Morning guys, I'm Siobhan, first year medical resident.
I just got to the Cancer Center and I'm meeting one of the oncology residents to do some teaching this morning.
So you're gonna come along, see what the days like, and you'll get to see a different perspective on cancer care.
So it's 8 a.m. Just arrived at the hospital and I'm meeting a
Cancer resident, an oncology resident for some teaching this morning
Hey Roochi
Thank you so much for doing this teaching early on, I really appreciate it.
Of course, so I thought today maybe for teaching we can talk a little bit about lung cancer.
I know last week, we did a session on breast cancer.
Lung cancer is one of the other really common disease sites that you'll see in oncology.
So, we will do some teaching on that.
That'd be super helpful cuz um this morning I'm going to a clinic that's more specialized in lung cancer
So then I'll seem extra smart. Perfect!
So this morning the first clinic is gonna be a lung cancer clinic.
So people who've already been diagnosed with lung cancers, and now we're treating it with different chemotherapies.
Lung cancer is a really rapidly changing field and some types of advanced
Lung cancers are actually really responsive to targeted therapies. I can't really share the details of the patients
I saw, so check out the video that I've linked above.
It's such an inspiring story of a woman with metastatic lung cancer, and she's just living her life to the fullest.
So I just finished clinic this morning and um
Now, I'm just heading up to meet Roochi again. We're gonna chat and actually maybe I can get her to
Tell us or tell you guys a little bit about why she chose
Oncology and a little bit about cancer
Treatments and things like that. So let's go find her
Hey
How was your morning?
Good, good, it was excellent.
Good man, I'm starving. All right, let's go. So what's made you think oncology versus anything else?
Yeah, you know, I think it's definitely challenging when you're going through all these rotations to try to pick a specialty
Everything seems so new and exciting when you're going through it
Yeah
So one of the things I found is that I really want to make sure that whatever I do I feel inspired
Every day and I feel fulfilled. Like as cheesy as it sounds I think that in terms of my career
And looking down the road. That's what's gonna keep me going and I have found that in oncology
You see how strong the patients are, how much they fight.
You see how their families come together when they're sick and you just, you catch people in this time of distress
You can make them feel calm. You can make them feel cared for. I just think there's a really special relationship
You get to develop with the patients, and I don't know, that just, that totally resonates with me.
I mean, I'm representing breast cancer with my pink stethoscope and uh..
Ah, I didn't catch that! I want one of those!
So I've got to ask you so I had one patient
last week or the week before, who was young and
Had just recently gotten married
And I just, I don't know it could have been any my friends, could have been anyone and I left actually feeling pretty sad
I just I I don't know. How do you deal with that?
Like you're so upbeat about cancer, but it's also, it can be devastating
No, you're totally right and I would be lying if I said that the stuff doesn't wear on me
It totally does
I think at the end of the day you just have to step back and make sure that you're looking after yourself as well
So there's a lot of things I like to do to keep myself well. Like I go to the gym
I like to cook a lot. I feel like I have a really good support system with families friends partners
so
I mean those things keep me sane and keep me balanced and I just look at it as this is an
Opportunity for me to do some good. This person has cancer whether or not I'm involved in their care. Yeah, I'm getting for me
It's a privilege to be involved in their care and to look after them
So because I see it that way I I don't focus on all the sad stuff
I focus on this is my chance to make a difference for this person. Man, like sign me up!
Now you say all this stuff, I'm like "should I do, should I be treating cancer?" This is amazing!
Join the oncology team! We would love to have you! I've have a couple people say this.
It's a good field, it really is. I feel like, of the staff that I'm working with, people are happy
People are saying they really enjoy what they're doing and they really feel like they're doing a lot of good
So what time are we at?
We're coming up ten minutes and our next clinic starts in the afternoon
So gonna eat a little bit and then we'll check in a little bit later. Okay, okay
Okay, so I just finished lunch. It's um coming up on 1:00 p.m. And we've got something called melanoma rounds
so basically it's when all the people who would be treating and taking care of patients with melanoma, which is a pretty
severe like invasive
skin cancer so wear your sunscreen guys
Anyway, so we all get together. It's a whole group of people and so then you get the surgeons
So those are the ones who are gonna be actually cutting out the cancer. You get the radiation oncologist
So those are the ones who are going to be zapping it with radiation and then you also get the medical oncologists
and those are the doctors that I'm working with and they're the ones who are actually giving chemo therapies and pills and
hormone therapies
Basically, I would break it down to the surgeons cut, the radiation oncologists zap, and the medical oncologists give the medications and they all
work together
Okay. So now that we're done with the melanoma rounds where we talked about different challenging cases.. Actually going to a melanoma clinic
Sorry, oops I'm going that way
To an actual melanoma clinic and we can see patients
Examination of the patient, their skin and lymph nodes is so critical with melanoma. I'm always looking for suspicious moles
So if something's changed color, gotten a lot bigger, has jagged edges, or it's itchy and kind of bleeding
all really concerning features
I've noticed that I've seen a lot of melanomas on patients backs and they're often picked up later because you don't see them
So if you see something concerning on a friend or a partner's back, have their back and tell them to get it checked out.
