Rotation Schedules

Well we have been a little busy these past couple of weeks, but things are finally starting to slow down this semester! 

Last week we had another week of four exams which was not fun, but the exciting news is, we received our rotation schedules Wednesday!!  It is so easy to get caught up in exams and forget why we are here, but the rotation schedule brought things back into focus.  Each person has 8 rotations and they last anywhere from 3 to 7ish weeks.  The sites are at different hospitals in Charleston, WV, Pittsburgh, PA, Johnstown, PA, and Martinsburg, WV.   Each person gets around 10 weeks at an autopsy site and the rest are surgical. Some of them involve a little more driving than others, and if the site is too far away, housing is provided.  My first rotation is in Butler, PA which is around an hour north of Pittsburgh so I will live in Pittsburgh and make the drive since most of the other rotation sites are in Pittsburgh.  We had a meeting about clinicals on Friday with Michelle and Justin where they explained how next year was going to work and what was expected of us.  I will definitely blog about my clinical rotation experience next year so I am sure I can tell you more then!  As far as next year goes, I am feeling excited and nervous, but probably more excited! Now on to house hunting in Pittsburg!

In the middle of a crazy week, I had my third gross room rotation last week.  We had 3 rotations a piece during the 1^st and 2^nd semesters, but we get 4 this semester so I still have one left! There were a few specimens on my list that I was hoping I’d get to see or do before I start clinicals and I got to check a uterus off last week!  Women have hysterectomies for all kinds of reasons and it is a very common procedure so it is something we will see a lot of in our career.  I know how to gross one on paper, I just really wanted to actually gross it!  The specimen I grossed was not for tumor, the women was experiencing bad pain from endometriosis and they removed her uterus with her fallopian tubes.  Endometrium is the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus and sheds each month.  Enodometriosis is when that endometrium grows places it shouldn’t and it can cause a lot of pain and discomfort, Our job in this case is to properly sample the specimen to make sure there isn’t any other underlying issues and to examine the outer surface (or serosa) for adhesions caused by the endometriosis. 

We don’t have any exams this week which is crazy!  I am going to try to catch up on a few things and stay on top of studying this week, but I am definitely enjoying the break.