Week 3 - Lab week! With a side of lipoma

It was a long weekend which meant a short work week! We didn't have clinic on Monday so we started the week fresh on Tuesday afternoon with a surgery. The patient had cancer in their buccal fat pad and it was originally thought that they would need to perform a flap reconstruction from the forearm to cover the incision. Due to the location of the tumor, the oral surgeon was able to fully remove the tumor without the need for the flap reconstruction and also saved the patient's molar that was nearby. This case was particularly interesting to me because as soon as the tumor was removed from the patient's mouth, the oral surgeon took the specimen to pathology right then and there to check the margins. The patient stayed under anesthesia on the OR table for about 30 minutes before the oral surgeon came back with the great news about clean margins on the tumor. From there, the patient only needed simple sutures to close the incision.

There was only one short surgery on Wednesday. The patient had a large lipoma growing on the side of their knee. The team was able to make a quick incision to remove the lipoma and suture the patient back up. It was about 3-4 inches long and 1-2 inches in diameter. Dr. Spector said it was likely that the lipoma was growing for years before the patient even knew it existed. After the surgery, it was time to go into the lab! One of the lab members taught me how to deparaffinize tissue sections and perform H&E staining. I was also able to help another lab member with their immunofluorescence staining. 

Thursday was a clinic and lab day. In the clinic, I sat in on post-op exams for two patients that I saw last week during their surgeries. It was great to see how well they were healing and how happy they were with the result of their surgery. Another memorable case was a pre-op appointment for a patient who had cancer in their jaw. This patient will undergo an 8-10 hour fibula-mandible reconstruction surgery in a couple of weeks. It really helped my understanding of the whole surgical process to see the pre-op appointment of a big surgery like this. Later in the day, I went into lab and helped a lab member image their H&E and immunofluorescence slides. I was also introduced to Imaris, an image analysis software, which I will be using later on to analyze endothelial cell migration.

Today, Friday, was a shorter day. We started the morning off with lab meeting and journal club. I got to give a quick update on my progress in the lab and propose the next steps of my research. Next week I will help with a breast tissue digestion protocol and plating 3D collagen breast tissue constructs. It will be a busy week but I can't wait to learn even more skills and techniques in the lab.

Kylie

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