Happy New Years to you all, hope everyone had a good new years. Mine this year went pretty well. Usually I am not a fan of New Years as it can be an incredibly expensive adventure that usually ends up in some form of disappointment. I know I know, i'm not trying to be negative, and to back myself up on this one, I shall post a few pictures of myself and friends on New Years.
(Just a warning, I have no idea why but I get extreme red eye in just about every photo taken of me.)
Catie, Me, and Jen (Sister Sandwich!!)
Another group shot, probably more PG rated... A group of my friends and I spent it at a fellow friends apartment in Brighton. Everyone brought a dish of some sort of finger food or appetizer/desert. YuM!! There were some pretty good creations that people brought, needless to say, I did not go on with the night being hungry. Haha. The night went well and the following day it was pretty nice to be able to relax and recover.
As for the rest of my break from classes... I cannot complain about the free schedule I have. However, I am guilty of needing things to do from time to time. So, I find myself coming back here to the Admissions Office doing some work to keep myself busy. Next week when classes start up again I know I will regret not taking my vacation more seriously in a lazy manner but, ehh what are you going to do. Here is a sneak peak at my new set of classes for the spring. Obviously I will be starting up my clinical rotations again, however this one will be rather interesting, as I will be spending the first half of the semester doing my "elective rotation". This means that I am not assigned to a specific treatment machine in the department to work on or 6 weeks, but instead, I am bouncing around to different machines to complete any competencies I did not get to on any machine. I also will be doing a Nursing Rotation with the Nurses in the Radiation Oncology Department, I think that will be really fun!!! I will also be doing a dosimetry rotation with the Medical Dosimetrists at the hospital in the department as well. These guys are responsible for planning the dosages and treatment schedules for each patient pertaining to their cancer type, staging and grading. It is really cool because doing all of these mini rotations within my actual rotation, I get to see how everything else in the department is run and how it all comes together. If I complete everything I need to, and I have extra time on my elective rotation (which i'm not sure if I will but keep your fingers crossed!), I can go to do a few extra options such as the following. First, I can go and observe in an IORT. IORT is Intra-Operative-Radiation-Therapy. So, obviously it is a radiation treatment, that takes place in the operating room while the patient is in the middle of surgery. There are many things that need to take place before treatment is definately decided and actually performed, so that can involve a lot of waiting around and being on-call. I luckily got to go in on a surgery over my summer rotation at Mass General with one of my team leaders. It was amazing and I am so happy he took me up to see it. So, being that I have already gone to see an IORT (which i'd love to go see more!), I also signed up to check out a day with the MSPCA animal hospital, because believe it or not, they do radiation therapy on animals that have tumors. Insane huh!? I think that could be really cool. There are a few other things such as going to the Proton Center as Mass General and going over to see a different type of radiation performed called TBI (Total Body Irradiation) at Brigham and Women's Hospital. But the first two, are my top choices. So other than my clinical rotation, I will also be taking my Clinical III Class with my wonderful advisor Gina. That will be really fun because it will be our last class together, all 6 of us and Gina. I am also taking Clinical Dosimetry, which I explained what the Dosimetrists do before, so we will be learning about that, and with the class, there is also a lab. The class is on Monday nights at the hospital, and the lab is on Thursday nights at the hospital. Boooo for night classes. :( I will also be taking Radiation Biology with Dr. Martin, i'm horrified for that class. I will keep you all fully informed on that one because I am interested to see how I will do there. And last but not least...... Senior Seminar!! Crazy huh!? Each class will be taught by a previous professor/oncologist/resident/therapist/etc. that we have had along the way and it will basically be a review course of everything we have learned along the way. Scary huh?? Yeah, i think so too. It is supposed to help us prepare for our Boards Exam which I do have to admit is nice. But all of this sounds so overwhelming!!!!! I hope I can make it out alive people. So don't take it personally if I have to come here to rant and rave about something to vent. Ok? Thanks, I appreciate it :) haha.
Oh and I MUST do a shout out before I end the blog,
Oh and I MUST do a shout out before I end the blog,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!
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