Pediatric Neurosurgery

This past Monday I was able to go on my first actual mentor visit and it is safe to say I was blown away. I am not a morning person and I usually find it extremely difficult to wake up early. But when Monday morning rolled around, I was up about one hour before I even needed to be up. Once I arrived at the hospital, I changed into scrubs and for the first hour or so, shadowed Nurse Practitioners. I was able to see two spinal taps and it is amazing how much I learned through those two procedures. Although the procedure itself was the same, because it was preformed on two 2 very different patients, I was able to learn quite a bit of information. After that, I went into the operating room and watched my mentor and one of the residents preform a tumor removal on a patient. Before going into the operating room, I was quite worried.  Some of the nurses had warned me that the smell might be overwhelming and instructed me to take a sit if I ever felt dizzy or nauseous. The fact that they even had to tell me that was quite worrying. However, after stepping into the operating room, I did not even notice anything -- I was more fascinated by what was going on. There were x-rays on the walls and various equipment spread out across the room. In addition to my mentor and the resident, there were 3 other nurses and an anesthesiologist. During the initial part of the surgery, the anesthesioloist should me her side of the job and walked me through what exactly her job and tasks entailed. Not only did she teach me about what she did, she also explained why her job was necessary in regards to the patient and how the body reacted to whatever drugs she was adminstering. The surgery itself lasted about 4.5 hours and it amazes me how fast the time went by. There was never a moment in which I was bored or disinterested. I could go on for quite some time about how much I enjoyed my visit, but I will spare you the otherwise belaboring details. I cannot wait for my next visit!

Pediatric neurosurgeons treat a variety of disorders and amongst one of the most common is brain tumors. Tumors, which are abnormal mass of cells, put pressure on different parts of the brain and can impair certain body functions.

This past week we were required to give a 20 to 25 minute speech regarding Original Work, and it amazes me how quickly time seems to go once I get in front of people. Although I had prepared for about 30 minutes worth of talking, I only spent about 20 minutes presenting my speech (much to my dismay). After I finished my presentation, I was not entirely satisfied. I knew I had rambled quite a bit and that I had used a lot of filler words. It is good to have stage presence, but what makes a presentation 10x better is when the actual content of the speech is stellar. Moving forward, I feel that I need to prepare my speeches a little differently. Rather than just having an outline and being impromptu, I feel that if I put more work into the preparation aspect and mentally plan out what I am going to say so that all my words flow eloquently and fluidly, I will have a more convincing and engaging presentation. One other thing I need to really work on is talking slower. I naturally speak at a fairly fast speed and I only speak faster when talking in front of people and this not only makes it harder for the audience to truly understand what I am saying, but it also leaves me as a speaker with a lot of dead time, which I then have to fill with even more impromptu rambling. Although I was quite disappointed and frustrated after giving this speech, I do know what I need to work on for future speeches.
More importantly, I am excited for my mentor visit! Right before I presented my speech, I received an email from my mentor asking if I would like to come in and watch a surgery. This will be the first time that I have stepped into the operating room and I am not sure there are words to described just what I am feeling. As I have been patiently waiting for some time, I am thrilled to finally get a chance to see my mentor operate on and interact with patients. However, at the same time, I have absolutely no idea what to expect when I walk in. Will the smell and the sounds and the environment be overwhelming? Or will I absolutely love it?

After quite a busy and hectic week with Original Work, last week was somewhat of a break -- something that is supposedly indicative of how the next few weeks are going to be like. Other than an a written assessment, there was not a lot of work that we did. I am currently talking with my mentor about what my Final Product will be. Initially it was going to be very similar to my Original Work, just in depth but now I am curious as to what other options I might be able to pursue. Unfortunately, I am still not cleared for surgery or shadowing, which is quite frustrating because I would like to actually get a hands on experience. However, if anything, I am learning to be patient.
This coming week, I am going to give a 20 to 25 minute presentation about everything that I done along my ISM journey thus far and I have to admit, I am a little intimidated. I know what I want to include, but organizing it in a comprehensible and engaging major is much easier said than done. For the next few weeks, I am going to focus on simply enjoying my mentorship and exploring all that it has to offer.

This past has been insanely stressful as we had to finish our Original Work. After meeting with Dr. Weprin the week before, we finalized what exactly I should do for Original Work and together we decided that perhaps the most feasible and doable option was to categorize and analyze the types of hydrocephalus cases treated over the span of one year. Naturally, I was excited to get started working, but I will admit, that it was a lot more tedious than I initially imagined. The raw data that Dr. Weprin gave me was essentially just a bunch of codes and numbers. By looking at that information, I had absolutely no idea what it meant or if there was any significance to it. Dr. Weprin soon gave me a key and after that I was able to categorize them a little more, but even then, one type of hydrocephalus case would be assigned to multiple code numbers making the data still not entirely easy to analyze. So, I had to go one step further and sort the codes and cases by type. Finally, I was done. With the data organization. From there, I had to analyze the data and so I looked for numerical trends to see if there was a certain month or time period that saw more hydrocephalus cases than others. I also look to see which type of hydrocephalus was most common and which was least common. However, I could not just hand in a bunch of numbers and graphs and so I compiled all the information into a presentable document (28 pages!) and turned it in. Although I may not have gotten any sleep the night before turning it in, I can honestly say that I am extremely proud of what I have accomplished and this whole experience only makes me more excited for Final Product.