Today I was scheduled for another cryptic shift.
“LC Shift w/ Crystal”
I had no idea what LC stood for, and Google was of no help even when in combination with words that might be relevant to what I thought I might be doing. There was some indication of where to go and luckily my visit to the labor and delivery floor yesterday helped get me oriented with the hospital a bit.
After a bit of wandering and asking around I finally found the mysterious Crystal who turned out to be a lactation specialist, and LC stood for “lactation consult.” My attending texted me about a C-section that he had scheduled in the morning, that I might’ve been able to go to before the LC shift. Unfortunately, it got pushed back, but I figured I’ll get plenty of opportunities to see one before the rotation ends.
Back to lactation (backtation if you will), as soon as I met up with Crystal, we hit the ground running and started on the next scheduled consults. The day was pretty much in and out of rooms of postpartum mothers, and she would assist them with latching and provide tips and education for the whole process. I learned a lot. Breastfeeding is one of those things I guess I took for granted. Like you have the baby and then you just automatically know what to do, whether it be from TV or movies or sheer maternal instinct. I’m sure most moms would figure it out, but having someone with specialized experience definitely seems like it would be of great benefit to the baby and to mom (especially given the amount of anxiety we encountered in some of the rooms regarding breastfeeding).
I did feel a little confused about what my role was supposed to be there, besides observing and learning. Just entering the rooms, I often could feel the eyes of mom, and especially dad if present, narrow when I entered the room, so I figured no one would be comfortable with me attempting to assist. I only got asked to leave twice though.
Unlike in the clinic when I could actually somewhat know what I’m doing, in this case I was really out of my training realm. After observing several, I probably could get through a consult if I was forced, but also something about being a person who will likely never lactate giving tips on breastfeeding doesn’t feel right.
But yea that was my day. Overall, it was a great learning experience and the consultant I worked with was a pleasure to learn from and just kinda hang out with for the day. And this was also my first full day in the hospital.
For lunch I finally went to this burger place that has been on my radar since I saw it that first fateful night when I was locked out of the apartment. It’s called Wimpy’s, like the guy from Popeye, which is why I wanted to go bad. Turns out it’s close to the hospital so I went during my lunch break. I was actually quite impressed. To me it had some of the neatly tucked quality of a Habit burger, with the messy hominess of the Five Guys burger. The fries were also good, and there was something about their cheese that just hit different (and plenty of cheese paper a la Carl’s Jr commercial circa 2001).
Then for dinner I finally started using some of the chopped veggies I’ve had sitting the fridge. Cooked them up with some tilapia in like an adobo/ paksiw style sauce that I thought turned out pretty good.
nANIMOv 