Immersion Week 5: 4th of July

Summary: This week was spent in the OR and reading papers for my project while I continue to wait for the IRB request to be processed and approved.

This week I was able to shadow Dr. Simmons while she operated in the OR. I was able to actually see lumpectomies being performed on several patients. I was interesting seeing the coordination that has to happen between the nuclear medicine team and the surgeons. I was really intrigues by their wireless detection device. The surgeon used it to locate the primary mass and the sentinel node.  Also, I was able to watch Dr. Simmons perform two mastectomies with node removal. This procedure is really aggressive and it’s fascinating to see the surgeons carefully cut around the pectoral muscle while still removing as much breast tissue as possible. I also noticed how different surgeons have preferences in surgical equipment. Some Surgeons like to use the Bovie systems while some surgeons prefer the plasma system.

Went to several seminars this week. One was about the complexity of the nuclear pore and the process behind trying to further investigate nuclear transport. Also, went to see a talk sponsored by the NIH on the funding available for new PIs and graduate students that's not the R01 pathway. 

Also, spent time reading for the project. Dr. Chiang sent me several papers to read and now I’m just waiting for the IRB clearance so I can start examining patient MRIs. Time will tell.

On a side note, this past weekend/Monday was 4^th of July and I was able to spend the day in Brooklyn just under the Brooklyn bridge and was able watch the fireworks. Only one small problem… it was pouring rain! We finished drinks at a place called Pedro’s we started walking down toward the west side of the Brooklyn Bridge and as soon as we got there the skies opened up and it was raining buckets. With so many people in the area there is nowhere to hide from the rain so we just embraced it and finally found a spot on the east side of the bridge. The rain finally stopped and the fireworks started without delay! Picture below is a sample of our view.