Pathology 101

It's no secret that I work at University of Michigan Hospital. Today I figured I would show you exactly what I do there.

I work in the Pathology Department. I mainly work with these:

Glass microscope slides and blocks.  

These are what a pathologist looks at under the microscope to diagnose cancer and other diseases. See how they sometimes mark them?

A big part of my job is to send  these pathology slides out for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer or some other disease and want to get a second opinion or treatment elsewhere.


Let's say a newly diagnosed patient wants to have a second opinion. They make an appointment at the another hospital. That hospital's  pathology department contacts us to have us send them the slides that the pathologist here used to make the diagnosis so that their pathologist can look at them too. I call this a case.

The first thing I do is print out all of the patients biopsy reports and send a request to the slide library for the slides. I can receive as little as one slide or as many as 60 per biopsy, depending on what part of the body. Some patients have had multiple biopsies. Sometimes they want slides from several years ago.

After I receive the slides I have to submit them all to the Surgical Pathology Officer (SPO). That is a pathologist who is assigned to review each case and make sure that the proper slides are being sent out. We use different colored cover sheets for this. Currently they are pink. We have about 6 SPO's and every week is a different one.

Once I receive the slides back from the SPO  I put them in slide holders. These particular cases hold 5 slides each. 

Then I get on the FedEx website,create a label pack them up and send them off!

We send slides all over the US and sometimes to Canada and I've even sent them to China!

After a while we get our slides back and a report from the hospital.

Then we scan that report into the patients record and into our pathology database. WE also make sure our pathologist gets a copy of the report.

At any given time I can have from 5 to 20 cases in various stages of completion going at one time.

Sounds simple enough, right?

In the next post I'll tell you all of the things that can (and do!) go wrong!

Until then....

 

More Christmas

On Christmas Day we went to Chris and Marissa's. They had all of Marissa's family there.

They have a Charlie Brown tree!

They have a real tree, too.  I didn't take many pictures though. I think because I don't know her family that well and I was embarrassed to be taking them!

I had to work on Thursday and Friday and on Saturday we had Chris and Marissa, Shauna and Brad over for a post Christmas brunch and to exchange gifts.

I didn't wrap a single gift! I had so many bags from past Christmas's that I just wanted to use them all up!
Toby was wondering if one of them was for him!

One thing I did want to show you is the windows at work.

Every year they do this Holiday Grief Wall where they supply markers and people write tributes to loved ones that they lost or that are sick. I like how someone wrote a thank you right next to the sign.

Its the windows of a whole corridor and it's really something to see when they all get filled up!

Here's a few pictures I took early one morning when it was still dark out!

I always enjoy seeing this every year! 

That was pretty much our Christmas! Always have a great time and always glad when it's over!

Now we just have to survive this brutal winter we are having so far! 

Until the next time!

Small Holiday Review

Christmas really snuck up on me this year. I just never seemed to get into the holiday spirit. I decorated but minimally because we weren't having anyone over this year, except the kids. I had every intention of having Brads parents sometime, but that never did happen.

Anyway, it was nice though. Christmas Eve we went to my brother Jim's and his wife Helen's house. We did the usual Christmas exchange where you buy a $25 gift for a female or male, then we pick numbers and when your number is called, you can either steal someone else's gift or pick another one. I picked a huge basket with all sorts Ghiardelli chocolates in it. Unfortunately it was stolen from me by my niece so I had to pick another one. This is what I ended up with.

Two hand painted Christmas glasses. They are very cute and I was happy! Probably better for me than all that chocolate anyway,  unless I keep filling them with booze!

Someone got a inflatable beard and Dominic was kind enough to demonstrate it for us!

He's beyond cute and such a talkative, friendly little guy!

This is me and my sister in law Debbie!

Goofy nephews Joe and Jeff!

Snuck a picture of my handsome son-in-law to be when he wasn't looking!


More Christmas coming up..

Until then...

December re-cap!

December sure seemed to fly by!

My coworker Diane finally retired after 19 years of working at U of M. Her last day was December  20th. We worked together for 10 years so I wanted to give her something special for a retirement gift. I know she loves to read and will have lots of time for reading now so bought a few books, bookmarks, a book light and some chocolates. Went to the Salvation Army and got  a really cute red basket with bells on it and a Christmas decoration at the dollar store and put it all together.

