Round 5: Children's Hospital

My short time in the ME's office came and went and it's hard to believe that I've already completed one week at my new rotation at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. This is a three week rotation just like my previous one, however, this is in surgical pathology rather than autopsy.  It has been an interesting week so far, but I will note that it is slightly difficult going from an autopsy rotation back to surgical pathology in relation to getting back in the groove of creating dictations. My first day was a little rough and for a split second I was concerned I forgot everything, but after the first couple of cases, I was good to go!

The Children's Hospital has been interesting in that you could have the opportunity to see rare childhood disease cases that you may not be able to see elsewhere. On my first day, I was able to observe one of the PAs do a Wilms' tumor, which is a rare childhood kidney tumor.  I had never seen one before in person and it was interesting to see one and how it was processed at their facility.  As for regular, day-to-day cases, I have been doing a lot of gallbladder, appendices, testicles, and small masses from various parts of the body.  The only complex case I've done is a metastatic cancer case in a 1 year old.  Cancer had spread all over the body and they were sending in all the masses to be grossed, so it ended up being quite a large case.  Other than grossing, I have had the opportunity to attend a lot of conferences that range from pediatric autopsy to pediatric tumors and new cancer screening techniques.  They have all been very informative and I get to experience a how a group of pathologists come together to see histological slides for a case and discuss the potential diagnoses and the reasons why they came to that conclusion.  It has been eye opening and I have really enjoyed getting to be a part of it.

Other than school, I have just been enjoying the nice summer weather that has finally come our way! My only wish is that I lived closer to the ocean so that I could enjoy even more :). Maybe one day soon, I only have 6 more months of this journey before it's time to see what else is in store for me!