A self portrait.

Just bought a cheap tripod, so it's time to take a self portrait. As you can see, my skin doesn't like the Montreal winter very much. Hopefully it will get used to it and don't get irritated as easily once I spend more time here.

The explosive growth of PET machines.

In year 2001, there were only one PET scanner in greater Montreal area. Today, there are seven--five in public hospitals, and two in private clinics. Why the explosive growth? Cost, of course. As PET/CT combined scanner got introduced to the market, the scanning time required for each patient cuts in half. The availability of CT images also provided much better anatomical reference for the PET images, which provide functional information. Of course, the installation of specially designed medical cyclotron doesn't hurt either. As turn-key devices, medical cyclotrons produce FDG's needed by PET scanner.

This growth of PET scanners makes me think about the growing popularity of digital SLR cameras. Yep, not much similarity between the two devices, but similar economic principle. As price of digital SLR cameras dropped below $1000, they became popular. As popularity grows, manufacturers ramped up production, and further reduces prices. Of course, this in turn causes more people to buy something that was reserved for serious hobbyists. The end result is a huge growth in total dollar amount of dSLR's sold. Same thing in PET/CT scanners. As costs per patient drop, the increase in number of scans more than make up for it. The end result is a fast growing segment of the industry.

Unlike pure research, the cost per patient will always be a deciding factor in health care.

Some Main Stream Media (MSM) news about CT

The MSNBC homepage (msn.com) today had a link about CT scans may raise cancer risk. To a Medical Physicist, this is pretty old news. Unfortunately, for the general public, this may actually be something new. Nothing in the name of CT imply the use of X-ray, even though a chest CT is easily equivalent to hundreds of chest X-rays. Most people I know seem to understand that a Chest X-ray is somewhat harmful, and should not be repeated again and again without good reason. But if you ask people the harm of CT, they would be pretty surprised to know that a CT is as bad as hundreds of chest X-rays. I think it's a good thing that the general public learn more about the harm of CT.

Just for your information, a chest CT has a dose of 8 mSv. A chest X-ray has a dose of 0.02 mSv. The background radiation received by the general public is about 4 mSv per year, and the upper limit of occupational exposure for non-nuclear energy worker is 1 mSv.

Here's the link.

Nuclear medicine making a come back?

During my undergrad, when people talk about Medical Physics, they assume it's either external beam radiotherapy, or CT/MRI imaging. Sometimes Health Physics is included. Rarely was nuclear medicine mentioned. But apparently, with the introduction of PET/CT combined scanner, nuclear medicine as its own specialty is making a come back. The use of radioactive source and x-ray imaging requires a special type of Physicist, the Nuclear Medicine Physicist. Until now, the role and responsibility of Nuclear Medicine Physicist is not yet well defined, but we should see changes in this area soon. In external beam therapy, for example, various protocols have been established by either AAPM or ICRU to define the required treatment quality as it pertains to physics. We may expect to see similar things being introduced to Nuclear Medicine, specifically to PET/CT scanner.

On LSO scintilation crystal

Like almost any technology, medical devices go in and out of vogue all the time. One thing I find worth noticing is the growth in Nuclear Medicine due to the introduction of PET/CT imaging. Just like IMRT spurred explosive growth in external beam radiotherapy, PET/CT scan promises to do the same to nuclear medicine imaging. One of the technologies in development is LSO scintillation crystal, used in PET detectors. Compared to older BGO crystals, it has certain merits. The raw source, Lutetium, cost about six times as much as gold. Considering that scintillation crystals are macroscopic sized, the cost of raw element would be considerable.

Lutetium is a rare earth element, commonly found with other Lutetium. As I learned in grade school, China is a major exporter of rare earth elements. (Can you tell I'm Chinese? It's one of the few things I learned in the Communist brainwashing.) Chances are, most Lutetium in the world is produced in China. Another example of the interdependence of global economy. China can't produce LSO based detectors, but it produces the raw material, and uses the devices produced.

The pesky problem called snow

It's Montreal after all, so I shouldn't be surprised to see snow in November. It doesn't make me feel any better walking around in boots, though. Being the only one from West Coast in my class, it doesn't feel very good to adjust to the cold weather. Oh well, at least I live kinda close to the hospital. Let's see how I fare in the coming months.

