Seattle is # 1

The first day of real class starts tomorrow. My first 1.5 hours of medical school will be hearing a patient's story about living with cystic fibrosis. After a week of orientation (to sum it up - going to a lecture hall, listening to Deans and instructors, then at night going out and partying... a lot... seriously, a lot.... the future doctors of America know quite well how to play hard... this week we'll see how hard we work) it will be important to have our first in-class experience not learning the biochemistry of our genes (that's at 10:30am tomorrow) but instead to hear someone's story. To hear what their life is like, and to better grasp the world through someone else's point of view. In my opinion, the ability to listen and take in someone's story is one of the most important skills and abilities that any physician can have. We are not treating a disease, but working with someone to better their health.

On an unrelated note: Seattle is number one... when it comes to best cities in the country to have a heart attack... This was something we learned when becoming CPR certified. Apparently a lot of people are CPR certified in Seattle, leading to higher survival rates when an event occurs out-of-hospital, than other cities. I was proud to hear that.

Hear is a quick run down of the first few steps of what we learned:
1. Check for responsiveness
2. Activate emergency response - send for help and get an AED (defibrillator)
3. If unresponsive open the airway - tilting head back and chin up
3. Look listen feel for breathing - If none, give 2 rescue breaths to see if airway is open (watch for chest rise)
4. Check for pulse
5. If no pulse, begin chest compressions and breathing (30 compressions to 2 breaths at 100 compressions a minute)
That's just the first couple steps, which vary depending on age and setting of the incident...

After completing the CPR training, I had the song "Staying Alive" stuck in my head because we learned that the beat of that song is roughly the pace at which you are supposed to perform chest compressions. You can also do it to the beat of "Another One Bites the Dust," which might be a bit dark for my liking... These songs are roughly 100bpm, which is the ideal pace for performing compressions.

Although we learned to include breaths while performing compressions (30 compressions : 2 breaths), we were told the guidelines will be changing to not include breaths and simply perform compressions at 100/minute. A few reasons are leading to this change: First, not many people are eager to put their mouth on the mouth of a stranger, that might mean less are willing to perform CPR. Secondly, taking breaks from performing compressions leads to less blood getting to where it needs to go. The pressure created in the heart from compressions increases as you perform them, and when you stop to give breaths the pressure drops and then takes time to build back up to an optimal level. So, instead of stopping, because a person has almost 8 minutes of oxygen reservoir in their body if compressions are continually administered, it becomes less necessary and sometimes detrimental to take breaks to give breaths.

Now, it's time to prep for lectures tomorrow. Here we go...