Blogpost Week 2

        Every time I walk to the waiting room to call out a patient's name, I always make sure to check their date of birth before doing an optical coherence tomography(OCT) scan or a work up in the exam room. However, since I am pretty new at the job, I haven't exactly nailed down the routine quite yet. Just a few days ago, after prepping a chart and hurrying towards the waiting room to bring a patient back, I forgot to ask for his date of birth before heading straight to get an OCT. Only after I had gotten several images did I remember to ask him to confirm his date of birth. The numbers clearly didn't match up, and I realized with a sinking feeling in my stomach that I had grabbed the wrong person! Unfortunately, I had to tell the patient to head back to the waiting room even after I had already done most of the OCT. And honestly, it was a pretty awkward and funny experience, since the other patient who I was supposed to grab was waiting patiently for me and quickly told me that he knew I had messed up, and was waiting to see when I would realize my mistake. Both patients have the same name, which of course lead to the confusion in the first place. However, if one things for sure, I do not plan on forgetting to confirm the date of birth anytime in the near future!

        The biggest thing I have learned from my training as an ophthalmic technician so far is to have patience as I try to figure out what I should be doing in different situations, which will often depend on a patient's diagnosis. For example, if a patient has advanced wet macular degeneration in both of their eyes, it means that they will often be treated with injections and will need to be prepped before seeing the doctor. However, some patients are merely post-operation, meaning that they are simply at the office for a check-up to make sure things are going smoothly after surgery-- and thus, do not need to be prepped or numbed at all for an injection. I am sure I will get the hang of things eventually, but I know it will take time to learn all the steps needed for each patient and the specific care that they require.

        One of my goals was to learn how to be an ophthalmic technician, and I certainly have made progress towards this goal! Last week, I was still shadowing other technicians and mostly doing write-ups while they would test visual acuity, take eye pressure, and prep for injections. However, this week I have managed to do most of the work( although with some supervision), which feels like a really big accomplishment! Furthermore, I have really begun to learn more about certain diseases that effect the retina(like AMD) and I cannot wait to continue my research! Eyehealth Northwest has a research study that is currently looking into treatments for patients with dry macular degeneration( and there are currently none), so I am planning to reach out to the research coordinator sometime soon.

One question I am left with is:

What are some of the clear signs leading to retinal diseases?(whether it be blurriness, floaters, dark spots... ect.)

This is a test image I used to learn more about macular degeneration( the spots are atrophy)