the day, I went with Dr. Pickering to see a baby with a cast on his leg! Poor thing. I'm not sure as to what happened, but they supposedly have to straighten out a tendon, then cut the tendon through surgery and let the tendon regrow again. This baby also had very bad baby acne on the forehead, but it should clear up after the 1st month.
The day was very exciting and baby-filled. Unfortunately, it was my last day. Since Dr. Kelly wasn't there, I left the Mentor Evaluation sheet for him to fill out for next week and left a note saying that i'll drop by to pick it up. It was a great experience working with the doctors and the children. Maybe someday it'll be me mentoring a student in hopes of being a doctor!
