Success!!!!

So after this brutal day (it's not really over as I am still sleeping at the hospital and won't leave till 1pm tomorrow), I was pretty down on myself.  I am dead tired, running on fumes, and I get offered a chance to "surf" a kid...do I pass...HELL NO!!!

Brief explanation: Your lungs are made up of tiny microscopic sacs (they look like a branch of grapes).  These sacs are like tiny air ballons that inflate with air that you breath in and deflate (not all the way normally) when you breath out (called alveoli).  If a little baby is too young, it doesn't make a substance called surfactant.  Surfactant is a natural "soap" everyones body makes. Have you ever done the experiment where you put a pin on the water and it floats on the top, then you drop a little soap into it and the pin sinks.  The soap breaks the water surface tension. That tension isn't much to us, but to a baby it's enough to keep those alveoli closed without the surfactant. Thus "surf"ing was born.  First, you sedate the child.  Then you take a small metal blade/scope and briefly intubate the kid. While intubated you inject this artificial surfactant into his lungs (you have to roll the kid on both sides so it goes into both lungs, right and left).  Then you sit back and watch the kids oxygen saturations.

SO, after a day of everything being a struggle, everything being a grind, I walk into this room and not only intubate on the first try, but also surf the kid like I've been doing it all my life (where did this come from?!?!?)  Anyways, I am very happy and it has totally made my day.  Just wanted to share my "Win" with you all.  Alright, now I'm out...and sweet sleep awaits. : )

Newbie Doc