gross, anatomy that is. part I

i really meant to write about what is was like to dissect a cadaver early on--when it was shocking, and gross (ha, puns are fun), and fascinating, and simply indescribable. luckily, the fascination just keeps coming. this week i sawed through ribs. i held a human heart. i felt how spongy the lungs are (really--like a cheaply made stress ball). the grossness ain't going no where neither: today in class meagan whispered to me, "do they take the poop out when they embalm?" no my dear friend, they certainly do not.

but let's start at the very beginning, when all one hundred and twenty four of us had clean scrubs fresh off the shelves of walmart and only a vague idea of gross anatomy lab, partially formed by second year comments like, "everything will get greasy, so have a dissector* and an atlas* you leave in lab," or, "make sure you double glove," or "just pray for a skinny body, you don't want to be picking off fat on weekends."

our first lab, although by far the cleanest, was probably the most difficult for me. i've never been to an open casket funeral, and i've never watched anyone die, so unzipping that black body bag on day one was not only an introduction to the 88-year-old woman whose insides i would learn, well...inside-out, it was also the first dead person i had ever seen. that day we adjusted to the formaldehyde while performing a skin exam on our cadaver. not one of the four of us prayed enough; our cadaver was not thin. extra weekends loomed. we covered the hands and feet and head in damp cheesecloth to prevent any drying out. with the exceptions of a few slips here and there i haven't seen the face of our cadaver since that say. sort of akin to surgery i imagine, slicing through skin and sawing through bone is much easier when the face is covered and you're thinking only of what nerve you're attempting to preserve. i'll be sure to update when we get to the head.

i won't push my luck here. let's call this installment one of...many.

*dissector - the dissection bible, akin to a roadmap

*atlas - a gigantic anatomy picture book. that you will memorize.

i know....i know...

i. am. so. bad. at. this. i promise, i'm going to try harder! in fact, i plan to post again later this week. i know, wild.

medical school is tough, it's consuming, it's fascinating, and sometimes it makes me wonder if i'm retaining enough of what makes me, me. sure, i've been cooking my ass off in an attempt to express my creativity in some way. but am i loosing something else? i have no time for pottery, or writing (soon to change, soon to change dear blog)--no room in my brain for anything but enzymes and nerves and cells.

but then i have this. besas makes me get out of the house and walk on the beach when the sun is high or when it's low on the horizon and the light makes the water and sand look oh so spectacular.
the water and sand and the sun, and this crazy sweet hyper dog take over and medical school slips to the side, if even for a moment, because yes, all this while i am listening to the sweet sweet sounds of my physiology professor in my ipod.

on exams

from your powers of observation (and not from my marker stained hands), you might be realizing that i'm somewhat into coloring. visual learner perhaps? in all seriousness, though, drawing things out (the paths of nerves and arteries--to the left) and concept mapping the crap out of human development (to the right), really does wonders for comprehension. if i fail, maybe i can bring in my neon papers and tell them, "no really, i was studying..."

now don't get me wrong, i enjoy a little studying just as much as the next person. but with exam week coming to a close with the big sound and light show that is 8 hours of written exams tomorrow, i don't think i can absorb. another. fact. or. concept. for those of you who are interested (clearly all of you) in the details of said exam week, here goes. practicals are held tuesday through thursday. tuesday started 'er off with the osteopathic manipulation practical, where i had to demonstrate the ischial tuberosity spread (somewhat akin to pulling apart butt cheeks--excuse me, natal folds), and point out my partner's acromioclavicular joint, amongst other things. wednesday was histology (microscopes, cells, identification, boom-turducken), a class where some professors, more then others, enjoy the more minute differentiations in life. today, thursday, was the ultimate, the one and only, the 'jossie-grossy', gross anatomy practical: 100 bodies, 50 of them dead and covered in alligator clips and red string with greasy (yes, folks, we are GREASY greasy when we're dead/preserved) index cards prompting us to define muscles and nerves, and some more foreboding, to "be specific." there were traffic jams and crowding behind the tricker tags; head blocking, i.e. mental shoving, was less then superb. i think we might need yet another professionalism lecture: gross practical etiquette.

