so as i sit here on the labor and delivery floor on a saturday night "serving" my weekend 24 hour ob/gyn call, it gives me some time to reflect on my first rotation. so far today i helped with a vaginal delivery in which the baby's head got stuck (9lb baby!) and the dad almost fainted right there in the room, a circumcision in which the doc accidently sliced a part of the penis(malpractice?!), and a c-section all within 4 hours. This is just a snippet of my rotation so far filled with hysterectomy's, d+c's, laparotomy's, tubal ligations, and the ever so popular pap smears. i realized a few things so far. #1) i have a new found respect for ALL women. their pain threshold is out of this world sometimes. the various stuff they have to go through, from just a regular pap to pregnancy, its amazing how strong they are, if a dude had to do HALF that stuff they would be balling on the floor right now. i guess its one of those things that you have to see to believe. some guys act all macho b/c they can take a hit and not cry, lets see if they cry if they had 9lb baby come out of their peehole or even had to stick a brush in there #2) its always awesome to see a supportive husband right there next to his wife. you could see how strong their love is when the husband takes the news more seriously to heart than his own wife. for example, when we had to tell a 50 yo woman that she had metastatic cervical cancer, the husband was the one asking all the questions with a concerning look or today when the husband and wife saw their new child after the scary situation and started crying together. there were plenty of times when i thought in my head "now thats true love right there." #3) though as much as i love the surgical aspect of ob/gyn, i remember a doc telling me to pick a profession where you think you could do the same thing for 25 years over and over. thats like any job. after seeing a lifetimes worth of pap smears and pelvic exams, i dont think i could do that day after day for 25 years.