On Monday, I noticed that the bowl protecting my ceiling light had somehow filled with water. Hmm. See, in the US, I've never had to drain my light. So I took down the bowl dumped out about a quart of water, and just left the bowl on the floor. Later that night, Nicole and I went to print out some lab notes. First, her log-in wouldn't recognize the pen drive. Then my log-in wouldn't work (and I say log-in because we both tried about 3 computers each). So, we went to try to just buy a copy card - but guess what? No copy cards. So we had to sit and wait while the library attendant printed them all up for us. This wouldn't have been so annoying were it not for the fact that it happened somewhere around midnight. Then, yesterday, I went and told the front desk that I needed the light taken care of. It's still off.
The big hoopla Tuesday was the arrival of our barrels, which resulted in not a whole lot of studying getting done. Nevertheless, it was loads of fun - see how big they are? Nicole actually fell into one back in Miami when we were packing them, but I missed it when I went into the office to take care of business - so, she kindly put on a one-time encore performacne. It's great to finally have all of my utensils, and here is a brief list of some of the other things we sent - don't laugh: 10lbs of honey, 6lbs. of protein power, 10lbs. of peanut butter (each), 10 lbs. of coffee and 10 lbs. of creamer 
(each, since they don't have any coffee on the island), 3 bags of trailix, flashlights that run on kinetic energy, something on the order of 30lbs. of canned chicken breast, 10lbs. of frijoles negros, sheets and hangers, bug spray and batteries, somewhere near a gallon and a half of extra virgin olive oil, pots and pans, cups and plates, cosmetic stuff, and, yes, 50lbs. of rice. Because we don't have that on the island. I've been joking that, if we'd had more time, she'd have tried to cram some sunshine and sand in between the toilet paper and soap just because...you know.....you never know what's down here....Wednesday was the one I was really looking forward to - my first day of dissection! I'd been SO excited to finally get my hands dirty. I started reading the first dissection instructions, which covered the superficial back muscles, but, lo and behold - I was in the second group. So no cutting open the back (the thought of which had been making me salivate) - but instead, my group was scheduled to do a laminectomy. This is a procedure in which the spinal column is cut off at the lamina of the vertebrae, exposing the spinal cord. Grant's Dissector called for chisels and mallets and 45 degree angles - but I'd heard rumors of bone saws. Does it GET any better!?
I got to the lab 10 minutes early, all dressed in my scrubs - only to find that the lamina had already been removed.
Needless to say, I felt cheated, but looking back, I suppose I can understand - here's a room full of people who've probably never had their hands inside someone before, and you're going to ask them to do the equivalent of serious orthopedic surgery? I guess I can see their point. They just had us identify the imporant little pieces ( Dura, arachnoid and pia mater; spinal nerves, denticulate ligaments, and the filum terminale). The cut was made from about T3 down to L2, so we didn't get to see the cervical enlargement, but it was interesting nonetheless. One of the parts of the lab organization that I really appreciate is the demo - after each dissection, the group who got their hands dirty demonstrate the dissection and explain the clinical relevance to the other two groups. Folks kind of trickled in and out whenever they wanted, so over the course of about an hour, I explained the whole thing about 6 times. Another interesting part of this process was that, after each dissection, the group has to make a short video, explaining the actual process and identifying the salient structures (not quite as in depth as the demo).
You know, my serious thinking about medicine has always kind of been directed to psychiatry - I was a psychology major in undergrad, and I read psychiatric case-files like some people read romance novels (crazy people give me a warm, fuzzy feeling). However, in recent weeks, I've realized that I may not be happy with psychiatry - I think I'm going to need something in which I get to work with my hands. Now, I've never really given too much thought to being a surgeon, but I've got to tell you - I love this anatomy stuff!
On Thursday, nothing too terribly interesting happened; I went in around 8 at night and reviewed the cadavers.
2 comments:
Great story's and interesting pictures. Good looking couple!!!
Ginny
Oh course we are good lucking Mom! Don't admit it, but his blog is better than mine. I think he is a better writer.
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