NYC Chronicles (Week 3): A Slow Week in the City

The third week of this summer immersion program has been understandably short due to the holiday break and Dr. Prince’s absence. Although I was not able to get much work done throughout the beginning of the week, on Thursday (7/6), I attended the Adult Reconstruction & Joint Replacement Division Grand Rounds at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), where Peter Sun, a design engineer for the HSS Department of Biomechanics, discussed his progress on the development and implementation of patient-specific triflange implants as a potential therapy for hip replacement procedures. I also shadowed Dr. Prince at the Weill Cornell Imaging Center, as he interacted with breast cancer patients who were candidates for the deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) procedure, which is a surgery that involves the transfer of subcutaneous fat from the abdomen or posterior thigh to the chest for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy had been performed. This procedure requires identification of healthy abdominal or pelvic perforators through MR imaging, and subsequent markings on the patient’s body that reflect the location of the targeted perforators. Unfortunately, the process of interpreting MR reports and identifying the precise location of perforators based on measurements made by the radiologist can be tedious, time-consuming, and easily misunderstood. Therefore, Dr. Prince and I have been thinking of ways to decrease the time spent on pre-operative DIEP procedures and to make perforator identification more efficient for the plastic surgeon through the use of 3D-printing technology.

Lastly, I was also able to resume my yoga practice this week at New York Yoga (NYY) in Manhattan. The process of moving directly from Ann Arbor, MI and settling in New York City was very time-consuming, which resulted in a 4-week break from my yoga practice. So I’ve been eager to take yoga classes in order to regain my core strength, flexibility, and most importantly, peacefulness; and to my surprise, I found a NYY Groupon deal that offered unlimited access to NYY classes for 30-days at $59, as opposed to the standard monthly rate of $175 which is not ideal for a struggling graduate student. Every day this week, I’ve been able to practice either Hot Vinyasa or Power Flow yoga, both of which involve a flow of poses that develop strength, stamina and flexibility while also calming the mind in a well-heated room (105˚F). Needless to say, my muscles are still pretty sore from practicing every day this week. However, I was excited to start back up my practice, which will hopefully continue through the duration of this program.

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