Leftovers

I'm busy finishing my residency application, so here's a post from my OB/GYN rotation that never made it onto the blog on time.

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Phooey. Blogging about eating placenta isn't exactly the most original thought in the galaxy nowadays. (Damn you, Tom Cruise! DAMN YOUUUUU!!!)

Mammals are known to eat the placenta after the birth of their offspring - apparently some primal instinct drives them to do so because the placenta is full of yummy chemicals such as prostaglandins to help the uterus contract back to almost its pre-pregnancy size. Or perhaps after spending hours in labor, the mommy is like "Dang! I got me some hankering for some placenta!"

I especially like the recipe that is pretty much a placenta smoothie:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup fresh, raw placenta
8oz V-8 juice
2 ice cubes
1/2 cup carrot

Method: blend at high speed for 10 seconds. Serve.

Eewwww....well, I guess I shouldn't knock it until I try it. Umm, anyone know where I can find some Fresh. Raw. Placenta????

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Rarely, nowadays, do physicians get to do their own labwork. Notice the characters on House M.D. doing their own labwork in their sterile clean lab? First, physicians hardly have the time to do their own labwork (or no one will let us near the equipment), and second, no lab is that clean. Ever. However, in the case of bacterial vaginosis, we finally get to have fun. Three of the following four criteria must be met for diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis:

1. The presence of a thin, homogenous (non-curdy) discharge
2. A positive Whiff test
3. 'Clue cells' present on microscopy
4. Vaginal pH > 4.5

Usually, the patient comes in complaining of discomfort and vaginal discharge. That's one criterion down, two to go. So....we have to dive in and get a little sample. The first time I performed this, I looked at my mentor hopefully, and asked him who Dr. Whiff was, and was he still around curing women of bacterial vaginosis? My mentor only looked at my sadly, and said no, there is no Dr. Whiff, the Whiff test means you take the vaginal discharge and stick your nose in really close and inhale. If it smells like fish, that is a positive whiff test. The last piece of evidence we usually get entails visualizing the 'clue cells' which are basically vaginal epithelial cells covered with bacteria.

Now that is what being a doctor is all about. It's about getting in there, getting your hands dirty, and sticking your nose into someone else's...discharge. Yep, definitely worth the decade's worth of training so far.

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I'm starting my sub-internship tomorrow, which means for one month, I pretty much take on the work of an intern. The chances of my posting anything are pretty dim for the next 4 weeks. Which means that I'm going to make the special effort to post something every day. At least a word, anyway. At most, erm....possibly two words.