ISM Journals Entries

First 9 Weeks
Week of 9/3/18
So far this year, my favorite classes are Calculus with Mr. Schreiber and English with
Mrs. Bailey. Even though many people would consider these hard classes, the current course
load is fairly easy, and the teachers know how to joke around with students while also being
responsible with their instructing. As for my favorite color, I really love aqua blue because it
seems calming while also being vibrant. My favorite restaurant is Masa Sushi since I have been
going there with my family for years and they serve some of the best sushi rolls that I have ever
had. Spring is my favorite season since the weather is a perfect mix between hot and cool as well
as there being new flowers growing everywhere. As for the music I like best, I enjoy several
different genres with my favorite being pop or alternative. Lastly, while I do enjoy many types of
candy, I would have to say that Kit-Kats are the best.

Week of 9/10/18
I was able to select my current mentor with the help of a family friend who is also in the
medical industry. Since I was interested in shadowing someone who was involved in surgery and
my family friend is heavily involved with sports medicine, I was able to be put in contact with
Dr. Copeland, an orthopedic surgeon. While I did not get to watch any operations on my first
mentorship day, I was allowed to shadow Dr. Copeland as she met with returning patients. For
the most part, we would look at the patients' x-rays from their previous visit and compare them
to the most recent images of their healing injuries before going in to talk to the patients about
their recovery. I also got to watch as a few patients underwent some physical tests so that they
could be cleared to return to normal activities. After the events of my first mentorship day, I am
very excited to be working with Dr. Copeland for the rest of the semester as she is fun,
understanding, and encouraging of my goals to go into the medical field.

Week of 9/17/18
For my ISM fall project topic, I have chosen to evaluate common knee injuries and their
orthopedic treatments. I picked this as my project because my mentor is an orthopedic surgeon
and I was curious about the different ways to heal various injuries. Initially, I was debating
whether or not to do my project over the shoulder, but decided against it as I was most likely to
get more experience with knee injuries during my mentorship. My mentor was able to assist me
with narrowing down my project topic by providing me with an informational orthopedic
website that explained hundreds of different injuries and the processes of diagnosing and healing
them. This helped me discover the top 2-3 knee injuries that I was most interested in presenting
over. As for my mentorship experience from this past week, Dr. Copeland and I mainly
examined patient x-rays before going to talk to the patients themselves and discussing their
recovery. However, this week at the beginning of my mentorship, Dr. Copeland performed a
mock knee exam on me while explaining what she was testing for as well as each of the steps
that she was taking. After we had met with her last patient of the day, I then got to attempt a
mock knee exam on her so that I could start learning the examination techniques for myself.

Week of 9/24/18
The key points that I have planned to incorporate into my mid-term presentation include:
1) normal shape and functions of the knee, 2) meniscus injuries and examinations, 3) comparing
various meniscus treatment options, 4) ACL injuries and examination process, and 5) comparing
different treatment options for the ACL. These points are important to focus on since my project
is over typical knee injuries and their orthopedic treatments. As for my final presentation
research topics, I want to look deeper into common meniscus injury treatments, common ACL
injury treatments, and various knee assessments. These topics will be significant to my project so
that I can discuss how to examine the knee as well as which treatment options are best for each
injury and why.
While with my mentor this week, we met with several follow-up patients to discuss their
recovery process and even administer a few steroidal shots to those with excessive joint pain. I
was also able to talk to my mentor a lot about my various class activities and get her opinion on
my project idea.

Week of 10/1/18
Within the first nine weeks of this semester, I believe that I have already learned a lot
about the various tasks of an orthopedic surgeon as well as the various injuries that they treat.
For the most part, my mentorship experiences thus far have consisted of my mentor and I doing
check-ups and evaluating patients, providing steroidal injections if necessary, and examining
patient X-rays and MRIs to determine healing progress. Each of these visits has shown me how
much more there is to be an orthopedic surgeon than actual surgery itself. I also believe that I
have learned a lot about the knee injuries that I will be examining within my project as my
mentor gives me small assignments every week to further research various aspects of my topic.
As for what I hope to accomplish this upcoming nine weeks, I look forward to going into surgery
with my mentor and learning more about surgical treatment plans for various knee injuries.

