Day5 – CA Work Experience Program

Day 5 Diaries – Puppy Spot Deck

FWV works remotely on Fridays and during the summer the hours are shortened to 9-3. So, today we had a shorter workday, but Kendyl, Sonia, Linda, and I met (virtually) to brainstorm some ideas for the Puppy Spot RFP! In doing so, we came up with a few ideas for directing consumer attention towards the website, as well as, keeping an eye out for potential competitors. Some of the potential competitors we found are sites like PetFinder, BFPA, or Adopt a Pet. Additionally, some of the ideas we brainstormed to bring more attention to Puppy Spot are to highlight the Make-A-Wish/Puppy Spot partnership via a commercial, hold a “play with puppies” event, or broadcast an interview showing some of the success stories! If you’re looking to find a puppy of a specific breed (from a reputable breeder) https://www.puppyspot.com/ is the place to go! 🙂

Day 5- Errors

Today we tested for a potentially large error in analyzing the efficiency of our reactors: whether the desired reaction was occuring. Since we only see the final composition of the gas from the GC, we cannot be certain if Hydrogen is being turned into water and condensing onto the pipes (therefore not being represented) or even turning back into Hydrogen. Since we have a gas mixtures of CO, CO2, and H2 we could be seeing a spike in CO without the original gas being used for any reaction if an auxiliary reaction (2CO2 + 2H2= 2H2O + 2CO) produces more CO. To test for this and account for the error, we ran pure H2 and CO2 through the machine with the current reactor to determine the rate that this reaction would occur in the reactor at varying temperatures. We can then use this as a maximum baseline error, since under the normal conditions there will be less likelihood of this reaction occuring since the desired reaction is taking place and using the necessary gas molecules.

Day 5: New Patients and New Knowledge

Today, we got many of the same patients that I had come to know throughout last week. Many of the patients Response Therapy gets are patients with shoulder or knee pain/injuries. There are one or two surgeons that know Response Therapy well and know that Dan is particularly specialized in shoulders and knees. Jeffrey did however explain that while Response Therapy is best at shoulders and knees, they are more than comfortable accepting patients with ailments in other areas and already readily do so. Although many of the patients today were the same, I did see a few new patients. There was an extremely sweet lady who came in whose right leg was unfortunately crippled from polio as a younger child. However, she does wear a brace and can walk around with it with the help of a walker. What brought her to us at Response Therapy was that she fell some time ago and broke the tibia in her left leg, so she could no longer support herself. Response Therapy helped with her rehab to regain the muscle lost in her left leg due to atrophy. For a long time, before her fall, she was “furniture surfing”, a term Jeffrey explained was when patients would subconsciously look for support on surround furniture or cars or other objects when trying to get around. The goal is to help curb the need for furniture surfing and to help build up strength in the left leg to where the patient can get up a sidewalk curb using just her walker. We did a long of walking in the gym with her to continue building up muscle in the left leg. So far, everything looks extremely promising and the goal seems entirely attainable!

Alongside the sweet polio patient, I saw a lot of new patients that had ACL tears. Two of these patients actually had ACL and meniscus tears. I realized that the term weight-bearing came up quite frequently with these two patients and noticed that they both had crutches. This prompted me to ask Jeffrey why ACL tear patients were weight-bearing immediately whereas ACL and meniscus tear patients were not. Jeffrey explained that, in the knee, the ACL does not actually aid in supporting any weight, it has more to do with the movement of the knee anteriorly. Thus, he explained, weight would not hinder or detriment the healing process of an ACL patient, although twisting, running, jumping, cutting, etc. would affect the ACL. The reason why ACL and meniscus patients are non-weight-bearing is because of the meniscus. The meniscus is located right between the femur and the knee and serves as a sort of compression cushion when putting weight through the leg. Thus, if a patient with a meniscus injury were to put weight on their leg while the meniscus was healing, it would potentially damage the meniscus again, not allowing it to heal properly.

Day 5 – Introduction to Wyoming

Because I am starting with a new team this week in Wyoming, I began my day with a meet and greet where I talked a little with Rick, the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming, who told me a little more about the company and the culture here. I was then given a tour and introduced to some people on the team I will be spending some time with this week by Connie, who is serving as my lead. Today was spend with Andrea, who I shadowed as she went to meetings for the majority of the day. It is interesting getting this new perspective from the side of the clients after working in Pittsburgh with HMHS. A lot of work being done right now is to help in the transformation process as we assimilate BCBSWY to the platform. It is a very interesting environment, always playing old blues and western music in their small office; much different from Pittsburgh.

After having meetings all day, the CEO Rick invited me to go on a hike to hidden falls with his wife, himself, and the COO Diane, which was very nice. There we got to know each other a bit better and I got to have an even better feel for the culture of the company and Wyoming at large- not to mention getting a great hike in! The people here have been very nice and welcoming, and I look forward to spending more time with them as the week progresses.

