Almost there?

I hope so. Yesterday marked the three-months-left-to-go mark. The second half of my NICU rotation went well, as I was able to continue to follow my patients and watch them grow. I find that I really like that area, and it's a toss-up between the NICU and the PICU that are my favorite. All I know is that I love the intensive care units. The patient care, nutrition support, watching them grow, the math and science aspect, it's perfect! Definitely my niche. 

For the NICU rotation, there weren't as many various medical diagnoses. I'd say about 50% of the patients in the NICU are just patients who were born prematurely, and they need to stay there to mimic intrauterine growth with heat and enteral/parenteral feeding. There were a few genetic disorders, such as cerebral palsy and congenital heart defects. There was also good exposure to necrotizing enterocolitis, otherwise known as NEC. It's commonly seen in neonates and results from decreased blood flow to the intestines, basically causing death of intestinal tissue. These patients are on total parenteral nutrition. I actually followed two patients of these all by myself, so I had amazing practice with writing TPN. 

Next week will consist of a bone marrow transplant (BMT) rotation. I will be working with pediatric patients who have/had cancer and therefore bone marrow transplants. A lot of these patients are also on TPN, mainly because they are unable to consume the amount of calories they need. Their needs, both caloric and protein, are so high and a lot of times their gut is so worn and injured from radiation that they are unable to tolerate eating food or consuming formulas. I'm sure it'll be an interesting week!

After this upcoming week, I will only have my clinical nutrition management (CNM) week and my elective week. The CNM week will be working with the administrative part of the clinical nutrition aspect. I'll get practice with formula purchases, scheduling, and other administrative issues. I'm not really sure what to expect?

Anywho, I'm not sure how to respond to comments left on my blog, but just a couple notes about the U of M internship as far as schematics:

• I haven't had to work any weekends for the internship, but I might have to work 1 or 2 during my community rotation. But, if I work weekends, I'll get time off on a few weekdays.
• It's extremely tough (or so I've heard) to hold a side job during the internship. One of my fellow interns had a night job as a hostess and it became too much and she ended up leaving to dedicate full attention to the internship.
• Commuting is much more expensive than anticipated. But, still much cheaper than monthly rent payments.
• I've made about $100 from donating a small amount of time (and blood) as a "healthy participant" for U of M clinical studies.

But, that's it for now! If you have any questions about the internship, feel free to post a comment and I'll answer them in my next post :)