June Newsletter

My sister is getting married today!
Getting on to my comparatively mundane news, June has been fun. I again took electives, this time two weeks of radiology with an interventional radiologist, and a week of orthopedic surgery with an orthopedic oncologist who happens to be my uncle. I liked the hospital-based nature of this radiology practice, compared with the strictly outpatient setting of a radiology center that I experienced before. The radiologist still did the routine of sitting in front of a computer reading imaging studies, but he would get called away to do procedures, even more so than a typical radiologist, since he did interventional. The interventional aspect entailed more invasive studies than just barium swallow or enema. He would put central lines and other invasive catheters under fluoroscopic guidance and biopsies under ultrasound and CT guidance. The intravascular work was painful. Poking a hole through the skin into the vessel was the most exciting part, and then it's a tedious series of threading a guide wire into just the right vessel branch, sliding a catheter over it, taking out the original guide wire, inserting a different guide, then removing the catheter, then placing a wire-guided whatever, then taking that out, then putting the catheter back in, then taking the wire out.... I'm glad there are people who enjoy this type of work because it's not my cup of tea. It was a good experience to see what the interventional side of interventional radiology is like.
Working with my uncle in orthopedics reaffirmed again that I need to be an othopod. Every time blood gets splattered or bones get hewn, I grin from ear to ear. This type of barbarism would normally land you in an asylum for the criminally insane, but you can actually improve patients' quality of life by playing wood shop on their internal parts. Working with my uncle, who knows and I assume trusts me better than a typical attending would, I was allowed to do more than a typical third/fourth-year would. The procedure that stands out the most was an above-elbow amputation for synovial cell sarcoma of the elbow. I did the large-scale work and my uncle stepped in when more finesse was needed. I could go on for pages about orthopedics, but I'll finish by saying arthroscopic procedures are a lot harder than they look; I wore myself out hardly doing anything.
Off to studying and wedding preparations.

Scott

May Newsletter

May was an interesting experience for me. I had two two-week rotations and both of them were electives. I'm not sure if this is always the case, but both preceptors repeatedly told me I had all sorts of latitude on activities and duties since I was doing electives. I've had the past week off and have been trying to sort out which residencies I want to apply to. Once I figured that out, I was able to work on the more immediate step of applying for audition rotations at those sites so I can hopefully impress them and improve my chances of getting into the residency. I finally finished all of this so I just have to wait to see which ones will allow me a rotation. Next is packing to go to El Paso to work with a radiologist my uncle knows there, as well as working with my uncle, an orthopod, so I can have some clue of what I'm doing when audition rotations start.

July is designated as a study month at my school, which I assumed was standard practice among med schools, but apparently not. The bummer is that our "study month" eats up a potential audition month. I guess it will be good to have time to read up on orthopedics plus study for part two of the boards.

Life is hectic right now, as may be apparent from this hastily-written, brief newsletter, but it's all just a part of the process. What really got to me recently was looking at the various programs' weekly schedules for orthopedic residents and how very convoluted they can be. There is an 80-hour cap on the work week; earlier in med school, I was annoyed that the work week had been shortened because of the decreased patient contact and learning time. I may feel differently when I start next July. Regarding the work week, residents keep track of their own hours, and yes, there's an app for that. I just downloaded HoursTracker and it seems quite handy.

Scott