Wednesday

Today, dr demarco did many procedures, ranging from colonoscopies to variceal ligation; for the most part, today was also the most fun.  The procedures that dr demarco performed were extremely informative and i almost felt like I was a doctor for a day. Although many of the things we do now are repetitive (such as consultations and regular endoscopies/ colonoscopies), the procedures today were different; dr demarco did a variceal ligation or banding of varicose/dilated veins in the esophagus. This procedure involved placing rubber bands around areas where cirrhosis of the liver showed in the esophagus, where if the areas bled again, the bleeding would be stopped by the lack of circulation in those areas; the procedure took 15 minutes to do but accomplished so much for the patient, who didn't have insurance and would have most likely died if he bled from the areas of cirrhosis.  Another procedure I thought was interesting was where an anesthesiologist came in to put the patient to sleep through sedating her to the maximum level a human can take; this requires that a machine breathes for her, pumping oxygen into her lungs, so that dr demarco has more time to get his procedure done. Using the tube to help the patient breath also enables the scope to go farther down into the small bowel, where because of this, dr demarco's spinal endoscopy was successful. I attended another lecture today, where the topic was a medicine called prozac that was tested for those who have had a stroke to measure the amount of recovery the patients had had over a 90 day period; the limiting and controlling factors of the experiment made me realize how alot of what I learned at Parish in AP Biology was used in hospitals nationwide.  Without prior experience in the field of Biology, this project could be much more confusing, but so far it has been an extremely rewarding experience.