Day One

My first day on the job working at the sleep and breathing disorder clinic at UTSouthwestern medical school lasted about six hours. I was trained at human resources in the morning for about thirty minutes then I was sent to the outpatient clinic where I worked under my mentors for the week: Drs Won Lee, Gregory Carter, and Joe Viroslav. Drs Lee and Viroslav are pulmonary physicians while Dr Carter is a neurologist. What we do in the sleep Nd breathing disorder clinic is generally see patients who have been referred to us who have possibly developed sleep apnea or other sleeping disorders. Generally the patients are overweight can have diabetes, down syndrome etc. Sleep Apnea is a disease in which the patient wakes up during the night due to inability to berth when sleeping. There are several treatments however the most common are the use of a cpap or bipap machines. Oxygen masks that keep the airway open during the night. Although not life threatening a very large group of patients have sever chronic illness. Many patients in the afternoon are wheeled in on gurneys or wheelchairs and may not have possession of any muscle control via ALS. Also I saw a patient this afternoon who suffered respiratory failure in February. Tonight I have been given reading material over ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or Lou Gherig's disease. We see many patients in the clinicnwith this terrible disease, 100% mortality rate, no cure, barely any treatment. General prognosis indicates a three year survivability period. Tomorrow I will rotate with Dr lee in the morning, than switch to dr Viroslav and a far more grim series of patients. Note: also attended lecture on hypoatremia and how to treat it.