Week 2/3 -Emily

Last week (week 2) was great since I got to go on cardiology rounds in the pediatric ICU, see a breast reduction surgery, AND work on my project. This week (week 3) I was in Ithaca organizing and leading our lab’s 4H Career Exploration program. Keeping 12 high schoolers engaged in research projects and activities for 3 days straight is no small feat.

During rounds, I saw how the teams of doctors work on a daily basis. The attending physicians led the assessment of each patient, supported by their fellows. They fire off questions to the resident rotating with them, typically critical thinking questions like, “If the intrathoracic pressure increases, will the transperitoneal pressure increase or decrease?” I remember that one because the resident got it wrong – it would decrease because the trans pressure is a differential.

Since these rounds were my first real hospital experience, I remember each patient. We had a six year old who had just had a subaortic membrane resection, a 4 month-old with a systemic congenital abnormality that meant different parts of his heart kept failing at different times, and a tiny little guy who had had a ventricular septation repaired right after he was born. The last one was actually awake and alert – they said he looked the best he ever had. His parents must’ve been so happy. I plan on going on rounds again as soon as I can – the fellow said I could come every Tuesday and Thursday. Hopefully I’ll be able to follow up with at least the last little guy, but on the other hand, I kind of hope he’s been sent home by then!

I got to go into the OR with Stephanie’s mentor Dr Spector, who’s a plastic surgeon. They were doing a very low-key breast reduction, so everyone was very chatty and willing to explain things. Turns out, this young lady’s breasts were 7 pounds each, so she was experiencing severe back pain from the weight. It was cool to see her come out from under the anesthesia once they were done. Her first words were, “I can see my stomach!” She was almost in tears, she was so happy. I wonder if she got to pick her final breast size? She probably wanted to go pretty small, after 20+ years of carrying double-D’s (or more) around.

My project is progressing nicely, especially now that a certain post-doc is back from vacation. He is an expert in the endothelial to mesenchymal transition, which is what I want to base my PhD thesis on. We talked today for >1 hr about my research, what I could do in this lab, the ins-and-outs of EMT, and how to characterize different cell types as they move around and change.