Dr. Cheryl Ervin, Director of SCO’s Residency and Externship Programs, has been called to active duty at Camp Atterbury in Indiana for a one-year period by the U.S. Army Reserves. She was honored with a farewell reception, pictured, at SCO on Thursday, December 1, 2011.

In her absence, Dr. Jennifer Sanderson will be handling all Residency Department activities and can be reached via email at jsande@sco.edu.  Dr. Bernard Sparks will be handling Externship assignments and placement. He can be contacted at bsparks@sco.edu.

Mary Rice has been appointed as Coordinator of Residency and Externships. She is well-versed in both departments’ policies and procedures and will continue to be a valuable resource for students, faculty and staff alike.  Her email address is mrice@sco.edu.

Dr. Ervin will remain in touch by email and may continue to be contacted at cervin@sco.edu. The entire SCO community sends best wishes to Dr. Ervin and gratitude for her service to her country. We look forward to her return to SCO in late 2012.

Frank Gibson, OD ‘68, was honored as former Director of SCO’s Externship Program during a meeting of externship preceptors at this year’s SECO International meeting in Atlanta.

Dr. Gibson, seen here with his successor, Dr. Cheryl Ervin, was presented a plaque in recognition of his five years of service leading SCO’s Externship Program.

“I hope I can lead this department at the level which you left it,” Dr. Ervin said.  She also thanked Dr. Gibson for his input and support during the preceptor breakfast.

Dr. Gibson, also seen here visiting with a group of preceptors, took over SCO’s Externship Program in 2005 after the untimely death of Rich Goodson, OD ‘66. He retired in October 2010.

The newest edition of Optometric Education contains an article authored by Dr. Cheryl Ervin, Director of SCO’s Residency and Externship programs.

Dr. Ervin joined two Residency Supervisors, Drs. Barry Tannen and Leonard Press, in writing an article on “Private Practice Residency in Vision Therapy and and Rehabilitation.” The article focuses on the need for such residencies and highlights how SCO was the first college of optometry to establish a VT residency in 2008.

Read more in Volume 36, Number 2, of the Winter/Spring 2011 issue of Optometric Education: http://www.opted.org/files/OE_WINTER_2011-sm.pdf

A Little Work

My! How the time has flown by. Tomorrow (or, rather, today when this post will get approved) marks the beginning of the 7th month of my residency. I cannot begin to tell you how fast it has gone by. Seriously, the last 3 months have been a blur, a very, very busy blur.  Stick with me for a recap?

November (aka No Work November):
With vacation, rotations, and the American Academy of Optometry meeting in San Francisco, there really wasn’t much time to actually see patients.  I truly needed November.  It was mentally refreshing!  And San Fran was absolutely perfect.  I seriously could not have planned a better trip.  Recap within a recap? :)

The above picture shows Dr. Tara and me in front of her poster.  I had already presented my PowerPoint earlier that morning.  The AAO meeting had great lectures, which were some of the best education courses that I have ever attended.   I loved how you could go to whichever class suited your fancy; no need to register for specific ones, just drop in!  It was also fun getting a chance to catch up with my former professors/staff doctors/preceptors.  The meeting was more than just education… I had a TON of fun.  I biked the Golden Gate Bridge, worked out at San Francisco CrossFit with the incomparable Adrian Bozman, rode a ferry, got caught in the pouring rain, ate really good food, and jump roped in the Detroit airport out of boredom.  A+!

December:
I don’t really remember December, is that a bad thing?  The thing that really sticks out in my mind is winning tickets to go see Usher and Trey Songz in Greensboro, NC.  For serious, though, Dr. Tara and I had probably (my) most favorite rotation– Hematology & Oncology.  I really enjoyed hanging out with the doctor we were following.  He was very entertaining, very blunt/honest, and very intelligent.  He was a winning combination for sure!  Our rotations here at the Salem VAMC have been very good, but getting to watch a spinal aspiration really pushed hematology to the top of my favorites list.

January:
January started out very well… aside from a small snafu with my iPhone alarm.  I hit the ground running with seeing patients again- it had felt like forever- and  I got into a really good learning groove.  January has been all about neurology to get us prepared for our February rotation in said subject.  I helped edit a lecture about visual manifestations of stroke and then the student didactic program centered around diplopia.  Neuro is not my favorite, maybe because it is hard to understand?, but it certainly is interesting.  I’ve learned a lot throughout January!

You all have now been caught up on the last three months.  Now that I have remembered my login info for this blog I’ll be a bit more regular with my posts.

In closing, if you have made it this far, let me say congrats to all those who have been/are/will be interviewing for residency positions.  I remember it all too well.  I know it can be exhausting, and I know it can be a tough decision, but the best piece of advice that I have ever received was to rank only the places that I know I would be happy to be at for a year!

