Perks...

...of being a research scutmonkey? Free medical advice!

I kid, I kid. But really? It's that you do get (relatively) easy access to world experts on different medical areas. Want to know about ventilators? Last door down the hall. Subarachnoid hemorrhages? Right next to that. It's pretty cool, come to think of it. Just wish that I more time & ballsy to ask sometimes.

Today was what you call a two-for-oner. You see I'm currently doing work on a study on ARDS. Dr. BossMan is supposed to be a world-expert on this. I am not. This is why today I had an appointment with him to go over tons of patients chest x-rays (CXRs) to determine whether or not they actually had ARDS, so that I could start & finish data collection. As we were going through the first couple, he asks me 'if I want to learn CXRs or not.' Um... do you even have to ask? If you can't tell by now, I, Stuff, am a huge nerd. So given the chance to learn about reading CXRs with an expert? Of course! I was just waiting for him to offer.

It was good. He talked about air bronchograms, looking at the heart borders, lung volumes, atelectasis. Showed me what he was looking at (because honestly, those air bronchograms are tough to spot... Sometimes you have to squint really hard... I wasn't sure if I was imagining things or not at times... Kind of like the JVP huh?), quizzed me a bit, asked me what my diagnosis was before he gave me the answer (which was really scary at first, but it's actually quite helpful). Put up with my inevitable stupid questions. You know, all that fun stuff.

I was a lucky girl today.

P.S. Apparently doctors here hate getting their picture taken. I'm trying to update the research board and NO ONE at hospital número 1 is replying me

You know it's bad, when my admiration for Dr. C is going down because of this. Not replying to my email? Grrr...I'm offended. I think he's avoiding me because he doesn't want his picture taken. And Dr. BossMan has a million excuses for not giving us one. Double grrr...