Week 6 - Mammos, PET and Galway

 Week 6 

Spotted some sheep

Week 6 was the second week of my clinical placement at SVUH and this week I got to see both mammography and pet-scans. During my mammography placement I got to see mammography screenings, breast ultrasound and biopsy and one clip marking. I was also grateful for the chance to visit the doctor's office and hear about the diagnosing and   I also learned about triple assessment where patients get an ultrasound, regular mammography and see a doctor during one day. Overall the projections are criteria are the same, with post-graduate training before you are allowed to work without supervision. 

 PET-scans were more different. All injcetions were given manually by using a movable tray with a lead chamber with the syring inside. It was my first time seeing a PET-injection administed by hand, since i am used to a machine called posijet where you can set the desired amount of radiation.

At SVUH they keep the scan room quite cold. This was explained by the detector needing to be kept cold but in the scan images you could see the brown fat areas activate, and overall image quality was slightly poorer than what i am used to. I have been taught to always keep patients really warm, offering multiple blankets if needed. In the hospital i had my placement at in Finland also had a bed for all patients but   understand the restrictions caused by the small working space. At SVUH patients had comfortable chairs to rest in.

Cliffs oh Moher

On Friday I visited the museum of Irish Literature (MOLI) located near Saint Stephen's green. I had a lovely time learning about James Joyce who has a library named after him at UCD and other literature aspects of Ireland. My next goal is to read Dubliners after I have completed most of school assignments. During the weekend we took a trip to Galway. We explored the cliffs of Moher and the city itself.