Only one more week left now. It's crazy...seems like I was barely here. Still only feel like I've really explored half of Manhattan; this place is huge. Even though that's a pretty obvious statement, the time I've spent here has given it weight. In the clinic I got to do something random and awesome; I took part in a study that required me to get an MRI done. I had been curious about what an MRI was like for a while now, and I stumbled on a form. It was perfect. Get to experience a head scan, see what my brain looks like, and get $75. Win-win-win. When I went to do it I wasn't sure what to expect, but it went extremely smoothly. The guy started my IV line for the contrast like a champ, and the actual scan itself didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. The table itself was really cold, but they gave me blankets as a barrier. I actually ended up being pretty comfortable. The head thing they put me in was snug, and there were mirrors set up so I could still see the room and the people running the machine from my laying position. So I just chilled for the time being. The machine was insanely loud, with lots of random clinks and clanks, but besides that it was fine. I didn't sleep or anything, but I entertained myself with whatever random thoughts I was having and then I was done. They said I was one of the best volunteers they have had; I guess I'm really good at being still.
Besides that, I've pretty much finished up on the sketch of the network model I was supposed to do, and I took part in a meeting between my doctor and the pathologists who would be analyzing the biopsies. I was extremely nervous. When Dr. Shah asked me to start off by explaining what I do in Ithaca and what I have done for this project, I felt like I was just stumbling through the entire thing. And I was definitely sweating bullets. But after getting through my shamble of a monologue everything went better. Dr. Shah took over and it turned more into a conversation, and after that point I felt pretty comfortable adding my two cents here and there. Maybe it's because I felt so useful there. One of the pathologists was pretty intense. She was very straightforward about what does and doesn't work, and what she felt would be completely useless. But in the end we came to a decent consensus. It's a start anyway.
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