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February 07, 2006
ok...where was I?
Seriously, somebody help me out here. I’m so lost.
Well, we’re halfway through week 2. What does that mean? Good question!
I think it means something along the lines of we’ve had two quizzes and one practical. On the subject of hematology we have three more quizzes, two more practicals, and two finals. And that’s all by Friday next week. You do the math. :)
So, what have I been doing for the past week, you might ask. Well, we’ve been doing lots of normal differentials. We’re looking at blood smears and counting the white blood cells by type. Basically, we have a little counter-thing that have a lever for each type of white blood cell (FYI: segmented neutrophil, banded neutrophil, monocyte, lymphocyte, eosinophil, and basophil). When the total number of the counter reaches 100, it dings and we have percentages of cell types or a “diff” (which also includes a cursory exam on red blood cells-shape, size- and platelets - numbers). We compare these against a key. Since the smears are normal cells, basically we are setting ourselves up to recognize what a normal cell looks like (did I mention VERY quickly) so we can start looking at abnormal cells. That’s what I’m struggling with now.
Meanwhile, in lecture…
We’ve covered some basic anemias (aplastic, megaloblastic, hemoglobinopathies, thalassemias) with more to come. I’m two chapters short of what I should have read for today (however, I was studying for the quiz for today, so cut me a little slack) and three new chapters by Friday. However, I have a quiz tomorrow and tomorrow night I hope to visit with my friend Carol of Austin. Sooooo….the weekend is looking like a real bright place.
Posted by kat at February 7, 2006 07:34 PM