Updates
Happy Easter, Blessed Ostara, and a Beautiful Equinox to all! The sun is returning and I am…so…so…relieved.
I’m writing from Martinsburg, WV where I am rotating through the WVU East site. This site is pretty different from the other places I’ve been so far, and now that I’m more confident in my grossing I’ve been learning about working cleaner and more efficiently. This is also a great site for getting used to working closely with the pathologists, since the student is the primary grosser (person doing the macroscopic assessment of the specimens, or the “gross” dissection) for the lab! I had the opportunity to see a thymic neoplasm the other day, which are fairly rare! As well as a chorioangioma (a benign growth found in placentas).
I’m currently staying in one of the WVU-operated student accommodations; a house about 15 minutes from the hospital. There are 5 bedrooms in the house, but for the time being I have it all to myself! This is great except for when there’s no one around to help me kill a house centipede (the bugs here are invading my personal space and I don't appreciate it). The free accommodations, plus the complimentary hospital cafeteria food for students means I’m able to avail myself to the local restaurants more than normal. I’ve gotten plenty of great recommendations from coworkers already. Shepardstown has some awesome tacos. (See below!)
Outside of the lab, I’ve been staying busy too. This region has a LOT to offer in outdoor recreation. So far I’ve done some hiking and running around Poor House Farm Park, Weaverton Heights at Harper’s ferry national park, a trail along route 9, and the C&O canal along the potomac river. Especially Harper’s ferry national park and Shepardstown have been very interesting to explore. Yesterday evening I went on the Shepardstown Mystery Walk tour, which was an absolute delight. The history and ghost stories of the town are simply fantastic, I completely lost myself in the experience just listening to them. I can’t say that I experienced anything paranormal, but Shepardstown is supposedly a very Haunted place!
Reflections
April 13th will be the 100th day of rotations! Only 248 days to go from there!
I’ve been finding that it’s very easy to get bogged down in what I haven’t done yet, what I haven’t done correctly, and the parts of this experience I felt I haven’t lived up to. The truth is though I’m just as proud of the things I’ve experienced this year outside of the lab as in it. Everytime I get myself in the car to explore someplace new, I’m allowing myself to fully take advantage of this adventure, and that is so so so important! So, I’m practicing recognizing how much work I’m putting into my experience, inside the lab and out, and being proud of it.
I savor the days that feel easeful, and try to lighten up on the days that take more effort.
Disease of the Day - Goodpasture syndrome
Goodpasture syndrome is an autoimmune condition that is manifested by antibodies to collagen IV, which is found in abundance in the basement membrane of the kidneys and pulmonary system. Thus, the main symptoms are hemoptysis (coughing up blood), pulmonary hemorrhage and eventual renal failure. The most common cause of death is uremia (caused by kidney failure). Goodpasture syndrome used to have a very bad prognosis, but these days it is treated by plasmapheresis (plasma replacement).
Macroscopically, affected lungs are heavier than normal and have red-brown consolidation. Microscopically you can see the following:
Lungs: Intra-alveolar hemorrhages and hemosiderin-laden macrophages, fibrous t
hickening of the septa, hyperplasia of type II pneumocytes and organization of blood in the alveolar spaces.
Kidneys: focal proliferative glomerulonephritis - This means that only some glomeruli are involved and some are spared. The glomerulus becomes hypercellular and will have collagen deposition from the inflammatory response.
It is diagnosed by immunofluorescence that shows immunoglobulin and complement deposited on the glomerular basement membrane (in the kidneys), in a linear fashion.
Shown here:
(Image from https://webpath.med.utah.edu/RENAHTML/RENAL093.html)
(In no particular order) Pictures of Berkeley Springs, WV; Shepardstown, WV, Poor House Farm Park Martinsburg, WV; Weaverton Heights trail, MD; C&O canal trail, Shepardstown; and my car, slowly accruing many decorations.