Internship Rotation 6: Liver Transplant & GI, 1 Week

I just completed my liver transplant and GI rotation which was a week long. It was a quick week but really busy. I saw patients who had already been transplanted and patients who were still waiting for a transplant. The best part of the week was finding out that one of the patients had just made the liver transplant list which is quite an involved process. Some common features of the week were jaundice, ascites and encephalopathy. During this rotation we had to use our best judgement to determine a patient's "dry weight" in relation to liver disease because ascites add quite a bit of weight to a person's frame without adding nutrient needs.

This week was also the hospital-wide holiday party which was huge! There was an entire corridor in the hospital that was closed off to patients and visitors where the employees entered and were treated to a free buffet of hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, drinks and desserts. The party area was set up with tons of decorations and lights and it was really nice. We also had our department holiday party earlier in the day so I ended up with lots of yummy food by the time I left. Plus I won some Kitchenaid mixing bowls and some cutting boards in the gift exchange.

Up Next: 2 Weeks of Winter Break!! Then: Nutrition Support, 1 Week

Internship Rotation 5: Renal Transplant, 2 Weeks

We started out this rotation a few weeks ago by attending a dinner/lecture meeting sponsored by Amgen at Morton's Steakhouse in Baltimore. We had an awesome meal followed by delicious cheesecake while we learned about dialysis outcomes for patients in renal failure. It was an interesting presentation, but the free food was what really made the night. Other than the free meal night, the rotation ran pretty similarly to our previous clinical rotations except that we worked in inpatient and outpatient settings concurrently. We dealt with newly-transplanted kidney patients, rejection of previous transplants, and patients with transplants who had symptoms come up that could cause serious complications due to the long-term immunosuppression meds used to prevent rejection. We also saw pancreas transplant patients in this rotation since many patients get simultaneous pancreas kidney (SPK) transplants. We saw all types of kidney transplants: living related, living unrelated, and cadaveric.

Up Next: Liver Transplant, 1 Week