On Thursday (6/2/22), I met with Dr. Thordsen for a short but intriguing visit. I watched two surgeries involving the retina and helping the patients overall vision. One special part of the day was when he let me scrub in and watch his work through an attached microscope. I was right next to him while he reattached the patients retina and cleaned up the eye (lasers involved).
On Wednesday (6/1/22), I shadowed Dr. Bloedon and other surgeons. There were not many surgeries scheduled on that day but I did get to watch tonsils being removed and parts of the nose being repaired to help breathing. Also, I should note that the last surgery was stopped due and rescheduled to another day due to the patients heart beat being irregular (flutters and speeds up and down).
On Tuesday (5/28/22), I again visited Dr. Lewis in Lillington and shadowed her clinical practice. I learned how to take an echocardiogram. It shows multiple pictures and different angles of the heart in order to check for disorders. A common disorder is when the valves don’t close fully which results in some flow back of blood through the heart (not good).
On Friday (5/27/22), I visited Dr. Grace again; however, I went to her Cary office instead of her NORTH DURHAM office (very far from my house)! Today was very similar to yesterday in terms of seeing young kids with eyes problems. Some cases that stuck out to me were a few where the parents seemed to be uneasy about glasses and treatment as a whole. These few parents seemed to be unfamiliar with medicine in the US and Dr. Grace explained that many of these people will not come back if they feel uneasy by an appointment. Therefore, she says with certain patients, she has to take a slower approach in order to ease their nerves.
On Thursday (5/26/22), I visited Dr. Grace and had a transformative experience. Not only did she work with smaller kids, she also brought me to a hospital to help with eye exams on premature babies. This experience will be with me forever as she let me hold the babies in place while she checked their eyes. It gave me a very special perspective on medicine and allowed me to narrow down a possible future career pathway as well. Again, this was truly a special moment for me!
On Wednesday (5/25/22), I shadowed Dr. Lewis in Lillington. She is a general cardiovascular doctor and does not operate (only does clinic and sends patients to surgeon). She helped review my knowledge on the basic functions and parts of the heart. A major takeaway from this visit was honestly the surprising amount of writing and documentation that doctors have to do. She stated, “If it is not documented, it was not done.” If anybody wants to become and doctor or surgeon, they better know how to type quickly! 🙂
On Tuesday (5/24/22), I met with Dr. Dorfman and many of his colleagues and observed first hand many different types of surgeries. I put scrubs on for the first time and saw surgery up close for the first time as well. While observing the surgeons, I saw many tube surgeries on small kids (for ear infections), an ankle fracture surgery, and also a gallbladder removal. The gallbladder removal was my favorite as they have a non-invasive technique to take it out. In short, they fill up the stomach with a gas and then make a few holes in the stomach to carefully burn the gallbladder and separate it from the other internal organs (use screen to navigate through body).
On Monday (5/23/22), I visited Dr. Karl Schweitzer. I shadowed him for about 6 hours and gained wonderful insight on orthopedic clinic and procedures as a whole. I was exposed to many different, unique cases and also that human bones are often made artificially for replacements. They create these by 3-D printing or using lasers to sculpt a metal alloy based replica.
