That’s One Small Step for Kiri, One Giant Leap for Kirikind

My first week of being an intern at THE Mayo Clinic was about as intimidating as I expected it would be. I now truly understand the meaning of a small fish in a big pond...make that an ocean. At BASIS, I was a part of THE senior class, a group that people (possibly) looked up to and were proud of. But walking through the hospital with real hallways and 3 cafeterias is an entirely different story. One could probably fit 2 or 3 BASISs in Mayo, and don’t even get me started on navigating the place (I’ve lost all sense of direction in there). I count myself lucky that I’ve managed to get from the parking lot to her office each day. I get to use the staff entrance, it’s pretty great! Though I did try to enter the wrong door on my second day, but we won’t mention that again. Now I would love to tell you every detail from me pressing the snooze button ten times on my alarm in the morning to watching YouTube videos before I go to sleep at night, but I’ve been told that the goal of the blog isn’t to bore people. So, I’ll just provide you with some highlights and descriptions of my first official week at Mayo:

Monday (Feb. 6th)

I was about as excited as one could possibly be considering it was a Monday. I arrived at her office (with 5 minutes to spare) and just in time for the Department of Neurology’s weekly meetings. During this hour-long conference, a group of about ten people sat around to chat about the latest gossip (not THAT kind of gossip). Each of them is conducting their own studies, and they are responsible for giving status updates about where they currently stand on their projects. Most of them appeared to be in the preliminary stages, whether it be a matter of getting contracts signed or finding ways to increase enrollment. I found this consultation extremely helpful, not only for bringing me into the world of protocols and patients, but it also showed me the value of communication, especially in a constantly moving environment such as Mayo.

My on-site mentor Dr. Chong (RIGHT) and her colleague Dr. Schwedt (LEFT) and that empty chair is mine

Wednesday (Feb. 8th)

I was looking forward to this day because we would be getting our first patient for a study comparing healthy controls, subjects with chronic migraine (CM), and those with post-traumatic headache (PTH). The patient this day was a PTH patient, a 63-year-old female. I sat in on her evaluation. During this time, the coordinator of this study reviewed with the patient the consent form, a summary of what she would be signing up for. Then for the next 45 minutes, the participant had to answer many questionnaires, including: headache history, symptom evaluation, a neurological assessment, a sensitivity questionnaire, and several more (post in the comments if you would like to know the rest, I just didn’t know how in-depth you wanted me to go). From there, the patient was taken to radiology for an MRI. Those who participated in the study got a free brain scan (sign me up)!

Brain MRI Scan

Thursday (Feb. 9th)

Sad, but relieved that I’ve made it to the last day of my first week. Today I learned how to score questionnaires then input the scores into a spreadsheet. Easy, yet tedious work. Though I’ll admit, I got pretty skilled at typing numbers, tab, typing numbers, tab. We had another patient today for a different study comparing cluster headache patients, episodic migraine patients, and healthy controls. This study will look at the similarities between the MRIs of these subjects in addition to sensory testing. The sensory testing consists of this giant machine called a thermode attached to a cord that connects to various parts of the body to test one’s sensitivity to heat pain.

And so, there was my week in a nutshell. I enjoyed every moment of it. I can’t way to see how these studies progress, and I’m so glad that I have a front row seat to watch. Dr. Chong is a lovely mentor and a joy to shadow with. Though I haven’t yet found how these studies will connect to gender-based differences, I look forward to finding that out in the next few months!

P.S. I’m thinking of posting more than once a week so that I can go into greater detail about the studies that Dr. Chong is performing. What do you all think? Comment below!