Actually, I’ll leave you with this picture in closing.  Note Dr. Slagle looking at me with his “Meghan’s crazy!” look… I get it a lot, haha.

SCO recently hosted a Residency Informational Night for our students. We discussed available residency programs around the country, and explained the benefits of participating in a residency. We also had a Q&A session, allowing the students to ask questions of the residency program supervisors in attendance. After the program, students met and spoke more in depth with program supervisors about residencies of interest to them.

For more information about SCO’s Residency Program, contact me at cervin@sco.edu.

Residency supervisor Dr. Stan Appelbaum recently authored an article, “Could Your Attention Difficulties Actually Be from Eye Trouble? The diagnosis of ADHD is often incorrect in adults as well as children.” Dr. Appelbaum’s article will be published in the January 2011 issue of Bottom Line Health. Click here to read the article (PDF).

Dr. Amy Bartal, SCO’s Vision Therapy and Rehabilitation Resident, recently authored a journal review article about assessing the causes of visual vertigo. Dr. Bartal is currently in her residency program at EyeCare Professions, PC in Hamilton, New Jersey. Read more in her article (PDF).

Pictured are some of SCO’s residents who presented academic posters at last weekend’s American Academy of Optometry meeting in San Francisco:

Dr. Lauren Goldsmith and her fellow 2010 SCO graduate, Dr. Hilari McFarland

Dr. Meghan Elkins, inset, delivering her PowerPoint presentation.

Dr. Christina Newman with her academic poster.

Dr. Tara Whitehead, SCO resident, with her poster.

One of the most satisfying apsects of being a residency supervisor is seeing the success of those who have rotated through the Memphis VA program.  For example, I recently received an email from a resident who had a patient with a suddent onset ptosis.  Not to get into all the details of the case, but after all her testing she suspected myasthenia gravis.  She sent the patient to the PCP with her thoughts and was later notified of the positive results of this testing.

Great job!

I found out a couple of weeks ago that my paper on A Subclinical Case of Presumed Heerfordt’s Syndrome: a Precursor to Sarcoidosis? (or whatever I decide to title it for real) was accepted for Resident’s Grand Rounds at the American Academy of Optometry’s annual meeting in San Francisco.  Talk about excited!!!  So, I was in cycle class with my instructor/friend Steph when I heard this awesome song (if you can’t see it, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCzFYU17Soo&ob=av2n)… barely, of course, because I was working myrear/hamstrings/calves off trying to keep up with my favorite pacers.  It also got me to thinking that I HAVE to get busy on my paper, which is actually a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation.  It’s due by October 31st and, while a lot of it is already done, I haven’t even opened up PowerPoint yet.  I have a project this weekend.
Dr. Tara, had her paper accepted as well!  She will be doing a poster, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.  I think her poster is on osteomas?  I can’t remember exactly; maybe Dr. Tara needs to write a blog about it!  So I have a 15 minute gig and she has a 2 hour gig.  :)  Which is better, 1 or 2?  (Very lame, and I promise to never use that joke again.  Don’t worry, I’ll also never use the “my arms are too short” joke EVER… just in case you were worried.)

If you are in San Francisco for the meeting and you’d like to check out my stuff then head to the Resident’s Grand Rounds session at 9:15am on Saturday, Nov 20th.  Dr. Tara will be presenting at the poster session; I don’t know the details on time range, but it might start at 1:30pm?

What else is going on in my eyeball world?  Abstract submissions for SECO close on October 31st as well.  My patients have offered me up a ton of material for a multimedia poster, but after talking with my attending this morning I decided that an overview of downbeat nystagmus would be one of two ponies that I’m putting in the race*.  Here is where my day gets interesting.

My 11:00 patient was a new consult for glaucoma.  My lunch is at noon and this guy had an OCT scheduled for after I dilated him, so I was a little bummed when I saw him on my list.  But it’s all good because I actually got him dilated really quickly, got the OCT back at 11:25, and started BIO.  ”Look left.  Look left.  Look left.  Sir, please look left.”  Umm, this guy’s eyeball was moving up and down whenever I asked him to look left.  That would be a downbeat nystagmus.  It was not present in primary gaze and ?maybe I didn’t pay as close attention to his eye movements pre-dilation as I should have?, but it definitely took me by surprise, ESPECIALLY because I had just decided at 9:00am to submit an abstract on causes of downbeat.

I won’t spoil my case on this blog, but, okay, maybe I will.  The one case from July had downbeat because of extensive small vessel disease in the pons.  The case from today is most likely attributed to some sort of cerebellar disease or neoplasm because of his positive Rhomberg sign (most likely cerebellar because the MRI has not been completed yet).  I’m kind of a little scared to write these cases up because neuro-ophthalmology is a little intimidating.  And, yes, sometimes I am not all confident in myself, don’t act all surprised.  :)

I’ll try not to wait too long between posts next time.

-Dr. Meg