Post by Dr. Seung Ri Yeong on Nov 27, 2008 16:04:05 GMT -5
What would force a person to peruse a specialty in Pathology? Maybe it would make sense to go into Pathology if you hated people, considering that Pathology is one of the only specialties where one doesn't need to actually talk to patients, but only their doctors. Or, if you liked staring at dyed cells under a microscope all day, pathology would be good.
Pathology lacked stress, with enough blood, tissue, and tests, one could figure out whatever was wrong. But, Pathology lacked gratitude at times too, because you never saw the patient that you just diagnosed, you never got a thank you. Clinicians and their busy lives never said a nice word to the squints.
So, what made Seung Ri Yeong, fresh out of her residency become a pathologist? While she was sarcastic and cynical, she was also a bit sadistic--which pathology lacked. She didn't hate people enough to all-together not want to see them, she was much too young to be that far gone. Seung Ri was amazing at managing stress too, she had to deal with her immigrant family all during med school and she survived. Since she was an ego-maniac, one would think she would love gratitude, and yet, she got none.
She wasn't just giving pathology a try, and then ditching it, she was going for sub-specialty: clinical immunology, the study of antibodies and antigens in the immune system. And in the future, she saw herself as the head of the lab, the nerd kingdom.
"Adding red dye to Patient #1225's lung tissue, looking for Carcinoma." She spoke into a recorder, as she tediously added the dye, under the careful eye of the microscope. She shifted over to Patient #1018's test. "Patient #1018's test for Basophilis is inconclusive. Documented as negative, placing in the file for a re-test." She clicked off her recorder.
The pile of files had an intimidating allure to it; questions waiting to be answered by microscopes and dyes. She grabbed the next manilla folder and started it all over again. She flipped through about 10 manilla folders before she got to a test that struck her: Lyme Disease. She didn't get to do these as often as she liked. What was so intriguing about these tests? She got to do two of them: a blood test and a Western Blot. She always loved doing western blot tests, but was left with a sadness when she got positive results, It's all part of the job. At least they know what they have.
"Test for patient 1237's blood came back inconclusive. Administering Western Blot test to decide," there wasn't enough antibodies in the blood for the first test to be positive or negative. She ran the electric current through the gel to separate the proteins and glared at them through the microscope; she dropped the antibodies into the gel and watched. Sure enough they reacted, "Patient 1237, positive for Lyme Disease by Western Blot."
Seung Ri pushed that manilla folder to the side and rested her eyes. Another case solved by the "Magical Pathologist", as she called herself.
Pathology lacked stress, with enough blood, tissue, and tests, one could figure out whatever was wrong. But, Pathology lacked gratitude at times too, because you never saw the patient that you just diagnosed, you never got a thank you. Clinicians and their busy lives never said a nice word to the squints.
So, what made Seung Ri Yeong, fresh out of her residency become a pathologist? While she was sarcastic and cynical, she was also a bit sadistic--which pathology lacked. She didn't hate people enough to all-together not want to see them, she was much too young to be that far gone. Seung Ri was amazing at managing stress too, she had to deal with her immigrant family all during med school and she survived. Since she was an ego-maniac, one would think she would love gratitude, and yet, she got none.
She wasn't just giving pathology a try, and then ditching it, she was going for sub-specialty: clinical immunology, the study of antibodies and antigens in the immune system. And in the future, she saw herself as the head of the lab, the nerd kingdom.
"Adding red dye to Patient #1225's lung tissue, looking for Carcinoma." She spoke into a recorder, as she tediously added the dye, under the careful eye of the microscope. She shifted over to Patient #1018's test. "Patient #1018's test for Basophilis is inconclusive. Documented as negative, placing in the file for a re-test." She clicked off her recorder.
The pile of files had an intimidating allure to it; questions waiting to be answered by microscopes and dyes. She grabbed the next manilla folder and started it all over again. She flipped through about 10 manilla folders before she got to a test that struck her: Lyme Disease. She didn't get to do these as often as she liked. What was so intriguing about these tests? She got to do two of them: a blood test and a Western Blot. She always loved doing western blot tests, but was left with a sadness when she got positive results, It's all part of the job. At least they know what they have.
"Test for patient 1237's blood came back inconclusive. Administering Western Blot test to decide," there wasn't enough antibodies in the blood for the first test to be positive or negative. She ran the electric current through the gel to separate the proteins and glared at them through the microscope; she dropped the antibodies into the gel and watched. Sure enough they reacted, "Patient 1237, positive for Lyme Disease by Western Blot."
Seung Ri pushed that manilla folder to the side and rested her eyes. Another case solved by the "Magical Pathologist", as she called herself.