Week 11 November 18

In this lab we were asked to complete an abdomen series focusing on the acoustic windows, breathing, exploring the ultrasound machine in the abdomen with emphasis on the abdomen. 

While doing this lab, I was not working fast enough to fully complete my whole abdomen scan.  I need to get myself in there and practice to make it go much quicker and smoothly.  I also need to spend some time focusing on scanning the pancreas.  This is the organ that I am having the most trouble with so far. 

Overall I am feeling pretty comfortable with the kidneys, liver, great vessels, gall bladder and spleen(except Hulda's).  I am attaching one of the images of the pancreas, just because this is my problem organ.  I felt that I should take a closer look at it.  I feel that this is a good image of the pancreas. 

During this lab I did spend more time focusing on using my gain, focus, breathing and TGCs.  I feel that I am doing a better job at producing images that are pleasing to the eye, well I suppose I should say my eye.  It can be a lot to remember making sure that you adjust everything on every image, but slowly I am getting better. 

October 28 Week 10

In this lab we were asked to complete a set of images using spectral doppler.  I find this to be pretty neat.  I like that it allows you to see the blood flow within the organs.  I did have a bit of trouble getting just the right amount of color.  I always felt that I was not getting enough or turned the gain up to high and ended up with too much noise.  From what I know this picture that I have posted today has a pretty good amount of color.  There is not very much excess noise visualized around the organ.  You are also getting a pretty clear picture of the blood flow that is entering and exiting the spleen.  I feel that once we learn more about the physics and all that goes into producing and using the correct amount of color will make this process much easier.  It will also make me much more aware of just what it is that is expected of me when using the spectral doppler. 

Overall I did enjoy this lab.  I was not fully aware of all the stuff that we are able to do with ultrasound until I started this program, and am excited to learn about all the other stuff that we can do.