Week of 10/15/18
According to my evaluation, my mentor believes that I am very professional, courteous,
and appear interested in learning more about orthopedics. As for the comments on what I need to
improve, my mentor wrote "not applicable"; however, there were plenty of areas in which I was
given the score of 4 out of 5. For the most part, these points off were because of my need to
improve the effectiveness of my communication as well as keeping up with the terminology of
the medical facility. I plan to work on this for the upcoming semester by thinking more about
what I say before I speak instead of rushing to communicate all of my thoughts as I tend to do
sometimes. I also plan to take more time to study over the new terms and injuries that my mentor
asks me to look over in between my visits. This will allow be to be more informed and
knowledgeable about what I see and hear during my mentorship visits.

Week of 10/22/18
I was, unfortunately, not able to meet with my mentor this week as she was out of her
office every afternoon. However, I was able to join her on Tuesday morning to observe a
surgery. The patient had a torn rotator cuff and was going to have it repaired through an
arthroscopic surgery. The operation was very interesting to me as I had never observed an
arthroscope before. While I did have difficulty understanding what everything was through the
arthroscope, I enjoyed having the opportunity to watch the surgery anyway. As for what is the
best thing about my mentor and mentorship site, I thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere and the
attitudes of everyone there. Both my mentor and her coworkers have fun and positive attitudes
that make me feel comfortable when I go to the facility. They also give me a lot of extra
opportunities to learn about orthopedics and their line of work.

Week of 10/29/18

From the perspective of a patient that visits my mentor, the most frustrating thing about
the facility is probably the wait time. Due to my previous meetings with my mentor, I know that
patients are expected be at least 10-15 minutes early for their scheduled appointments. After
these patients check in, they experience yet another 30-45 minutes worth of wait time on an
average business day. This is because of how busy my mentor is as well as the limited amount of
rooms that each doctor has within this clinic. As far as the best thing about my mentorship, I
believe patients enjoy how genuine and personable my mentor is. Almost every time my mentor
is meeting with a patient, she seems to remember everything that is going on with a patient's
injury and their personal lives that was previously discussed, even though there are usually 6
weeks in between patient visits.

This week at my mentorship site, we continued to meet with patients to discuss either new or
established injuries. As usual, we looked at patient X-rays to determine how well injuries were
being healed before discussing further treatment options with the patients. Afterwards, we set up
a new appointment date and update the patients' files about what was discussed.

Week of 11/5/18

This past week, I was able to meet with my mentor twice, once during clinic and the
other during surgery. My favorite visit of the two was definitely when I got to be present with
Dr. Copeland during two surgeries. The best part about this visit was just being able to watch
surgeries that several students would not be able to witness until some point in med school. This
is extremely helpful as I get the opportunity to discover what field of the medical injury I am
most interested in before I even go off to college. However, the worst part of this experience was
the early wake-up call. Unfortunately, most of Dr. Copeland's surgeries occur in the early
morning, so I had to wake up at 5 am in order to get into the hospital on time. This is all the
more disappointing considering that the surgeries occurred on Tuesday when school was
cancelled due to election day, the perfect day to sleep in.

As for the progress on my final project, I have drawn up a few ideas of how I am
planning on making my knee models and asked around about what materials would be best to
use. I will then use all of my received suggestions to buy my materials within the upcoming
week and start constructing everything over Thanksgiving break.

Week of 11/12/18

During my most recent mentorship experience, I visited Dr. Copeland during a fairly
busy day where we got to visit with both new and old patients. For example, several of the older
patients had been recovering from fractures in either their arms or legs and were hoping to be
released from injury rehab. As for the new patients that I saw, there were many interesting cases
that I could observe, such as the removal of a ganglion cyst and the diagnosis of a patient who
had both a meniscus and ACL injury.

With final presentations coming up, I am getting more and more nervous about whether
or not my project will be at a high enough standard. At the beginning of the semester, I thought
that I would be able to get everything finished without a problem; however, now that the due
date is coming up fast, I am worried that I will not be able to put enough time and effort into my
final presentation to make it acceptable at a college level.

Week 11/26/18

During my recent mentorship visit, I got to visit with several follow-up patients alongside Dr.
Copeland. This particular visit consisted of several patients with healing hand injuries as well as
the usual abundance of knee cases. As usually, I got to go into patient rooms with my mentor as
she conducted small examinations on them in order to check their healing progress.

As for my product, I have built three different knee models to incorporate into my presentation. I
plan on referencing my models several times during my presentation as I have made models with
no injuries, an ACL tear, and a meniscus injury, each of which are key points within my
PowerPoint. I chose to make this as my product since I thought it would be interesting to see
what a normal knee would look like as well as others that had experienced trauma.