Work III

When there are no more slides to read I head outside and downstairs to the gross room and histology. The gross room and histology are more closets than rooms. They are decorated with the same light green concrete walls but blue ceilings to make you think you are outside. There is a nice exhaust fan

and a fume hood that can be used for grossing. The only grossing station is in the corner under the fan and consists of a sink half covered with a sheet of wood. It’s not fancy, but it works. The last few days have been special as we have a room full of laboratory technical students with us. The students are eager to learn

and I think they enjoyed me talking a bit about each specimen we received. There is no dictation system so all gross descriptions are written on the back of the requisition form by the technologist. While I dissected the tissues, I explained some of the pathology, normal anatomy, what sections I took, why I took those sections, and how I would like them embedded. To the right is a picture Isaac in blue with a group of students. When Isaac is using the sink I use the hood and gross “cleaner” specimen on newspaper or a scrap of cardboard (cardboard for today in image 1).

Next door to the gross room is histology. The students that were not watching the grossing were learning how to process and embed tissue. Notice how the ceiling is white. The pathologists are spoiled.

The quality of the surgical resections are generally good. We do have some problems with fixation, but I hope those can be resolved soon. I took a few pictures of today’s interesting case. It’s a partial jaw resection. You get bonus points with Jim if you can guess the tumor. Hints: Teenager, Recurrent