This was the end result. Yeah, that's Marlo Thomas looking back at you! Her book is called Growing Up Laughing and it looked pretty good! Anyway, she really liked it and kept it on her desk so everyone could see it when they walked by.

On a side note, I really enjoyed making that basket and from now on, anyone who gets a gift from me is going to get some kind of a basket!

She didn't really want a party but they did have a little get together so people could come stop in and say bye to her. They just served coffee and desserts. Cookies, brownies, various pastries and fruit!

Here we are in our messy, crazy office! I hope she has a long, happy, health retirement!

Now I have a new co-worker who has lots to learn yet! The last few weeks at work have been pretty exhausting!

Today is Rich's birthday. We probably won't do anything special but I do have to get to the grocery store to get the ingredients for his favorite dinner. And we are supposed to be getting 6-12 inches of snow starting tonight. Gah! Sick of winter already and it's only January 4th. It's going to be a long year!

Anyway, more December recap coming.

Until then.....

Look What I Won!

I got a nice surprise the other day by way of a email from my blog buddy Donna from Cottage Days and Journeys. Seems I won a giveaway she was having! 

In a few days I received this beautiful calendar!

It's 12 months worth of her gorgeous pictures from some of the awesome trips her and her husband have taken. I'm not one iota of the photographer she is but look at these beautiful scenes!

This one is my favorite!

So thank you again, Donna! I have this calendar on my computer desk so I can be sure to see it every day!

And if you click on the link to her blog above you get to see how truly beautiful her pictures really are!

Until the next time......

A Month?

I can hardly believe it's been almost a  month since I last posted! I realize there's not a lot going on right now but sheesh, I can probably come up with something that's been going on!

Rich and I took a walk on a new trail a few weeks ago.

It was at a county park so most of it was boardwalk like!

There were several little bridges that went over a  river.

And  a part that went under a bridge. This was my favorite!

And this little cabin in the park was built in 1878. I love finding new trails and places to explore! Too bad the weather is turning cold now!

In other news, I got my 10 year anniversary ring from U of M.

It came in this pretty jewelry box.

Pretty ring on my old lady hand!!

Thanksgiving is at Chris and Marissa's this year. It will be the first time they are hosting a family get together.
Luckily they don't have to do anything but clean the house, set up the tables and chairs and make mashed potatoes! Should be a blast!

Until the next time....

As The Days Drone On.

 Boy, this year sure seem to be flying by! It's almost November already and next week Daylight Savings Time ends. Bummer. I hate getting off of work and driving home in the dark!

Anyway, speaking of work...this guy was sitting in front of me on the bus a few days ago. I had to take a secret picture because he had an impressive set of dreadlocks!

Lately the price of groceries has been driving me crazy...like I'm sure most of you go crazy too every time you have to grocery shop. In order to try to cut down on what I spend I thought I would try a discount grocery store by us called Aldi's.

It's a no frills, generic brand store. At check out the cashier rings up your stuff and puts it back in the basket. Then you pull over to a counter and pack your own groceries. You usually bring your own bags but if you don't, they sell plastic bags for 10 cents and paper bags for 6 cents each.

To cut costs they use minimum employees. So in order to not have to pay a stock person to go fetch carts from the parking lot, they make you pay a quarter to use a basket. I think it's pretty ingenious how they do it.

 The baskets are all chained together with little boxes on each handle.

You put a quarter in the box and a little spring unlatches the basket. The quarter sits there while you push the cart all over the store. See my quarter poking out?

Then when you are finished you simply push your cart back in place, plug in the chain and out pops your quarter! Ah the joy of the simple things in life!

Shauna would like to have a broach bouquet for her wedding. I've picked up a couple of broaches here and there and yesterday I went to Michael's and picked up a couple of silk flowers to see how  they looked. Here's the result.

This flower is actually mint..the picture makes it look yellow. I put a sliver, pearl and amethyst broach in the middle.

This is a white rose that I paired with a ruby broach.  I really like this one.

It's going to be a blast making Shauna's bouquet and she will be able to keep it forever!

Until the next time.....