Heme/Onc: Counting Down

These last two days in FW have passed by pretty quickly. Yesterday during Tumor Board (which was nearly empty b/c half the doctors are out on spring break with their kids) I was asked to give differentials for a man with a "ring-enhancing lesion" in his head, and later one of the doctors suggested that I present a case at Tumor Board next week. Fortunately we came across a case that seems present-worthy: a 78 year old man with resected lung cancer presents with a new mass along his incision site. Also saw my first new breast cancer patient today. The woman was in her mid 50s and had a 6 cm mass in her right breast. To be fair, she never suspected that she had cancer b/c she'd had lipomas in the past and assumed that her breast mass was also a lipoma. It wasn't until a neighbor of hers got diagnosed with breast cancer that she became concerned, but right now, 6 cm is way too large for a lumpectomy. She had two options: mastectomy followed by chemo, or neo-adjuvant chemo in hopes of shrinking the tumor followed by lumpectomy/mastectomy. The patient didn't really understand her treatment options and what the difference between chemo first or second meant, so we referred her to a surgeon to assess the tumor size and see whether s/he is willing to remove the breast or let the oncologists try to shrink the tumor first. Her ER/PR/Her2 results had not come in yet, so the doctor was able to spare her from being overwhelmed with that additional info.

Match Day's tomorrow, and I can't stop wondering where I'm going to end up for the next 3 years or so. Chicago? Denver? Philly? LA? DC? San Antonio? Austin? Cleveland? Lots of choices, and all in different cities so I could end up anywhere. Guess I'll find out tomorrow. In the meantime, this was a video we watched at the office today that made everyone laugh their heads off. And people wonder what we do when we're not working. ;)