Its hard to believe that I only have one more week in DC, the time has really flown by. This week started out with a trip to the weight management clinic where I shadowed a physician who sees patients who need help with managing their weight. Most of her patient shave diabetes as that is an outcome of poor eating habits and obesity. The doctor has visits with patients every 4 to 6 weeks and during that time the patients are given information on what to change in their diet to lose weight. Its based off of calorie counting, so the doctor will tell her patients to start tracking the amount of calories that her patients eat in a day. The amount of calories that they eat depends on their weight and height. Typically with this sort of treatment if the patients are following the instructions given to them by the doctor then they will lose a pound per week. It was very eye opening for me to see the sorts of things the doctor is recommending her patients eat. Obesity is a huge problem in America and it can lead to many other mental health issues. The doctor was saying that when she has patients who lose weight and eat healthy, then their mental health issues subside.
Tuesday consisted of a trip to the PT/OT building where two other interns and I were exposed to physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. We learned how versatile physical therapy is and how many different things you can do within the field. The level of PT that I’ve been exposed to is only a tiny portion to the amount of work and knowledge a physical therapist has. It was very intriguing for me as the woman we talked to explained how in depth PT school is when it comes to the human body. They learn about all the body systems and the physiology within all of them as well. Physical therapists can work in the NICU, infants, babies, toddlers, etc. all the way up to geriatrics. I had no idea how many different specialties there were in the PT field and it was very appealing to me as you can jump around and work on all sorts of people in that range so you aren’t just focused on one thing, you know the entire body and how it works.
On Wednesday I went down to the EchoCardio Lab to see doctors giving patients stress test to monitor their hearts using an EKG. I learned what is abnormal about an EKG and saw what one looked like on a patient with a pace maker. The patients then receive radioactive isotopes through their IV’s, they then go into a camera where the radioactive isotopes show the blood flow in the myocardium of the heart. The nuclear medicine doctor takes images of the patients heart during stress and during rest. If the amount of blood flow is the same that is normal but if the patient doesn’t have the same amount of blood flow in the resting images as the stress images then they have a coronary blockage. It was very interesting to see the images both for normal results and abnormal so I could compare them.
The rest of the week was relaxed and the SYEP kids and I set up linkedin accounts and perfected our resumes. My mom got in on Wednesday so I got Friday off to spend the day with her and we went to the building museum. Next week is supposed to pick up and I am excited for my last week here in DC!
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