Okay guys so I wasn't even planning to do like an Instagram
Q&A at all, but then we just posted a picture and you guys have asked so many amazing questions
And so I grabbed Roochi at the end of the day. She's staying late to help answer some these questions. Okay, so first question
Sarah's asking. What's the biggest misconception people have about this field?
So, you know, I think I would say okay. There's probably two things
So one is you know, people think that if you have a diagnosis of cancer, this is like a death sentence
Yeah, they get really really afraid and understandably so.
If you look at what's posted in the media and the movies, yeah, I mean they paint a really grim picture
But I think we have so much hope we can offer patients now
Cancer patients do a lot better now with the treatments that we have available
So it's definitely not a death sentence and the second biggest misconception
I see is that people think that our treatments are incredibly toxic? Whereas today
There's actually a lot of people, I see cancer patients all the time who are still working while they're on chemotherapy
Yeah, it's really inspiring and really really incredible
Like I've seen this now day to day and that was a misconception I had. Okay, so next question
So Hannah is wondering what's the most common cause of cancer in the oncology unit, which I don't know
I think that's kind of tough to say maybe we should just say
We can probably answer better. What's most common in Canada? Because we do see that a lot for sure. I mean the oncology unit here
You know, we're at a tertiary Center and academic centers. Yeah. So we see a lot of the rare types of stuff. Really specialized.
Yeah, exactly
But you know in terms of North America or Canada
So definitely breast cancer is the most common in women and prostate cancer is the most common in men
Yeah, I'm sure you know for all you folks out there. You probably know or have a family member or even for yourself
Somebody in your life has been afflicted by one of those cancers probably. Definitely, I know for me. Yeah, me too
Okay, let's do one more. There are so many good ones though. Nichola J Clark, she is asking
Does learning more and more make you more of a hypochondriac?
That's actually a really good question. Does it? Do you think it's made you more of a hypochondriac?
I definitely think the more, the more you see
the more concerned you definitely get.
Yeah, so I mean, we're in a, we're in a very specialized Cancer Center here, you know, this is a tertiary center
so we see a lot of
kind of more rare things
So like I have seen women who are like in their 20s and 30s like, 20s even, who get breast cancer
I know it's really really sad
Man, that's so scary. So when you, I know but so when you see stuff like that, of course you're suddenly like
Oh my gosh. What about me? Yeah, so that definitely has made me a little bit more a
Little bit more of a hypochrondriac I would say yeah
But I mean, I don't know. What do you think?
I mean ok maybe I haven't been on the cancer part long enough, but I would say oh
Because you guys know I take the bus all the time
So yes, when you work in the hospital you wash your hands a lot, you Purell everywhere
And I don't know I find now. I never used to be like this
But if I'm on the bus and I touch like the hand railing, cuz I try not to touch it
I'm like, oh no like I need to Purell my hand cuz I'm used to just washing my hands all the time
And then then there's no Purell around so then I'm kind of like walking and I'm someone who like
I'm really bad about like, you know, scratching my face, or like you put your hands near your - Yeah I put contacts in so..
I know the feeling. Yeah so now I go home and like the first thing I do actually the first thing I do is I wash my hands and
I don't know ask my mom. I was never like that before
But now I wash my hands all the time
Okay, guys
So thank you so much for watching and me, most importantly, I want to thank Roochi for being here and being partly like totally willing
Why am I saying partly?
I'm actually handcuffed to a chair here. FYI
She can't leave. Send for help!
Thank you
But she, she promised she would feed me. Yes, oh, I did not. Now she added that in on film!
like blackmail. You saw it here!
Oh and if you guys have other questions she is someone awesome to ask. She's got her own Instagram. I'll link it below it's also
She's tagged on my Instagram photo. So if you want to take a look you could, you can see it there
But otherwise, I'll be seeing you guys next week and I'll be saying that I'm a second year medical resident
Which is crazy to think about a year has flown by. So thanks for making this year
Awesome, and I'll be chatting with you guys next week. So bye for now. -Bye!