I have finished up my rotation at Conemaugh. Another 7 weeks
down!! I know I did not blog half way through with an update, but there wasn’t
much else to say. I enjoyed my time
there and I feel as if I continued to grow more comfortable in the gross room
and I gained a little bit of speed with the standard specimens. I was really hoping I would get a lot of
larger, more complex specimens, but we didn’t, until the very last day!! We
received a distal pancreatectomy for a pancreatic cyst. This specimen consists of the tail of the pancreas,
the surrounding soft tissue, and usually the spleen is attached. Ours was a little different, the spleen was
received separately along with a segment of transverse colon and we had a
portion of stomach attached to our main specimen. Hannah and I decided to gross it together
since there was only one and it was so interesting. We have heard from previous students they
were able to gross a lot of larger cases during their rotation here at
Conemaugh, but I guess that is just the luck of the draw. The rest of the time, I mainly did colons for tumor, diverticulitis cases, uteri, skins, placentas, and biopsies. The experience is still appreciated because like I said, I gained comfort and speed which are things that can only help!
(Sidenote: We had the best thing about this rotation was the food, and they weren't wrong! We also discovered the Toasted Marshmallow Latte from the coffee shop was the bomb so if you find yourself at Conemaugh Health System, you gotta try it!)
I just finished up my first day at
Thomas Memorial in Charleston, WV so I will blog about this one hopefully at
the end of the week. I am from
Charleston so it is really nice to be home!
