SI-- WEEK NINTEEN

You all -- this week was so good. This month's schedule could not be more different than the last couple. The LONGEST day I worked was 9-5. Two days I didn't even start until 10am! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I worked exactly zero hours. I cannot even begin to explain how good that felt! Sounds like I'm doing very little and learning even less - right? Actually, I think I'm learning just as much as other months. Here's how I'm spending my time:

Each day (Mon-Thurs) we have lectures by radiologists. Every week has a theme - last week was neuro. So we spent all of those lectures looking at CT and MRI scans of the head and making the diagnosis -- was it an epidural bleed? subdural? subarachnoid? contusion? scull fracture? Next week, for example, we will focus on the chest. Outside of class, we are also required to attend a certain number of extra conferences where we see radiologists & imaging in action. Last week I attended 3 different tumor boards to fulfill that requirement. Are you familiar with tumor boards? I know I had no idea about them before I started my training.

Example of neuro imaging

A "tumor board" is a multidisciplinary meeting where patient cases are presented for the group to decide on a treatment path (or at least to give the group an opportunity to give their 2 cents about a treatment path). For example, a surgical oncologist may say "[patient's initials] is a [pick an age] [pick a gender] with a past medical history of x,y,& z who presented to my clinic after a ___cm [pick a location] tumor was found." Then the radiologist would put the scan up on the big screen and outline the tumor and talk about the location, other structures involved, etc. The surgeon would then say that they did a [pick a method] biopsy on [pick a date]. Then the pathologist would put the slides of the tissue on a microscope connected to the projector and show us the cancer cells. Sometimes the patient has already had a PET CT and then the radiologist can show us if the tumor or other sites (lymph nodes) lit up on that scan. The surgeon may then have a few more social history type things to add, for example, if the patient is a current drinker (that prevents them from liver transplant until they have been sober 6 months) or anything else that is important. Then the floor is open for the medical oncologists to weigh in on yay/nay to chemo or the timing of chemo - before surgery? instead of surgery? with radiation? The radiation oncologists are there to weigh in on the possibility of radiation either for treatment or palliative care. Transplants surgeons are there to say yay/nay to listing them for organ transplant. Everyone else in attendance is either a case manager, resident surgeon, nurse, or medical student (like me!). Often these cases are patient's that the surgeon hasn't even met but will be seeing in clinic later that week to present the discussed options. So this week, I started with an OB/GYN tumor board, then I went to one with the Chest folks and finally the GI team. Very interesting!

Have to have a picture - right?
source

Outside of my radiology duties, this month I have clinic Monday and Wednesday afternoons. So bring your sore throats and coughs over to Nebraska Med - Bellevue! In the evenings I've started studying for my next board exam which I will take later this month. I bought a practice test that is supposed to approximate your score for the real test in hopes that I would bomb it and then I would be motivated to study. Thankfully/not-so-thankfully I did pretty well on it - so it didn't help my lazy attitude. Hopefully it will all work out in the end!

And finally, if you read this blog for the social stuff >> medical stuff, here is a quick update:
- I attended one of the cutest baby showers to date (which says a lot!). It was superhero themed for twin brothers. So fun.
- Friday was a backyard bonfire for one of my good friend's 26th birthdays. Are we really into our mid-twenties already? I feel closer to 18...
- Saturday night I caught up with a few old friends and supported our old high school's show choir at a fundraiser dinner. One of my favorite people in the world is now the director of that show choir - how fun is that?! My thoughts from the night -- I miss performing! Too bad they don't have adult show choirs - I'd be all over that! Also, the students look so young! I felt so much more grown up when I was a high schooler... I tried to win T some Husker volleyball tickers or Creighton basketball tickets at the silent auction part - but I was outbid. Shucks. Didn't win that helmet signed by Johnny Rodgers either. Turns out my student budget doesn't stretch very far..

So that was my week in a nutshell! Are you still reading? That turned into a lot of text. For those of you who have asked, I still don't know the dates of my interviews for Grand Island or Scottsbluff. You'd think with my cake schedule it wouldn't be hard to coordinate schedules! Hopefully we will solidify dates shortly. Looking ahead at next week I think I'll only be working 24 total hours! And T has Monday-Tuesday off of work. It's a party over here! Sorry to rub it in :)

xo,
Krista