Internal Medicine

Today was my first day on my internal medicine rotation which will last this week and next week.  It went pretty well.  I receive appointments on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and receive transfer cases (cases that come into the ER but then are transferred to internal medicine) on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Today, my appointment was a cat that was coming in to be rechecked after fighting pancreatitis, hepatic lipidosis (fat accumulation in its liver), and diabetes.  It was doing excellent, so we sent them home with instructions to return in 2 weeks to recheck bloodwork.  My case was in and out within an hour and then it was just a matter of getting the paperwork done.  Nice and easy! 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to a top-notch lady that I happen to have the privilege of calling Mom!  Hope your day is special and that H, E, C and Dad spoil you like they should.  I love you and appreciate everything you have done for me in my 25 1/2 years!

One More Day at Purdue!

Tomorrow will be my last day at Purdue.  Hard to believe that the two weeks are almost over!  Yesterday was a "procedure day" which means that instead of seeing appointments we have surgeries.  However, there were no surgeries, so we went out to breakfast and had journal article discussions at Panera Bread, ate lunch at Chipotle, and hung out outside a lot of the afternoon before leaving early.  Today was just a few appointments, less than normal and we left around 330pm or so.  Tomorrow is another "procedure day" and we have one surgery.  It is a small mixed breed dog with a patent ductus arteriosus (a connection between the large artery leaving your heart to bring blood to your body and the artery leaving you heart bringing blood to the lungs to get oxygen).  It is normal for fetuses to have this connection but it should shut down shortly after they are born. If it doesn't, it usually has to be surgically shut down.  Then, it's the weekend yet again!

Tuesday 5/6

Well, my dog that I was in charge of today is still living!  He was stubborn in that he didn't want to go where we wanted him to but we were able to get everything done with him that we needed to.  We actually ended up putting a Holter monitor on him.  This records the electrical activity of his heart for a full 24 hours.  Tomorrow afternoon, the owners will send the monitor back to us at cardio and the monitor will be sent out for analysis.  Here is a picture of a dog with a Holter monitor on:

http://www.apexboxers.com/electrode.html

The dog came in around 1130 AM and we didn't send them on their way until 430PM and I was busy the whole time the dog was there, between talking with the owner, taking a blood pressure, doing paperwork, helping put the Holter monitor on, etc. Being that busy made the day fly by which was nice! 

Now tonight, I had to read an article for our "journal rounds" tomorrow.  Each of us students had to pick a research article involving cardiology and get ready to discuss it for tomorrow.  Mine is entitled "R-R interval variations influence the degree of mitral regurgitation in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease."  Not exactly the most fascinating reading I have done in my life but it could be worse!

Monday 5/5

This past weekend was pretty laid back.  I did head to Indianapolis Saturday evening and met up with one of the Brittanys and her family for dinner and then ice cream.  Sunday I was in West Lafayette for church and then last night I got some volleyball in which was fun.  Today was uneventful at Purdue.  Tomorrow morning at 1145AM I will be taking my first case.  The clients are new to Purdue cardiology and are actually coming from the University of Illinois teaching hospital to have their dog's heart checked out.  So, I will already have a connection with them!  Here's to hoping I don't get sick and miss out on my own appointment again!

Friday 5/2

Today I got to see another dog get his heart ballooned (as described in nauseating detail in my previous post).  Other then that, we really didn't have a ton going on, we even went out to lunch since we were slow.  This evening I got to spend some time with some of the guys from Purdue young group so that was fun. 

Purdue

Well, I am surviving being at Purdue!  This week has gone by pretty quickly.  The first day (Monday) I was slightly overwhelmed at school as I didn't know anybody, didn't know my way around, and the students I am with are all graduating in a couple weeks so are more advanced than I am.  However, as the week has gone on, I have gotten more and more comfortable.  The Dr's are awesome which is nice and the students have been pretty friendly to me too. 

Yesterday I got to see a balloon valvuloplasty.  I am sure most of you know exactly what I am talking about.  But, just in case, here's what happens.  Sometimes animals are born with a problem where there is a narrowing of the heart right where the blood is supposed to leave the heart and go to the lungs.  This makes it hard for the heart to push the blood into the lungs and can lead to heart problems.  So, a catheter with a balloon is put into the jugular vein (the big vein in the animal's neck) and passed through the vein and into the heart.  When it is put in the right place, the balloon is inflated, thus pushing open the narrow part.  It actually tears the tissue so that hopefully it will remain wide.  The balloon is then deflated and the catheter and balloon then pulled out of the animals vein.  It was really neat to watch.  They can see where they are going in the animal's heart using a machine that essentially takes a continuous x-ray so you can watch it live on the screen which is really cool.  Here is a picture showing what the balloon is doing:

http://www.fairview.org/healthlibrary/Article/89090

Today, I was supposed to have my first case.  However, my intestines decided to work real hard to push my food through faster than I would like them to so I ended up spending much of last night and some of this morning on the toilet.  So, it was hang out and sleep a lot today for me!  Tomorrow I should hopefully be back at it!