A Day In The Life!

Today was a really great day. :) I woke up at 6:30 to head to the hospital with dad for the day.  We had a nice drive in, and the day started with an extra cath- a guy from the E.R. with chest pain.  I got to suit up in scrubs, surgical lead, and even the shoe covers, hairnet, and mask to top it all off. :)  Nerdy, I know, but I loved every minute of it.  I had gotten to go with dad one time before, down in Florida, so I knew how it was going to go, but I don't think I could ever get tired of going with him and watching him cath.

By noon, dad had done 4 caths, visited numerous patients and consults in the hospital, and read a few studies.  I was allowed to take some pictures during the last cath, with the patient's consent (nothing graphic or bloody- dad's more of a plumber, not a cut-'em-open doctor) :).  He puts things like stents and balloons in to open up arteries for better blood flow.  He inserts a plastic sheath either into the wrist or an area near the groin to thread the wires, stents, and such through up to the heart or anywhere else he may need to, like the legs.  He tries to do it through the wrist as much as possible, because it's a straighter shot to the heart, and comes with less complications.

Dad putting the sheath in the wrist

Scalpel

The "cocktail", as they call it- a mix of blood thinner and blood vessel dilator

Hard at work- dad and Jamie at the table, with Tara at the computer

The monitors and IV drips

Hard to see, but the dark line coming out of the
top left of the screen is the wire he's putting in

Daddy in his Kenya cap :)

Blood pressure

Blurry because she moved, but Grace is assisting with the materials

Grace :)

Table view

All done- getting the Hemoband ready to stop the bleeding

Jamie in action; dad cleaning his gloves off

Grace giving medication to finalize the procedure

Grace and Tara switched off between the computer documentation and the assistance in the lab for each cath, and Grace talked through parts of the second cath with me so I could begin to understand what exactly I was seeing on the screens as dad threaded the wires through the heart.  Dad told me to ask questions, but it's hard to know what specifically to ask besides "What's going on now?" :) , and he's focusing on doing a good job and finding out the problems, so he can't exactly focus on giving me a play-by-play in the cath lab. :)

Jamie, Grace, and Tara, the three ladies dad works with in the lab, are all really fun to be around, and great to work with.  They were trying to come up with a nickname today for their group of four, and they decided that they were Charlie's Angels. :) When dad had left the room in between procedures, Tara (also an RN) said that when dad said "Oh Tara" when he needed a piece of equipment, she just wanted to answer "Yes Charlie". :)  Dad and I headed up to his office in between caths, and I grabbed some peanut MnM's to share with the three of them, which they loved.  Tara won the extra bag when we all bet on what the issue with the third cath would be.  Tara had the winning guess, which turned out to be good, because she had guessed that nothing serious would be wrong with the patient's arteries, which turned out to be the case. :)

Another little joke they have is a big pink hula hoop that they keep in there- when I asked what it was, Grace said she keeps it there to work out occasionally (it's a weighted hula hoop I guess), and they've all tried to get dad to try it since he's been there.  I tried to work on him because I can never pass up potential laughs for the blog or getting my dad to do something funny :) , and Grace even used some peer pressure by telling him that even his partner, Dr. Polizzi, had done it, but the farthest he would get into it was one foot. :)  Grace still thinks they just need to get him in for a late-night call and make him think that no one's watching and he'll try it out, because he just can't resist. :)

Charlie's Angels, cath lab-style

:)

"Yeah right..." :)

That's as far as he would go :)

We ate lunch up in dad's office- soup and sandwiches from Panera, or St. Louis Bread Co., as it's called here, while dad handled 100 things needing attention from all different people and areas of the hospital. :) I told him I understand better now why all he wants to do after he gets home is sit down in his leather chair and say and do nothing. :)

He had a meeting at 2, so I sat up in his office and finalized some Boston travel plans, and then afterwards we went back to the cath lab so he could talk some studies and procedures over with the morning patients and their families.  Later in the afternoon, he had a bunch of ECHOs to read, so he taught me about a few things as we went along.  I was so proud of myself when I could recognize all the chambers and valves of the heart before he said them. :)  By the third or fourth study, I was getting tired, and I had way more respect for dad, who reads hundreds of them all the time.

We headed home, driving with the windows down and dad's Car and Driver and Bob Marley cd's blaring. :) I had an awesome day, and I of course will never forget it.  The excitement that I feel being in that atmosphere and learning everything I can about it makes me feel even more that I want to become a doctor. :)  Dad and mom truly have the coolest jobs. :)

I had the best day with you today :)