My first

speculum exam was done today! Woo-hoo! My CAP preceptor, who is an OB/GYN that I follow around once a week and who is just absolutely fantastic, let me do my first speculum exam and breast exam today. It was so awesome! I really didn't think it was going to be that simple, and neither did my CAP, but I found the cervix in one try. Granted my patient was bleeding A LOT, but that's okay. It just made it a little gooier (is that even a word?) and easier to slip in the speculum. The breast exam however, is another story. I mean. Us women do the breast exam on ourselves...well, we are SUPPOSED to do them on ourselves at least once a month right after your period. And sometimes, it feels a little lumpy. But I can distinguish what's normal lumpy in my breasts from what's abnormal lumpy (aka a new lump). But, that's difficult in a patient. To tell you the truth, i felt lumps today in doing that breast exam and I just waited for my CAP to do her follow-up exam and see if she would say if anything was abnormal. Everything was normal, in fact. This left me confused on how to distinguish normal versus abnormal.

They say in medicine that you must be trained to know what normal is so that when an abnormal finally comes along, it will hit you right between the eyes. I learned this through my CAP last year who made me do many pelvic bi-manual exams to train my "feel" for normal uteri (i think this is plural for uterus) so that when a gravid (pregnant) uterus or one with fibroids came along, I would know. And I did eventually learn how to distinguish between these conditions! Fibroids within a uterus is typically really hard, whereas a gravid uterus is somewhat soft feeling. But, this is the extent of my knowledge. So far, I'm learning so much from my CAP, whom I will call Dr. B. She is so brilliant, it's astounding. But she's great because she teaches so well and I'm excited about all the learning this year:)

AB out....