Faith Muriuki - Dr. Spector - Week 6

 7/8/2024 - 7/12/2024


Monday started off with clinics, where we saw multiple different patients. It was my first time seeing the results of a Botox injection. I had been present when the Botox was injected into the patient the previous week, so it was interesting to see the before and aftereffects. The Botox had really filled in the deep expression lines on her face, which was impressive.

Another interesting observation in the clinic was the healing process of a skin graft. The skin graft initially looked strange, but Dr. Spector explained that it was completely normal for the top layer to "slough off." He continued to say that the important thing was that the skin graft had started to endothelialize, which meant that given time, it would look better.

After clinics, I asked a member of Dr. Spector's team to take two vials of my blood. I then took those vials to the lab and conducted experiments on my own blood, isolating my own T-cells. It felt strangely weird to work with my blood, but it also meant I didn’t feel pressured about messing up the isolation protocol since it was my own blood. In the end, the isolation was successful, and I was able to see my own T-cells. They were placed in the incubator, where they are still now. It was strange to do normal cell culturing with them because I am maintaining my own cells outside my body. The only disappointing thing is that, because the cells are primary cells, they do not proliferate like immortalized cell lines. It would have been really cool to see my own cells proliferate outside my body, but the overall experience was still very exciting.

Besides the lab, I also went to the OR this week. There was a major OR case that involved the collaboration of 4-5 different surgical teams, each from different surgical departments. One of those teams was Dr. Spector's, representing the plastic surgery side of the operation. As a result, the room where the surgery was taking place was very crowded. At the beginning, it seemed like all the teams were there to ensure everyone knew their responsibilities before the surgery started. Even after the initial meeting ended and most teams left to wait for their part in the surgery, the OR remained crowded with at least two teams operating on opposite ends of the patient. The situation was also intense because a hospital system failure had delayed the surgery by three hours. The operating surgeons were annoyed since the surgery, even before the delay, was expected to be an all-day operation. The complexity of the case and the need for multiple teams to collaborate added a level of pressure, as a mistake could complicate another surgical team's work. Despite these challenges, it was fascinating to watch.

Besides the OR and lab work, I also attended Dr. Spector's lab meeting and the weekly Tuesday meeting. Today is going to be a lab day. I have plans to seed my T-cells in different concentrations of collagen to see how the different concentrations affect T-cell mobility. I'm really excited to conduct this experiment with my own T-cells. 

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