The Beard does rounds

Klamath Falls, Or.

As part of my training I have been assigned friday night rounds at the local medical center. During this time I shadow a respiratory therapist. I have done 3 so far. Week 2 I got to participate in 3 births. In KF it is the respiratory therapists are responsible to maintain the airway in newborns. This can often get harry. Two of the births I saw were C-sections. One was a repeat, for legal reasons most hospitals adhere to a policy that if you forgo vaginal delivery at anytime, that avenue is then closed to you forever. There is a small uproar with women over this policy, and I expect it to fluctuate in my career. The second one was an emergency section, for fetal distress. This was a "mec" baby. Meconium is baby shit. Mec babies shit in the sac and often then make a lunch and a lung full of it. Usually in deliveries you "bulb" suction, "bulbs" are the snot turkey basters we all had under the bathroom sink growing up, and then go for a vigorous cry. You get babies to cry by roughing them up with a towel, this also cleans them, you can also tap their feet. In "mec" babies you have to clear the airway in a hurry, this involves using actual suctioning and bulb suctioning. The last thing you want in a mec baby is a vigorous cry prior to thourough suctioning because this embeds the crap deeper in their lungs.
I had expected baby poo to be unfecal in appearence, I thought I had once read it was white. This was a lie, this baby was covered in crap very similiar to my own after 4 pitchers of Black Butte and a Bacon Cheese Burger. We suctioned the somach and removed most of it, about 3 ozs.
The "old fashion" delivery was uneventful, the mother had an epidural and seemed to barely notice she was passing a life through her loins. All three babies were healthy and scored well on the apgar., which is a test that evaluates new borns.
Having no children yet, this was the first I had seen a birth, much rather participated in one. I have to say it is very emotional. While I was terrrifed the whole time I was in there, I was also jubilant. I would highly recommend this experience, I think it may be why we are here. I can not put it into words. It is life changing.
This week was pretty boring, the only thing I got todo was sit in on a bronchoscopy. This is a procedure were they put a fiber optic tube down into your lungs. We did it to a lady to access her for "bronchiectasis" which are nasty ulcers in your airways. She was negative thankfully, but we did suction a ton of mucus out. I was surprised by the size of the anatomy. Your trachea is about the size of a quarter and you R and L mainstems a dime. I put a link to a site with some pictures.