Winding down (is a relative term)

Monday is our last day in the classroom at school. Tuesday is an off day and then we head into the lab on Thursday for Advanced Cardiac Life Support and exit megacode practice. The home stretch of the didactic portion of the program has been beyond hectic; this morning's infectious disease exam was our seventh test in nine days. As glad as I was to be back in the classroom after the lab-heavy ITLS module, I'm looking forward to the change of scenery next week.

On the clinical front, I am moving through my pediatric rotations in rapid fashion. I spent Friday and Saturday of last week in the Labor & Delivery ward at the Children's Hospital of Buffalo. Saturday's shift was a bit slow, with the most interesting cases coming in just as I was on my way out the door, but I got to see three deliveries on Friday. My classmates had reported being allowed varying levels of participation in the deliveries, so I was not sure what to expect. As it turned out, the staff was friendly but in no hurry to cede great amounts of responsibility, so my contributions were primarily limited to assisting with equipment.

Last night was my first shift in the Emergency Department at CHOB. I spent the first four hours up front in triage and the latter half in the surgical section of the ED. The time spent in triage flew by, since I got to interact almost nonstop with patients sporting a variety of complaints. Shadowing the nurse assigned to the surgical rooms was slightly slower, since there was not the same volume of cases, but I did get to see a couple neat procedures. I will be back at the pediatric ED next Saturday and Sunday to wrap up Clinical III.

In other news, the World Chess Championship is underway in Sofia, Bulgaria. After four games, current titleholder Viswanathan Anand leads challenger Veselin Topalov by a score of 2.5 - 1.5. If the start to the match is any indication, the remaining eight games promise exciting and combative chess!