Bizzare experience with contact lens

Having paid for PGSS insurance, I decided to get something out of it. The natural first step would be contact lenses, as I don't have contacts yet. The buying was pretty smooth, even though I had to front the cash and get reimbursed. After I got home, the contacts turned out alright. I've only had hard contact lenses before, and never got used to them enough to wear them daily. The soft contact lenses are much easier on my eye, although they're quite difficult to put on for someone inexperienced like me.

Having put two on, I suddenly found that my right eye was blurry. Thinking that I lost it, I sighed for the cost, and opened another lens and put it on. Two hours later, the contacts were that comfortable, so I took them off before having dinner. Putting my glasses back on, I went on with my things. A while later, I suddenly found that my right eye couldn't see well. Somehow, there's a contact in my eye! I took that off, look at all three of them, now lying in lens boxes. The only conclusion I could make, was that I had two contact lenses in my right eye.

A brief Google search didn't return anything. That's it for now. Hope the contacts work out well for me.

The tyranny of multiple choice.

Being a Physics major, the last time I took multiple choice exams were in high school. OK, the first year courses had some multiple choices, but they generally counted a small portion of the grades. Now, in my MedPhys courses, all exams have a large multiple choice component, usually north of 50 percent. Before you call this program easy, let me just assure you that multiple choice questions are probably the hardest exam you can take as a Physics major, besides an oral exam. Simply put, if you don't know, there's no way for you to pretend you know something, or how much other stuff you know. Plus, there's no way for your grader to have sympathy for you and assume that you "understand the concept". In fact, the hardest questions are generally the multiple choice questions.

Apparently, professional exams tend to have large multiple choice components as well. So I better get used to this.

Finally, a picture of me.

Another update on yours truly. As you can see, I'm about the same, as always. All I have is a Canon A400 digital camera at this point, so the photo quality is not that good. This one is taken with 1/3 second exposure time on a tiny tripod. Hopefully I get a better picture of myself some time later this year.

Update between midterms

Two down, three to go. Sounds not bad, right? Well, the two core courses are at the end. The two I have taken so far doesn't seem too bad. The coming electronics midterm won't be too much of a disaster, I think. The remaining two midterms, Radiation Physics and Diagnostic Imaging, however, will likely stress me out big time. It's safe to say that these two combined is a lot more work than the first three midterms combined.

First of all, these two core courses have midterms that last almost a day. They are scheduled on a Saturday, instead of the regular class hours like the first three midterms. Second of all, the amount of material covered, and level of understanding required from these two courses are much higher than other courses. So the fun have yet to start.

Anyways, here's a picture of a cheap table I got from Zellers. After squatting on the living room desk and disturbing my roommates' TV watching, I finally found a table light enough for me to drag home by myself. After my UPS experience, I don't feel like getting stuff delivered during days when I'm not home all day. Since all my roommates go to school, I will for sure miss the delivery. Unlike parcel deliveries, missing furniture delivery can be very expensive. So now I have a temporary table, until I can clear up some time to arrange for IKEA furniture delivery and assembly.

Back from hell

I and my roommates just went through the hell of Bell. No seriously, no kidding. We went 2 weeks without internet, waiting for bell, and spent literally HOURS on the phone with them. But now it's resolved. I'm still too traumatized to recall the details of getting internet. All I can tell you is that it was a difficult battle that required collective effort of my roommates and me. But in the end, we have internet.

By the way, the coursework is fine. Pretty interesting class. Haven't fallen sleep yet.

IKEA bed

The double bed is not as big as a queen, but still much better than a queen, or sleeping on the floor. I'm still getting used to it though, as I've been sleeping on a queen sized bed for the past 5 years. Yes, I'm spoiled. Well, I just happened to end up with a queen sized bed, and have always found a place just big enough for it. The picture shown is just the base. I found that the spring mattress at IKEA only goes to "firm", instead of "extra firm" that I've been sleeping on. So far no adverse effects. Although I've been sleeping a lot, as I generally do on my days off.

My apartment, more picture

Here's a picture of the side of my apartment. It's four stories, and I live on the second floor. Unfortunately, my place doesn't have a balcony, which is really a pity. Well, I'll just have to go out more. The building structure looks decent, probably not a "leaky condo" that Vancouver is famous for.

Monbtreal general hospital

Here is a picture of McGill University Health Center, aka Montreal general hospital. It's on top of a hill, like many hospitals in Montreal. I live even further up the hill, but not very far. My classes are in the hospital, which is terrific for introducing students to working in a hospital environment. The hike from my apartment in the summer is quite pleasant, but we will need to wait till the winter to know how it feels like.

