Today was a very eventful first day. Upon arrival we jumped right into appointments seeing newborn babies! A lot of out morning was spent on wellness checks from children aging newborn to about 8. Right before lunch; however, Jessica and I got to sit in on a Nexplanon removal and insertion. While this was not an everyday occurence it was incredibly lucky that we were able to see this. Nexplanon is a form of birth control that is in a small white tube placed in the upper arm. The removal was done by creating a small incision directly by the current tube. It is then squeezed out of the arm (yes there was blood). The new one is placed through the same hole with a tool very large in size for the tube itself. A button is then pressed and the tube slides into the arm. After some clean up and a band-aid the procedure is finished! After lunch we were filled with quite a few sick calls ranging from the common cold to ear pain. We tended to see more teenagers in the afternoon than the morning. This was interesting because the way appointments goes with a teen is very different than that of a kid. Teen appointments tend to involve more talking than examination, while kids were more examination based than talking (aside from typical conversations with parents). Overall today I got to see an amazing range of cases and people and can’t wait to see what the rest of work experience holds!
Image of a Nexplanon tube.