Long day...

So I'm on my second week of my ED rotation. So far I have had a great time. Today, however, was by far my favorite day of all! We had a procedure lab where we were assigned to a live pig (about 100lbs) and got to do a bunch of procedures on them. We practiced getting intra-osseous access (basically sticking a large bore needle into a long bone when you can't get a peripheral IV), chest tubes, cricothyrotomy (hole in neck for airway),  thoracotomy (cracking open a chest), diagnostic peritoneal lavage ( flushing fluid in the abdomen looking for blood), and cardiac massage!! A couple of attendings and the program director were in my group so I either made an ass of myself of did a good job to impress them, who knows lol. But it was really awesome to be exposed to the setting where we can actually learn those types of procedures on live animals. I love that they put that much effort into teaching us on this rotation, it really makes up for the slow ED :-)

Everyday I'm here, and the more I talk to the residents, I love this program more. It's not as in your face military as San Antonio is, you get close to 5 civilian hospitals in your rotation, rather than just 1 big hospital, but most of all, the people are amazing. The people/personalities are what matter the most to me and if I can see myself happy working with these people. Granted, it IS the AF and people move around sooo much, but I feel like I can really fit in here. Also, I do want civilian hospital experience, and you get that for your entire 3 years here.  I do love the AF, but i think I will really like the civ/military mix of residency life they have here.  Sometimes they are the bane of my existence, but the homeless drunk does have his/her role in teaching students on how to be a good ED doc lol.

In other news, i've been running a good amount here. The base is pretty, pics coming soon! There's a sweet rock gym not far from here and I think i'm going to head there in the next couple of days. I've been sooo busy lately and they sneak lectures/labs in on my days off so I haven't had time to explore it yet. This week though!!

Ok more updates later!