Week 3 - Samantha Bratcher

One thing I really like about the IR department is that there are always procedures to see. Many of the patients that need to be seen are referred to the department; so, time in the clinic seeing patients isn't very common. Although there are many commonly performed procedures, I've still managed to see a new one just about every day I've gone.

This week was a bit slower, being a 4 day work week. I got to sit in consults with Dr. Malhotra. In consults, the clinicians take turns spending the day with a team of people looking at cases (new and old) and judging what should be done. Dr. Malhotra goes very quickly, but I learned a lot of new medical terms and markers. I also spent one day shadowing Dr. Jason Spector in plastic surgery. I saw a fat graft, breast reduction, and nasal reconstruction. In the fat graft, fat was removed from a woman's abdomen and thighs and placed in her jaw. What I found interesting was how they isolated the fat. When first removed, the fat is very liquidy, mixed with blood and oil. To get just the fat, they simply pushed the fat around on absorbent pads until just the fat was left. It was surprisingly effective, and Dr. Spector explained this was the best method to preserve the fat cells without damaging them. 

Also, thank you to the post-docs in Dr. Wang's lab for showing me how to use an MRI machine! It was pretty awesome, and they even scanned my brain.


 
The fourth of July fireworks were as grand as I expected. It also wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be in the public viewing spot. I got to stand on an elevated portion of FDR Drive right along where the barges were. I went to the Museum of Modern Art last weekend as well. I don't always get modern art, but I'm still glad I went. Van Gogh's Starry Night is there! NYC finally cooled down the past week. Now the rain keeps coming with tropical storm Elsa. Hopefully, everyone remains safe. There was a lot of flash flooding yesterday. Sadly, I did not win tickets to see the NY Philharmonic. It doesn't matter anyway, though. It was canceled due to the weather and isn't being rescheduled.

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