i can tell you that i've done enough studying (and eating) for two people over the past 6 days, but you've probably already gathered that. how i've "dealt" with it all, might prove more interesting? my tips for success thus far (ok, ok i'm presuming quite a bit here) include, but are not limited to: a daily swim in the ocean (temperature permitting), a study session in the hammock, hot outdoor showers in brick autumn air, exercise, and an unfortunate amount of german black licorice. and most importantly, on sunday night, i took a study break and made a tray of roasted vegetable lasagna with basil ricotta. i've eaten it twice a day since then.

hard work.

i know you're all thinking. gosh that mekkin has been studying so hard that she has no time to fill us in on what she's learning. while it is true that i am studying quite a bit, my social calendar, quite honestly, is the main thing getting in my blogger way. between 40 hours of class a week and (wonderful) weekend visitors (and all that studying i'm meant to be doing), i'm stretched pretty thin. i'm considering starting a time share on my couch to subsidize my gradplus loans. would you be interested in signing up?

we have a week of block exams coming up the week after next, so crunch time has come and gone. in medical school, if you're not studying hard three weeks before the exam, you're behind. luckily, i was able to put this sobering fact behind me, hitch up my pants, and set out to sea this past saturday. thanks to some opportune friendships, i found myself on a most gorgeous sailboat, cruising in my very own saco bay. the day finished with a walk on the most gorgeous goose rocks beach (singing sand and all) and a beautiful homemade dinner. i almost forgot i was a medical student.

moxie

my physiology professor is awesome. dr. norton is old school. he rocks the chalkboard, and explains things like they're supposed to be explained. he uses clinical applications, and makes sure that the obscure stuff we're learning about sodium or potassium applies to that whole business of us wanting to be doctors. he also really likes moxie. the first ten minutes of our first class served as an introduction, not to physiology, but to moxie. we listed carefully as he explained the process of moxie offending your taste buds so much that you end up liking it. you might also be interested in knowing that moxie is the official state soft drink of maine. does your state have an official soft drink? i didn't think so. the picture above was on the overhead (mmhmm that's right, dr. n don't mess with no powerpoints) for this 10 minute introduction, and the moxie was cracked open half way through class. but dr norton, REALLY likes moxie. during our next class he put this picture up again, this time with his face superimposed onto the moxie guy. he has enjoyed a moxie during every class since then.

a word on the title

on the first day of class dr. koester explained that every two students would be given a bone box, complete with one half of a human skeleton courtesy of india's bone trade circa 1950. the way he explained it, bodies were taken out of alleys in india, boned (or de-boned?) and sold to medical schools. now if that wasn't unethical enough, according to this article, the bone industry was so lucrative and out of control that bodies were taken out of graves? come on now. either way, the indian government has since outlawed the export of human remains, meaning that we must take particular care with our fifties themed carpet trimmed box o' bones.

Sue and I have made a point of enjoying the lovely beach weather and taking our bone boxes (she's got a right, i've got a left) out to the sand of our very own, hills beach. The neighbors love it, and just in case we didn't already have nerd stamped on our forehead, it's written in our bones now.

back at it

As much as I love to write, I never thought I’d be getting into this blog writing business. But after an exuberant response to ye ole, Bratwurst on Pyramids, I thought, why stop? Because medical education and the medical world are so incredibly over the top and foreign to so many, I thought it might be interesting to take it down a notch, and chronicle these next four transformative (hopefully: I mean, if becoming a doctor ain’t transformative, I don’t know what is) years. In my mind, I was going to get it together enough to have this truly start on day 1 (I know, what a joke)…instead, I’ll have to reflect a little on the last week, and then dive in. Oh, and just as a disclaimer, considering my workload (yes, I have a bone box, and yes, I need to learn every notch and every grove on every bone in human body) and my lack of fantastical photographs (no polish beer, no irish landscape) these posts will be much sparser. Regardless, enjoy.