Week 7 - ID Clinical Check-ins

This week, I was able to see a lot in the OR and in the realm of infectious disease. In addition to my usual plate rounds in the Westblade lab, I was able to participate in ID Clinical rounds. Unlike the rounds in the lab, I was able to tag along with a few fellows and check in on a variety of patients with infections ranging from minuscule to severe. Thus, I explored the hospital and learned about several bacteremia based cases. However, they were difficult to hear about and eventually observe. One case involved an older patient with a perforated and septic duodenum, who was unable to undergo surgery. In addition, they had to rely on TPN for nutrition, and were at a high risk for MDR infection and further complications. Another patient had several abscesses from a disseminated streptococcus infection, as well as a high WBC count. Both of these patients remained in the hospital on antibiotics. 

Courtesy of the ID department, myself and a few other members of my cohort were also able to see the COVID-19 testing facility in the basement of the building. There, samples are processed automatically and manually using two different types of devices: the Panther fusion and the Cobas 6800. It was interesting to see how the sample preparation was streamlined by the availability of reagent kits for both devices, and how quickly the facility was established to meet the extreme testing needs. I also attended another ID Case Conference, where one case was particularly engaging; An instance of super-resistant, reappearing PsA bacteremia was discussed, stemming from a fistula in the gastrointestinal tract. This appealed to me, as I will be working with P. aeruginosa in Ithaca, and this was the first time I was able to see its devastating effects in person.  In addition, COVID-19 statistics (regarding the BA-5 strain) was mentioned, as well as potential testing for Monkeypox and it's status as an increasing threat. 

Finally, I was also able to see a breast reduction with Dr. Spector. This surgery was especially interesting, as they were the first patient we were able to see in the clinic for a consultation. I look forward to seeing her post operation visit if we're still around!

- Taylor

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 8 - Our final week and an ending with watching a major surgery.

 Week 8! This week was our final week of immersion and it was bitter sweat. Looking back, I have learned so many different things and it saddens me to leave the OR and clinic behind. However, I have made new connections with the thoracic surgeon teams. I may even decide to integrate lung cancer into my Ph.D. and expand off of the summer project. This week in the OR was extremely exciting. I saw Dr. Alorki do an Esophagectomy - a major surgery which removes the esophagus. The esophagus runs from the throat, though the chest and into the abdominal cavity, and thus the surgery has three parts to it. The surgery took the entire day and in all probably about 6 hours. First Dr. Altorki made incisions on the chest and used a laparoscopic and minimally invasive approach. The esophagus is located in the mediastinum, this means that he had to first peel off the layers of the mediastinum to get to the esophagus. He detached the esophagus from the surrounding tissue and made sure that the...
Read more

Week 7: The COVID Testing Set-Up

I absolutely cannot believe that we are starting our last week of summer immersion. It has been weird seeing consultation cases, knowing that I will not be able to see their follow-up surgeries. I also enjoyed being able to see summer students visiting from other schools and learn more about how the medical school functions. In the clinic, I saw a former mastectomy patient on their yearly post-op appointment, who was healing well with a little rippling on the breast. Another patient came for a tummy tuck consultation, where I learned that after giving birth people often develop hernias. One of the fibula patients returned for their 2-month post-op appointment and was doing much better, especially with improved speech. They had a wound on their chin that the team worked to clean up and the patient had their lip sutures finally removed. This was the patient who I first saw during my second week here, and it has been remarkable to witness their recovery. Most of the swelling in their to...
Read more

Week 7

 This is Ruoxin. I observed a liver transplantation. The patient got liver cirrhosis where the liver was scarred and permanently damaged. The damaged liver was taken out of the patient while the fresh liver from donor was being processed. All the main veins of the donor liver would be tied up with threads, which were non-degradable, before being connected to the main veins of the patient's body. The whole process took over 6 hours. This experience was so amazing and meaningful. 
Read more