Week 5

     The operation I watched today was on a patient that was born with a heart disease called Tetralogy of Fallot. This disease consists of several different heart defects, so he had to have open heart surgery at 3 months old where they put a valve in his heart to even out some of the connections. There is some leakage in the valve that has caused the right side of his heart to grow too big, too fast, which could cause more complications in the future. I was not able to watch the whole operation, but they were planning to balloon the valve to make sure that it doesn't cause any pressure on the coronary arteries. If it doesn't, then they will put a new valve in. They showed me the valve that they were going to use, which is attached to a stint.

Open Valve

 Closed Valve

4th Week at TCH

     Today I watched an operation on a young boy who has been in heart failure, and already had an artificial heart device put in during a previous operation. There was a leak in a valve that they put in previously that they will probably have to fix on a later date, as well as a blood clot near the valve. Today though, they were mainly testing different speeds of the device to see which seemed the most natural and worked the best for him. They used both X-ray and ultrasound to do this, which was very interesting, because I did not know previously that ultrasound was used to look at your heart.

3rd Week

This was a very exciting week at my internship because I actually got to stand inside the operation room for a large part of the operation that I watched. I also got to see the beginning of the process of setting up for the operation, and I got to meet the anesthesiologist. It was a very interesting procedure, which hopefully the child, who was very young, should only have to have once. She had a heart defect where a connection between her heart and her lung artery which should have closed after birth was still open, so the doctors were going to put a block in the connection. I got to watch most of the operation from the observation room, and watch the X-rays on the computer screens, as well as some of it from the operation room. It was very exciting.

2nd Day at TCH

     This week at my internship was very interesting. I successfully didn't get lost (which I was quite worried about), and I got to watch the first couple hours of a very interesting operation. They were trying to balloon the pulmonary veins in a little kid so that his blood pressure around his lungs would be normal. They explained to me that these veins are very stubborn and do not stay open for long, so the child had had a lot of operations before. I was able to watch for a long time and ask a lot of questions, which was really great. It was sad to learn that this child had had so many operations already and that he would have to have many more during his lifetime, but it was a very interesting operation to learn about, and it was a great second day.

Starting at My New Internship

     On Wednesday, January 30th, I started a new internship at Texas Children's Hospital, where I am shadowing Dr. Qureshi, a pediatric cardiologist. This was very exciting for me because I have wanted to get an internship in the medical center for a long time. I was filling out paperwork for the second half of last semester, and this year, I finally got to start. I spent my two hours on Wednesday morning getting my badge with access to the cardiology wing, learning how to access and wear a pair of scrubs, meeting a lot of people, and observing a procedure. It was all very exciting, and a great way to start my new internship.

My Summer Work at HMNS

Since I enjoyed my Paleontology Internship so much during the school year, I decided to continue volunteering at HMNS during my summer vacation while I was in Houston. I volunteered about 8 hours, and got a couple new fossils to work on. I am very excited to see the new lab once it gets set up sometime this fall. 

I was planning to go to my internship a couple days a week for the first three weeks of June, since that was the only large block of time I was in town this summer. The first and third week went super smoothly, and I went to the museum from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday. The second week, I was going to go from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday, but both days I ran into some technical difficulties, and was unable to get the air compressor machine to work properly. It got fixed the third week and everything ran smoothly. To make up a couple hours that I had missed during the second week, I went to the museum for two hours on Monday, August 7. 

I worked on a lot of different fossils during my time spent at the museum, and even finished a couple pieces! A lot of them look like little pieces of fin spines, but a few of them were pieces of vertebrae. They are all very small though. Mr. Temple also gave me another little piece to work on, but I don’t know what it is yet. 

I have had a great time interning at HMNS this summer, and I plan to continue in the fall. 

A few Months Later at HMNS

          I have now been working at my internship at HMNS for several months, and I am still really enjoying it. I have improved a lot on my fossil prepping, and feel like I am doing important work. One of the things that really helped me improve was the Paleontology A-Term trip. I learned how to tell the difference between rock and bone, and how to be much more gentle when I am chipping the rock off of the bones. I also can actually identify what type of bone I am working on now, which is very exciting. I have finished working on several bones now. The dimetrodon teeth are my favorite to work on because they are much harder to break or scratch, and they look really pretty and shiny when they are finished.
          Overall, I am having a really great time interning at the museum, and I look forward to continuing this summer and next semester.