Julia Bellamy - Dr. Jason Spector - Week 7

This week was filled with wrapping up and finalizing research and presentations. I gave both the summer immersion presentation this week as well as a high level quarterly review to a sponsoring company about how the research I'm doing in Dr. Spector's lab connects to the developed technology. In lab I helped India as an extra pair of hands to finalize the bioprinter assembly. On the clinical side, we went to Dr. Spector's clinic hours and observed some patients. One patient was there for a pre-op appointment for a top eyelid removal surgery to reduce the "hooded" eyelid as well as the removal of the fat in the under eye bags. It was interesting to see Dr. Spector talk about the consent form to obtain the special fat from under the eye to use in research and the questions that the patient had about that. Another patient was there for a consult about a very large hernia that they had. We learned that large hernias a more "safe" than small ones, because small hernias can get pinched and have ischemia while large hernias, while still needing to be treated, will have a consistent blood flow without the risk of tissue death. Another patient was there as a post-op appointment following liposuction in the legs. We learned that liposuction works best (aesthetically with the most "bang for your buck") on stationary fat deposits that even if weight is lost, those fat deposits will most likely still remain. After clinic hours, we were also able to go on rounds in the hospital for patients that are post-op from surgery. We visited 3 patients folllowing up from their spinal surgery, and one patient as a follow up from the long case last week of the thigh flap to the neck after the tumor removal from the mandible.