Week 4:
My First Shadow Experience and the Start of the Manuscript

July 2, 2022

This week was full of exciting firsts, as well as some of the things I have grown accustomed to living in Rochester. Throughout the week I did score some files, as well as review some patent charts that we added, but as the week unfolded, it was wilder than I could have ever predicted!

One exciting milestone was the commencement of our manuscript. We spend the first day of the week compiling sources about hypocretin, narcolepsy, and RSWA to skim and review to write a comprehensive introduction in the coming weeks. Makayla and I worked on the manuscript later in the week from our sources, each taking a section and helping each other by reading over and commenting on each other’s work. I am told that Dr. St. Louis tears apart the first iterations of the paper and helps make them a lot better, so I am looking forward to hearing his feedback. The manuscript is in rough condition now, but it is exciting to have a skeleton introduction, as well as some of the methods section done.

Another step toward the future in the hypocretin project was organizing the patient data, as well as beginning to run statistical analysis on the scored RSWA files. This involved checking back on files to make sure the analysis software could read our scoring files accurately.

We also began working on a second project, the link between Charles Bonnet syndrome (a hallucinatory condition) and RSWA. By searching Epic with a list of potential candidates for this study, our team sorted the possible sleep studies and Charles Bonnet history into definitely, maybe, and not eligible for the study, based on if they were diagnosed with Charles Bonnet syndrome as well as the availability of the sleep study. We were able to find enough candidates to make this study viable, but we are still in the early stages of this process.

By far my favorite part of the week was shadowing a cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Arghami. Beginning with getting into scrubs, I viewed an open-heart mitral valve replacement, with some other procedures like ligating the left atrium. The principal purpose of the surgery was the conversion of the patient to a faulty mitral valve to a mechanical mitral valve. Dr. Aghami said that this will mean the patient is on blood thinners their whole life, but the valve will not wear out.

I observed the entire procedure, from cleaning to suturing the skin of the chest at the end. I observed the process for going on bypass (the machine to oxygenate your blood while your heart is stopped), the valve replacement, resetting of the heart rhythm, and the process of suturing the patient up to finish the operation.

The patient’s valve replacement went well, and I saw an extremely cool surgery that has helped me know that I am interested in a career in surgery. I also got the chance to see a transplant heart in the adjacent room, kept alive and fresh with a special box that kept the heart beating. Dr. Arghami asked me questions throughout the procedure and his OR staff were so gracious in answering my questions.

Another crazy part of the week (though not very enjoyable) was on Tuesday night when a quick but violent storm knocked out the power in my residence in Rochester. Fortunately, the fire and power departments were able to restore the power before the next day, and none of my food spoiled.

After Thursday afternoon, I left to spend the 4th of July weekend in Omaha with my family, as my supervisor gave the interns that Friday off. This closed out the best week yet in Rochester!