Day 5

Today, we were at a different location. Claudia and I were shadowing Dr. McElveen at the Carolina Ear and Hearing Clinic. Dr. McElveen is specialized in ENT (ear, nose, and throat). This was a completely different experience because not only does Dr. McElveen have a different specialty, but he also doesn’t work at the hospital unless its doing surgery. Today, we worked at his office where we met with patients all day. We arrived at 9am and worked until 4:30pm with an hour long lunch break at around 1. We did a mix of seeing patients with Dr. McElveen and seeing patients with his nurse. In the afternoon, he allowed Claudia and I to meet with two new patients of the clinic by ourselves. We were allowed to fill out their chart and ask them questions just getting as much information about why they’ve come to see Dr. McElveen. We then ran over everything with the nurse to make sure we had filled it out correctly, then presented like residence would to Dr. McElveen before he went in to see the patient. I don’t think ENT is something that I am very interested in, but I did enjoy seeing a completely different aspect of medicine. Another difference in Dr. McElveen’s practice and the hospital, was that Dr. McElveen still had patient files, like the one below, whereas the hospital had all its records on the computer.

Emails, Business Cards and Instagram

Today was a very calm day at camp. I spent a majority of the day working on more advertising tactics, as well as getting to know the new campers. Mr. Rothrock talked to me about mass advertising via email, and how to maximize your results by not sending out too many emails. I created an email advertisement to sell camps through referral. The task I was assigned was to create an email to send to current customers that advertises 50% for both parties if they refer a new customer.

After creating this, I also created a business card and touched up the poster I created on Friday. Tomorrow I will show Mr. Rothrock the things I created.

I also took over the Cra – Z – Brain social media. I posted pictures with comments, rather than leaving them commentless like they were before. I also added more hashtags and today we gained close to 5 followers and almost doubled the amount of likes on each post.

Day 5: The NTP at the NIEHS

Today was my first day at the National Toxicology Program with Dr. Malarkey inside the National Institute of Environmental Health Science site. First I had to go through security clearance at the front gate, showing my ID and my incredible smile (they knew I wasn’t a criminal). We then drove through the campus to reach building 101, which was a huge building overlooking their lake. I received my visitor ID and met Anthony in the front lounge who was checking in at the same time. We waited in the front couches until Dr. Malarkey came to pick us up. We went up to the third floor of the building, and Dr. Malarkey showed me the cubicle Anthony and I would be sharing. There were already a few abstracts on the countertop that I would need to read, to familiarize myself with the cell phone radio frequency radiation study. We made the short walk from our cubicle to his office, where he showed us his pathology museum. This consisted of shelves full of antiques and artefacts including his first set of miniature microscopes and slides, horse intestine stone, emu egg, and old books. We looked at a few of the old slides through the two person microscope he had in his office, looking at lobster larvae.

We set Anthony up with a few slides of the eye and Dr. Malarkey asked him to identify the different parts in the eye, location and type of tumor, and type of tissue and cells. While Anthony was squinting into the microscope, Dr. Malarkey gave me a tour of the third floor office and an introduction to what he and the pathology group does. In his doctorate program at NC State, Dr. Malarkey specialized in looking at liver cancer in mice. Hence, he went to teach in a lot of different countries after becoming well-known for this research. His research and focus still involves testing rat and mice, but the most important study of present is looking at the effects of cell phone radio frequency radiation on the presence of cancer. The National toxicology program also releases thick reports every few months about the results of the research they have been conducting. Dr. Malarkey explained how these thorough documents take close to ten years to prepare with almost 30 people working on each edition. We looked at a few together, all looking at how different chemicals, radioactive sources, or drugs effect the chance for cancer. To do this they test the materials on mice, rats, fish, and genetically modified mice. Most studies use mice and rats as the group, testing both species male and female.

After this, we all went downstairs to the ten person microscope to look at the slides Dr. Malarkey had given Anthony. After focusing all of our individual eyepieces, we determined that the first slide was actually a cross section of an eye. Dr. Malarkey helped us to name and locate each part of the eye including the optic nerve, lens, cornea, etc. The slide also had a tumor on the right and left sides of the optic nerve, and helped us characterized each type of nerve so that we could recognize them in this slide and the next ones. We then looked at other slides, including one with a cat who had cataracts. After discuss more characterizations of cancer, cells, and learning that blue means nucleus (bad) and red means blood, we headed to lunch.

After lunch, Anthony and I went to the histology labs to watch how samples and slides are made. First we visited the Necropsy department to watch the dissection of a mouse. The mouse was killed with carbon monoxide poisoning, and then the scientist covered it’s skin in ethanol. Using scissors the scientist cut open the mouse’s skin, and carefully removed all organs in the mouse. With our careful observation, we were then allowed to dissect a mouse of our own, removing every organ as well except for the esophagus.

I had so much fun today and am so excited for tomorrow!

