Today was my last day at the clinic, but it was still packed! In the morning, I got to sit in on more appointments with patients. This is my favorite part because I get to talk with the patients and each case is different. Today, the audiologist even let me help replace parts in the hearing aids! I also got to help out with some of the hearing tests! In between these, Mrs. Allen showed up!! After lunch, Dr. McElveen gave us a lecture about acoustic neuromas. This is a benign tumor on the nerve in the ear that leads to the brain. This is fascinatin. This concluded my day at the ENT, but they invited me back so hopefully I’ll get to go back soon!
Author: virukjonkirlind
Day 7: Goodb-EYE
This was my final day at the Eye Center and even though I had to say goodbye, I didn’t leave without learning some new things. Through shadowing I got to see orbital fractures, hordoleum, and even ocular birthmarks. Hordoleum is an eye infection characterized by swelling on the eye lid or an isolated bump on the eye lid. There was also a case of ocular neoplasm which is pretty much a lesion on the retina. These are usually benign. I got to observe a technician under training to end the day and the experience. Since my experience has become whole, I decided to include a picture that shows the entire exam chair with all of the machinery.
Day 7:
Today I got the opportunity to sit in on more appointments relating to hearing aids and cochlear implants. This was interesting because we got to see the audiologists diagnose the issue, and then they’d explain how they were going to fix it. However, the coolest thing about today was we got to go in Dr. McElveen’s Temporal Bone Lab! We got to look at human temporal bones under microscopes and practice using surgical instruments. I’ve done dissections in the past, but I’ve never dissected anything from a human!
Day 1: Research!
On Monday, my internship fell through and so I spent the day researching. I read about new medical devices, such as the da Vinci Robot surgical device, and watched videos of it being used. I watched other videos of surgeries; they were fascinating!
Day 3: Day on an Ambulance
Today I did a ride-along with Cary EMS. We had all sorts of calls ranging from respiratory failure, to seizures, to a stroke. Luckily all patients were well taken care of and will be fine. It was great watching the first responders take action, and on the less critical patients, they explained to me what was happening. By the end of the shift I got to even help out a little! Nothing major, just connecting tubes and grabbing equipment, but I was still glad to be included!!! 
Day 4: That’s One Large Thyroid!
Today I shadowed Dr. Berlin, an endocrinologist. We saw patients constantly! They were all there either for diabetes or a thyroid problem. He taught me about the different types of diabetes and how to treat them, as well as about the function of the thyroid and some of the different diseases of the thyroid. About half way through the day, he turned to me and said, “You have a very large thyroid! Let’s take a look at it.” He did an ultrasound and it turns out that I have Hosimotos Disease which is an enlarged thyroid; I had no idea!
Day 5: sorry, I Can’t Hear You
Today was our first day at Carolina Ear and Hearing Clinic and it was great!! We got a tour of the facility, and then got to learn how to use some of the equipment. We learned how to do a full hearing test and practiced doing them on each other. We also got to sit in on patients appointments. One patient accidentally wore his hearing aid in the shower, so I got to help the doctor take apart and trouble shoot the hearing aid. We also got to try on hearing aids with ear plugs so we could hear what it sounds like to hear through hearing aids! Overall it was a great day!!
Day 6: It’s a Great Day to Save Lives
Today we got to go to the OR at Duke Raleigh Hospital!!! It was SO exciting!! This was my first time in an OR and I loved it. We got to stand around the patient as Dr. McElveen performed the surgeries. We could watch him make the initial incisions and suture it up at the end in person, and the actual procedure was projected on TV monsters around the room that we could watch. I spent a lot of time talking to a Nurse Anesthetist who explained to me the different things Dr. McElveen was doing as well as some of the anesthesia equipment. Overall it was a fascinating day and I hope I can observe more surgeries in the future!
Day 7: The New Reality is Virtual Reality
Today we were able to experience virtual reality! Caroline, a student from Cardinal Gibbons, also joined us today for our internship.We started off by learning about the history of virtual reality and seeing the project that John, our mentor today, was working on. He was trying to build a simulation for forensic scientists to be able to learn how to use a certain machine that would separate strands of DNA by length. We then sat in on a meeting with some very prolific people in the field of forensics from Texas where John showcased his project.
Us in the conference room for the meeting (Caroline is in the middle):
Jonathan observing the meeting with the project project behind him:
Then, we got to go experiment with the “Oculus Rift” Virtual Reality technology which was really cool. We were able to actually build a virtual world by creating blocks and moving them. It was awesome technology that we learned will soon be implemented into normal life and homes everywhere. Types of virtual reality devices are already available to the public such as “Google Cardboard”.
Jonathan with the “Oculus Rift” headset on his head, and him creating blocks in the virtual world:
A video of me using the “Oculus Rift” headset:
Being able to use the virtual reality technology was a great experience, and I hope it becomes popularized enough that we start to see more of it out in the real world soon! – Kiran W.
Day 6: 112 Liters of Smelly Pee
Today was disgusting… all we did was transfer human urine from gallon milk jugs to graduated cylinders to giant containers so that the urine could be filtered and sterilized. Eventually we had transferred and poured 112 liters of pee from place to place. It was utterly gross. Personally, I thought the pee smelled like wet dog food; however, some of the donor’s pee smelled way worse than that. At least we could pass the time and get our minds off of the scent with jokes made by the lab workers. It was reassuring to know that the lab workers weren’t super serious about human urine and could be quite humorous about the subject. It was also very humorous when the lab manager spilled pee all over Jonathan’s lab coat on accident, which down his leg and into his shoe a bit. It was very funny how comfortable they all were dealing with human urine
Me pouring urine from a gallon jug to a 4 L graduated cylinder:
Jonathan pouring urine from the graduated cylinder into the big jug (it is evident from his face that he is not enjoying it):
A total of 112 L of human urine:
I wouldn’t consider today really fun or informative, but I guess it was cool to witness how the dirty work gets done, and how essential it actually is to forensics. I will definitely not take this kind of stuff for granted again! – Kiran W.
CA Work Experience Program 2016 