Week 1/Day 2+3: Hematology/Oncology

On the 2^nd day, a nurse showed us how chemotherapy (化疗 Huàliáo) was delivered through a Port-A-Cath. The device is surgically inserted under the skin and looks like a big bump near the patient’s clavicle. The catheter is inserted into a vein so that the medication can be delivered quickly. The nurse told us that the patients are use to the procedures and pain since they need to come every week. Heparin and saline are usually used to prevent clotting.

We followed Dr. Chen to his outpatient clinic.

Patient 1: One male patient came in cuffed to a wheelchair and accompanied by two police officers. He had thalassemia with a chief complaint of fatigue. Thalassemia is an autosomal recessive blood disorder due to abnormally formed hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is made of 4 protein chains, 2 alphas and 2 beta chains. Depending on which chain type is affected determines the type of thalassemia.

Patient 2: Elderly woman came in her granddaughter. She was suppose to see ophthalmology due to her diplopia (double vision), but was later counseled by Dr. Chen to cancel the appointment. Her vision was due to her breast cancer metastasizing to her lung and brain. The tumor was interfering with her vision so ophthalmology won’t have been able to help her. Fortunately, it seems like her tumor was responding well to chemo.

Patient 3: Another patient came in with a huge bump on his right wrist. Dr. Chen palpated and said it had a firm elastic feeling. He sent him off the ortho and ordered a MRI. Not sure how long it takes to get an MRI done in the US, but the computer system showed no MRI availability for three weeks.

Summary: I enjoyed my few days of heme/oncology. Even though I don’t think I could become an oncologist, I appreciated seeing Dr. Chen’s interactions with his patients. Special thanks to the coordinators and the nephrologist for letting me tag along in the afternoon. Nephrology was a great review! We have a 4-day long weekend for the Dragon Boat festival. We went out last night and had Zongzi, sticky rice dumplings eaten traditionally for the festival. Yumm!