Image result for slide of an eye

day 5- Closing day

Today was closing day! We started out driving to a rental listing showing at an apartment complex 10 minutes from downtown. Although the buildings were older, the inside had been newly renovated and is move in ready. The family was very interested in the property and it seems like they will rent for $1,100/month. We then drove to holly springs where we did a walk through in an old home. Walk through are necessary before closing because he buyers want to make sure the house is in the agreed upon condition before purchasing the home. Tiffany told us one time a friend of hers did a walk through and walked into the house to find the first floor ceiling on the ground from water damage. Needless to say, the buyers did not close that day. We walked through the home and everything was just as planned. The sellers even left some pieces of furniture like a big armoire and air hockey table in the house for the new owners. Anything left inside the house on closing day is officially the buyers. We then drove to Adams and Howell personal attorneys office for the closing. I wasn’t allowed in the room because of the personal financial information disclosed during closing, but the buyer, agents, attorney and seller all present during closing. It mainly consists of checking numbers and signing many official documents.

Day 5- Moving Monday

Today was a bit of a hectic Monday, with patient after patient coming in and out of the doors. Many of today’s appointments whether they were routine cleanings or other cases, went by quickly and today was absolutely problem or challenge free. And although many of the appointments passed by quickly, there were two appointments in particular that I found interesting.
The first interesting appointment was a sort of precursor appointment for a patient who will soon be treated with a root canal. While this patient did not receive a root canal today, what Dr. Sims did was basically clean out the canals and the tooth overall in general so that it would be ready for the root canal. Dr. Sims took several x-rays in between completing several measurements in order to identify how deep the roots of the tooth were (where the empty canals are now located). Dr. Sims placed a medicine within the canals once he measured how deep they were in order to completely rid the canals of all bacteria prior to the actual procedure. After the appointment Dr. Sims noted that this patient walked in and out with much ease because the specific tooth being worked on was completely dead so that made it easier to work with for this particular operation. Obviously, it has been assumed that the tooth was dead because the patient is on the verge of receiving a root canal, but this tooth had no bleeding whatsoever when operated on today, and that is rare in the sense that the tooth was completely dead. This patient will now be allowed time for the medicine within the canals to do its job before the root canal in a few weeks.
The other most interesting appointment today was with a patient who will soon be receiving a metal partial for her lower right mouth. Today’s appointment only consisted of taking several impressions for the partial, but the appointment was interesting because it was the first partial that I had been exposed to that would not be a normal plastic partial but rather made of metal. The patient did not mind that it would be made from metal because she originally had a metal bridge in the area, but due to a tooth decaying the bridge failed, so a partial was suggested instead. The decayed tooth was removed at a prior appointment and today I was surprised at how well the gum had healed in the area where the tooth was removed. Anyways, the impressions were taken so that her partial can be custom made and fit properly within the patients mouth and a 3D mold of the patient’s teeth was made into office today to be sent off to the lab. What was also interesting about this patient was that I was able to learn what a Nesbit partial is. While this is not the type of partial she was taking impressions for today, the patient has one lower tooth missing on the opposite side of her mouth and Dr. Sims explained to me that the Nesbit partial would be the best fit for her because of the other dental work she has already endured. A Nesbit partial is a partial that hooks to other teeth, but it small and only has one actual tooth. I found it interesting that I was able to learn about two other types of partials that I have not yet seen in action.
The final news I have about today is not about a particular patient but rather a new piece of equipment Dr. Sims received information about. Dr. Sims showed me a new panoramic x-ray machine that not only takes the 2D picture scan but also creates a 3D model of the skull, places the nerves throughout the mouth along with their respective measurements, and can identify other measurements throughout the mouth. This would be particularly helpful in placing implants because it would give more information about each particular patient since all patients have different bone structures and their nerves are in various places. Dr. Sims told me that if he were to purchase this machine it would be likely that he would place more implants than he does now because he would be able to do that more precisely.
After learning about more types of partials that I did not know existed along with watching an impression turn into a 3D model, I thought today’s busy day was a great learning experience. I am looking forward to share my own research that I encounter tomorrow.

The impression I mentioned above coming to life to create a 3D model of the lower oral cavity.

What the 3D model will look like once it dries. This model is the same patient but not with the impression from today.

The blue impression is to match the bite of the mouth and the cream colored impression is the one that will form the 3D model.

The Bakery

Today was a record-setting day: I walked three miles. Jokes aside, I spent today with Lou, the mixing specialist of the plant. We spent the day following the entire mixing process from time zero through the end of quality control (at the end of the ovens). I learned countless many metrics about Kellogg’s production, saw the workers make an unexpected line change (it even changes the recipe slightly), and learned a few top-secret secrets. Lou and I perused the flour silos, played with the dough to ensure its quality, and tasted a few Chz-ITs straight from the oven. In actuality, we spent a lot of time in the “command center,” monitoring every portion of the line. At one point, we changed the recipe of the crackers to accommodate the oven on the backup line.

Fun fact: Kellogg’s Cary plant has a blower that “blows flour so powerfully that it turns into a liquid.”

Beyond my time with Lou, I met up with Okey and discussed my plans for tomorrow: packaging. After that, it was all meetings and attempting to fix some faulty VBA code for Gary.

The meetings were an eye-opening experience for me: on one hand, I saw people in my (currently) chosen profession path (consulting), but on the other hand, I saw why middle management dislike consultants.