Hello again everyone!
And once again I am writing well past due my expected time for blogging. Maybe someday I'll get my act together and post on a more frequent basis. But given my track record, the odds aren't looking so good. But I'm here now so lets get started! I'm sure the suspense has been killing you over the past few weeks.
Where to begin?! Lets start with my work. Over the past few weeks I can happily report that I have been enjoying work. I have finally begun my training for cornea procurements and vitreous humor draws. So its been exciting times!
I believe I have shadowed/assisted with 6 or 7 cornea procurements and watched 3 vitreous draws before I was actually able to do 2 myself! Now, while to most of you this sounds unfathomably grotesque, I can understand your 'view' (because puns), but to the coterie of us out there who find this sort of aberrant kind of work fascinating, its been a truly 'eye opening' experience (because more puns)! But I even have to admit that the Cook County Medical Examiner's morgue was pretty horrifying the first time I walked in. Believe it or not, its much larger than Winona Health's morgue...... like 330 times as big.
If you don't know any kind of eye anatomy, please allow me to briefly attempt to describe what I've been doing. The eye, in a crude sense, is like an onion, consisting of several layers. Without going into different cell layers, the outer most layers are the cornea and the conjunctiva. I'm sure most of you know of the conjunctiva because I'm sure somewhere along the way you've gotten poo stuck in there and contracted "pink eye"! Below the conjunctiva is the sclera, which is all the white you can see when looking in the mirror. The cornea is the clear middle part of your eye that you are looking at in the mirror when looking at your pupil or iris. It's like a clear dome that hovers over the pupil and iris and helps direct light to them. The cornea is the part of the eye that can be transplanted to another person. So we have to cut away the lining portion of the conjunctiva around the cornea, and then cut out the cornea itself with a peripheral lining of sclera to help avoid contact with the cornea directly, and also for some stability. Its really incredible!
As for a vitreous humour draw, the vitreous humour is a gelatinous substance that fills the whole middle of your eye. It basically serves as the air you would pump into a basketball. But the importance of the vitreous humour is no 'laughing matter' (ok, I hate me too)! Its very important for postmortem analysis and toxicology. So I get to suck it out! Doesn't that sound awesome?!?! I've only been able to do it twice on my own so far and I found it so be much more difficult than I initially thought it would be, but I'm really excited to do more of them.
I also had the luxury today to help with a whole eye extraction! We were dispatched to collect corneas but found that one of the eyes had an infiltrate. So we called in and headquarters told us to take the eye for research purposes. It was really cool running through all the anatomy while watching. I was able to see things today I never got a chance to while taking anatomy!
I'm really hoping that I'll be getting a lot more training on this kind of stuff very soon because I love it. And I've pretty much caught this place up on paperwork so its nice to get out of the office!
Hannah has just finished her Family Medicine rotation, which I believe she was somewhat thankful to wash her hands of, and has just begun her Emergency Room rotation at Mount Sinai Medical Center. So now I can't wait to come home everyday and here about all the exciting stabbings and gun shot wounds she'll be healing! I mean, don't get me wrong! Stabbings and gun shot wounds are a terrible thing...... but they do happen.... especially in Chicago..... so I may as well get to enjoy hearing about them! Mostly because I'm a terrible human being.
Other interesting news regarding this final stretch of Hannah's PA schooling happens to stem from her last two rotations before graduation. I'm not sure if anyone so far has caught onto this overwhelming theme in Hannah and my life, but once again and without fail, there has been a wrench thrown in our cogwheels! Hannah's last two rotations are electives. She had to make a list of particular rotations that her school allowed her to sign up for, and then she had to be matched into two of those programs. Now her second overall choice rotation was located up in the twin cities, and her and I both agreed it would be a good rotation and that I could stand living here for 4 weeks without her. And she got the rotation! Which is super awesome! But what is not quite as awesome is that she got placed for her second rotation ALSO in the twin cities! Of course! So now what are we going to do you might ask? Well, we are unsure as of yet! Classic, we know! We have a couple of options.
We could just accept the fact we are going to be separated for 2 months and just put up with it, that's a definite option. I have also started applying to jobs in the cities, so another option might end up being we're moving out of Chicago a few months earlier than initially expected. Darn.... So if anyone knows of any jobs that would be pertinent for me in the cities.....
Our other option is that Hannah gets her second rotation replaced and is back here with me for the month leading up to graduation. This option relies heavily on her school, so we have to wait and see if they can help us out or not.
I just had the awesome privilege to fly up to the cities this past weekend to see my incredible friend +Dave Schneider off to Denmark! It was such a great time seeing so many great friends! I already miss everyone. Unfortunately Hannah couldn't join me on the trip back because she had her end of rotation exam. I just want to quickly thank again +Ali Schnell and +Luke O'Neil for letting me invade your homes and take up precious amounts of your time!
I'm also excited for a trip I'm getting ready for in two weeks up to the boundary waters with +Josh Dégallier, +Thomas Degallier, +Mark Degallier, my dad and Dr. Hiddinga! I just hope the ice is totally gone by the time we get there..... or else canoeing could be exceedingly difficult. I'm really looking forward to this trip for some good family time and to get to spend an extended weekend in the wilderness! I truly do miss being able to walk out my back door and be able to go hiking for hours. I know this might surprise you, but Chicago doesn't allow me that privilege. I'll have to write another post saying how the trip goes in a few weeks!
Well I believe thats most of everything to report currently...... I guess if I'm missing anything then its my own fault and I just have to accept it. But I will certainly be posting again relatively soon after our trip up north! Until next time, I bid you adieu!
