Week Seven:
Children’s Hospital Colorado Center for Gait Movement and Analysis

August 10, 2015

More data entry this week! This shouldn’t be a surprise at this point, so I will skip my normal spiel about data entry. It is in the works. It may not be done when I leave, and I have to make peace with that!

This week, while I had lots to do, was filled with lots of fun extra activities, both work related and extra curricular. Over the weekend I went to Red Rocks Amphitheater with two of my fellow interns for ‘Yoga on the Rocks.’ I had no idea this was a thing, but it was a blast! Over 2,000 people came out for a 7 AM yoga session. Afterwards many local companies and health food retailers offered  free samples. I more than earned  back the value of my ticket in free peanut butter and protein bars.

One unintended consequence of this internship has been an improvement in my culinary abilities, which were non-existent before coming out here. I am completely reliant on Bon Appetite during the school year. But, in an effort to be healthier I have started pre-preparing all of my meals for the week on Sunday. This week I was especially adventurous and tried prepping a Spaghetti Squash. Now that a few days of eating it have passed, I can confirm, it came out great! My fellow interns ask me each week what I’ve cooked up. I have unexpectedly discovered joy in cooking, something I am sure I would not have discovered if I were living at home waiting tables!

But, back to the real stuff! When I was not entering data this week I did manage to venture outside of my office for exciting things, mostly free BBQ and doughnuts, but academic stuff too! On Tuesday, we had a great lecture from one of the Orthopedic Surgeons, Nancy Miller, who also happens to be the primary investigator on my study. She has an incredibly impressive resume, Harvard, Georgetown, even University of Iowa!  As an Orthopedic Surgeon she sees a bit of everything, some minor fractures to full spinal fusions. But, she specializes in scoliosis. She talked to all of us interns about how scoliosis is diagnosed, how it can be treated and shared some of the cases she’s seen here at Children’s. It was  great lecture! I rushed to my RA right after to see if we could possibly arrange for me to shadow her working with scoliosis patients. But, I forgot that our group of interns has been so eager to shadow that we have been forbidden to request anymore shadowing within Orthopedics…

We also heard from a doctor who focuses on Orthopedic Research. She talked to us about her absolutely groundbreaking research on stem cells and their use in bone repair. Essentially, her study hoped to use stem cells to help re-grow growth plates after a fracture (injury to a growth plate that does not heal properly can cause limb length discrepancies and a host of other problems.) They are currently running trials on rats, performing itty-bitty surgeries and x-rays to measure their results. It was fascinating! It was also fun to see how many of our bosses came to see this lecture, everyone wanted to hear about the stem cells!

Nest week will be real crunch time, hopefully the end of data entering and the beginning of creating my final presentation!