Week 4:
My First OR Experience

July 12, 2017

This week began at home in Mokena celebrating the 4th of July with my family. It was so good to be home with them and very exciting to share my experience at Mayo thus far. The 4th of July was a bit hectic, I went to the parade with my family, and then my parents dropped me off at the airport to fly back to Rochester. When I got back, Cathryn picked me up from downtown and we went to dinner and the fireworks show at Silver Lake Park. While watching the fireworks, I had a moment of reflection, thinking of how lucky I am to be at Mayo and have this amazing opportunity.

On Friday, I had the opportunity to shadow Dr. Shen, a thoracic surgeon, in the operating room (OR). The patient had a tumor in the right upper lobe of their lung. The surgery plan was to remove and test lymph node tissue from the trachea to see if the cancer had metastasized to her lymphatic system. If so, they would not proceed with the rest of the surgery. Mayo has an incredible pathology system where they can send tissue samples directly to the lab to be tested and receive results within minutes.

About ten minutes after sending the lymph node tissue to pathology, the lab called directly into the OR and reported that the tissue was negative for carcinoma. As soon as the surgical team received this information, they started prepping the patient for a lobectomy. The incision was made under the right breast, about 10 inches across. The surgical resident and surgical assistant did the opening, and Dr. Shen came in to separate the ribs and resect the upper right lobe.

The surgical staff was very good about educating me on what was being done and making a point to show me what they were doing. Dr. Shen even called me to the surgical table (as close as I could get without entering the sterile field) to look at what he was doing. Once the upper right lobe was resected, the surgical assistant instructed me to put on gloves and he brought over the resected part of the lung and placed it right in my hands. I was able to feel the healthy lung tissue and directly compare it with how the tumor felt and looked. The cancerous tissue of the lung looked necrotic and felt like there were small pebbles underneath the tissue. I was also able to feel the bronchi, which were very firm. I watched the resident and surgical assistant close the patient very meticulously. The team was so wonderful at educating me. My first surgery scrubbing into the OR was absolutely amazing, and I am excited for the next time I will have this opportunity!

This week, I was also able to meet with Dr. St. Louis and talk about what the rest of the summer holds for me. Unfortunately, there are communication issues and uncertainties within the data that are preventing me from working on the initial project that I was assigned, analyzing muscle tone in men vs. women with RBD. This is science, and a lot of the time things don’t go as planned; I got to experience this first hand. For the rest of the summer, I am going to pilot a new project. I will be scoring the 4-limb PSGs, and then comparing those analyses to the results of the new OSG software. The 4-limb PSGs are a new was of setting up the EMG leads so that there is no heart artifact bleeding through, affecting the appearance of the muscle tone. Although our initial plans did not work out, I am optimistic this next project will yield results.

I cannot believe I am already half-way done with my time in Rochester. It has been absolutely incredible thus far, and I am so excited to see what the rest of the summer entails.