Week 3: Choose Your Own Adventure

As I transitioned into my third week of Immersion, I was able to be connected through Dr. Kemi Babagbemi to work with Dr. Tessa Cigler, a medical oncologist in the Iris Cantor's Women's Health Center.  It was very insightful to see how the observations that I experienced in the Breast Imaging Center from radiology diagnosis that led to pathological results then flowed to the treatment phase of breast cancer after diagnosis.  Throughout every patient visit with Dr. Cigler, she discussed treatments, bone density determination through testing as well as corrective measures, updates, follow-ups, and comforted them with answers to all of their questions about treatment and the future.  Afterwards, she would perform a physical exam on her patients to gain a sense of their overall physical health. During the day, I also was able to attend a research meeting where the medical oncologists discussed patient studies in order to help impact breast cancer research.  On a white board in the meeting, they had a chart that listed molecular subtyping of the patients along with neo-adjuvant, adjuvant, metastasis, and treatments to follow patients to see what was working or changes that were made if patients presented with cancer progression.  It has been great for the past two weeks to get a holistic view of the journey of a breast cancer patient and be able to incorporate this experience as motivation to know that, in some way, my research is going to be focused in trying to take one step forward in the fight against breast cancer.

Throughout the week, apart from my usual business of reading radiology films, interacting with patients, and still learning more about the radiologists themselves and their day-to-day grind, I was able to observe Dr. Carolyn Eisen & Dr. Linda Kao at MRI facility at 416 E. 55th Street performing biopsies on patients.  From week 2, I learned about stereotactic and core biopsies, so I was curious why they needed an extra imaging modality for yet another biopsy.  MRI is used for an enhanced view of things not easily seen with the other modalities, such as mammogram or ultrasound.  It is performed on high risk patients, but mostly BRCA 1/2-positive patients where there is a small calcification or mass that can be seen under the MRI.  Cancer-like characteristics that they look for under MRI are things that take up the contrast and immediately flush it out or, if not enhanced, they look at the flow surrounding the area of concern. One particular moment where I was truly immersed in the case was when one of the patients had high blood pressure and Dr. Eisen did not feel comfortable with the patient undergoing the procedure. While we were being updated on her blood pressure,  I was having am interesting conversation with her and her blood pressure decreased slightly. Due to this, Dr. Eisen suggested that I continue to talk with her in hopes of reducing her bp further and proceeding with the biopsy. We had a great conversation over the course of 30 minutes and finally got it down for the biopsy. In that moment, I felt like I contributed a significant amount and actually had an impact in terms of helping the patient to get through her procedure and overcome her anxiety.

On the social aspect side of my life, I visited the Upper West Side to have dinner with my sister-in-law's mother and her wife. It was so great to connect with family and travel on the subway entirely by myself.  Further, I went on shopping escapades with Korie and Lauren which led us to journey to Jekyll & Hyde's Pub and Big Gay Ice Cream.  I am looking forward to the weekend.  I will be venture into the realm of catching up with some friends from undergrad who live in the city, travelling to Brooklyn to get my hair retwisted, as well as celebrate in the PRIDE events to commerorate the support for my family and friends who have recently gained a victory with the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide.  All in all, it's been a pretty great week. I have fallen in love with the city because a pretty common theme in my experience thus far has shown me that around every corner in New York City, there is a new adventure :)