The quest for a bed, IKEA style

Since my new pad is not furnished, as first order of business, I need a bed. After browsing Craigslist for beds, the findings are slim for a double bed, and no delivery is offered. Plus the selections are either cheap student sofa beds or very expensive high end beds. Therefore, the natural conclusion is -- IKEA.

Getting the bed turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I had to drag the mattress to the cart myself, on their self-serve area. And then I had to go through check out, before I can have it deliver. Then I come home, and found out that I could have ordered that online, as I was getting a fairly expensive version. The cheaper versions weren't available for sale online. Oh well, it's an interesting experience.

The bed was delivered the next day. The promised delivery time was between 12 and 3pm, and actually delivery time was 2:35pm. So no problem here. Oh, assembly was not included, and I had to pay the delivery guy under the table to get him to assemble it. "Don't tell the company." I wonder how many times he say that every day.

Another disaster -- leaky airbed

Well, so much for packing the inflatable bed and bringing it across the country. My roommate had a sweet motorized pump, and that saved major pumping time. Unfortunately, the air bed turned out to be leaky. The leak is pretty bad actually. I barely had the time to get ready for sleep, and the bed is already half deflated, and I never got much good back support from it. A few hours into the night, it completely flattened, which actually make sleeping easier, as I'm not trapped at the middle of a balloon any more. Nevertheless, the sleep was less than satisfactory, as I'm not used to sleeping on the floor.

First order of the second day -- get a camping foam pad. Actually got it from Canadian Tire. Worked OK, at least better than nothing. Tried to buy a bed from Zellers, but they don't even have a full set available. Reason? It's a sale that's been going on for a while, and apparently a popular sale. So that's all I could do for the bed fiasco in the morning. Got a grocery from a market called PA, plus some other household items I couldn't pack with me, and that's my morning.

In the afternoon, I went to IKEA to permanently fix my bed problem, with a REAL bed. This time, I'm not going to settle for imitates, not even sofa beds. I'm buying a regular, double sized bed. But this would be another post.

First post -- Arriving at Montreal

Ok, before writing a long and winded introduction to this blog, myself, and my motivation for Medical Physics, I'm just going to post something about today, and fill up more information another time.

9:00 AM Pacific Time-- Board the WestJet flight. The flight was packed, so air quality is not so good. Oh well, only 4 and half hour flight.
5:00 PM Montreal Time -- Landed in Montreal. Been here once before on Campus visit, so not as much surprise now. Baggage claim took forever, as there's tons of people getting off the flight, plus another flight from Calgary landing at the same time, using the same baggage claim conveyor belt. Then there was waiting for Taxi -- another line up. $40 and one hour later, (Taxi fare is $35, but I tipped $5 because the driver helped me move the luggage to the building doorway.) Managed to get into the building front door, as it had no lock. Then there's the mail box area. The door to the hallway was supposed to be locked, but it was stuck open a bit, due to the poor mechanical condition. So I managed to drag in the two heavy luggage. Just as I proceeded to get the other luggage, the door slammed shut behind me -- the door swung shut, just as it was supposed to do. Now I'm locked outside, with my luggage inside. I franticly looked for a buzzer, as my future roommate was supposed to be home. Unfortunately, all I saw was a mail box. So I called Derek, who transferred me the apartment lease. He gave me the hint that the buzzer is ON TOP OF THE MAIL BOX. Suddenly realizing my stupidity, I hang up in embarrassment, and rang the buzzer for my unit. A few seconds later, I heard some buzzing sound from the door. Pushed it, doesn't work. So I pressed the buzz button again, and a few buzzing sounds from the doors and a few attempts later, door is open. My roommate came out, and everything was easy afterwards.

The apartment is quite clean, and my room's not small. Unfurnished, but not carpeted either, which makes up for all the shortcomings. It can use a fresh layer of paint, but I'm just a student and can't afford all the chic chic place. If I want new paint, I will just have to do it myself, which won't happen in the near future. After living in ground floor of Vancouver Special's, I'm not going to complain too much about the living condition here. Not much furniture for now, which is actually kinda refreshing, as I've been dealing with an excess of household stuff this summer. But, that's another story.

We then went out for Thai food at a local mall. OK food, ok price. Nothing to write home about. Although it's nice to walk everywhere, and do so on a student budget.