First week - Opening my Eyes to Ophthalmology and to New York City

First week - Opening my Eyes to Ophthalmology and to New York City

My first week in New York City has been very exciting and I have learned so much already both in and out of the clinic. Coming from Montana, I have been looking forward to these seven weeks in the city from the first time I heard about the Summer Immersion term.

For these seven weeks, I will be shadowing and working with Dr. Brissette, who is an Ophthalmologist at Weill Cornell Medicine. For my first week here, I was able to see quite a few surgical procedures which included several cataract surgeries, Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK) [1], and Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) [2] procedures. Cataract surgeries involve removing and replacing the cloudy lens from the patient's eye. DALK and DMEK are both types of cornea transplant procedures where a part of the patient's cornea is removed and replaced with donor tissue. With DALK, the part of the cornea that is replaced is the stroma and in DMEK the Descemet membrane and endothelium are replaced. I was a little bit nervous going to watch these procedures since I have never watched an eye surgery before. However, I have so far been fine while watching the surgeries and have found them very fascinating to watch. Since Dr. Brissette used a microscope to do the surgeries, I saw a lot of it through the monitor that was in the operating room which made it easy to see close-up what was happening. Dr. Sales, who is another ophthalmologist, did the DMEK surgery and it was great to meet him and see how this procedure was done since I heard about it from Dr. Putnam. All of these were very delicate and graceful procedures and I am looking forward to watching more surgeries like these ones.

I also shadowed Dr. Brissette during her appointments with patients in the clinic. Since my Ph.D. project involves the creation of a polymer that can stabilize the tear film for Dry Eye Disease treatment, it is very eye-opening to see just how many patients suffer from this disease. In addition, I learned about the current treatment options that exist, such as artificial tears, punctal plugs, and moisture goggles. The current artificial tear treatments can be administered several times a day for the lubrication of the ocular surface. Punctal plugs are biocompatible devices that are inserted into the tear ducts in the eye to prevent tear drainage and moisture goggles are used at night to keep the patient's eyes moisturized. I am enjoying learning about the ways that doctors treat patients and am excited to come up with helpful solutions to make these procedures and treatments run more smoothly.

I have also had time to explore the city as well. On our first day here, we went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I thought I was going to have trouble navigating the subway system when I got here, but I have not gotten lost so far thanks to friends and the GPS on my phone😁. I love how energetic and lively New York City is since there always seems to be something to do. Just the other night, Katherine and I were walking in midtown and we saw John Travolta! 

This has been a great first week here and I am looking forward to the next six weeks in the city shadowing Dr. Brissette and exploring more in the city that never sleeps.

[1] Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK). (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2018, from https://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/eyeforum/tutorials/Cornea-Transplant-Intro/3-DALK.htm

[2] Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/eyeforum/tutorials/cornea-transplant-intro/5-DMEK.htm