Dermatology Feb 2010

I am finally writing about my elective rotations and the one I had been waiting on forever!! I knew from the very beginning of my clinical year that I wanted to do a derm rotation. I also wanted to do it at Marietta Dermatology - the place I went during the didactic year. I requested this rotation in like october and talked with shana (preceptor at marietta derm) to discuss the best dates to come. However, Mercer Clinical coordinators waited till the last minute to ask and luckily shana knew me because she was not happy with how the school handled setting up the rotation. They waited until the week before I came to send her the info and were kinda rude about it all.
Owell I got the rotation none the less and was so very excited my first day. Shana let me do soo much. In the first week I was doing shave biopsies and freezing all kinds of stuff. She taught me so much and one day we went to the samples closet and went through all the drugs in the closet. Of course I got a goody bag of random things to try,smell and feel. I was like a kid in the candy store - acne meds, steroid foam, antifungal cream, and tar. Not to mention other random lotions. I knew then that this was going to be the BEST rotation. No pimping just teaching and LOTS of hands on stuff. By the end of the rotation, I was doing things by myself while shana was with another patient. The scariest thing was using the electric cautery. I was so nervous with it - it sends electricity to an area to stop bleeding. I was afraid to go to a high setting and would work my way up to it. I also did a punch biopsy by myself - way different than on a pig foot. I even closed it and thought of a different way to close the hole. Just in case you are curious, I think horizontal mattress would do great instead of simple interrupted!!
I saw all kinds of things and enjoyed every single day - well with the exception of the snow days. During this rotation it snowed crazy on 2 occasions. The first one was the biggest snowfall I have seen in GA - nothing compared to Ohio snow but lots. I left the office an hour into the snow and it took FOUR HOURS to get home - Oh Georgia!!

As the rotation came to an end, the GERD symptoms started to get really bad. I tend to stress about things and dont even realize I am stressed until the symptoms start. Normally when the symptoms start, I start my Kapidex & Gaviscon and I am normally cool in a few days. But on day 4, I still had the pain to the extreme and added Zantac to the mix. And 2 hours later I vomited once - AND blew all the blood vessels in my face. When it comes to going to the doctor I am the CALM one, but when I saw all these purple dots ALL over my eye lids, cheeks, and chin I was FREAKING out and heading to the ER. Adam informs me he thinks its blood vessels and I relaxed. After a week and LOTS of make up the spots disappeared. Sadly the reflux had not, after 2 solid weeks of pain Shana made me an appointment with her doctor. We were worried that I may have an ulcer. Since I have never had my cholesterol/glucose checked and dads EXTENSIVE cardiac history, the doc checked EVERYTHING!! He changed my kapidex to protonix to see if that worked better. Another week passed, labs came back completely normal and I still had no relief. Next step- GI doctor and upper endoscopy. But I was heading to Rome in a week so I decided to wait till then to get some GI doc up there.

Onto the next rotation uncomfortable and hoping I could just stay at Marietta Derm. I am also a little concerned that I may actually have an ulcer - stupid PA school.