Well, i wasn't really deep in the heart - but I was close. The little area that I was so desperately searching for (dissection is REALLY hard, by the way), is called the thyroacromial trunk - it's a branch of the axillary artery, and it's deep and surrounded by fat.
I was very excited to get this dissection under way - this was the first time I was actually going to make a cut! remember my last dissection - the gloriously planned laminectomy? Well, the teaching assistants and lab professors completed the lion's share of the work before my group ever arrived - all that was left for us to do was make a simple incision along the dural sack, and identify the contents and surrounding structures. While it was an essential learning experience, I felt a little shortchanged - the group before us dissected the superficial muscles of the back, right down to the erector spinae, and the group after us exposed and cleaned the suboccipital triangle.
Thus, I studied our plan of attack from Grant's Dissector thoroughly over the weekend - we were supposed to skin the chest, reflect the pectoralis (major and minor), find the branches of the thyrocercival trunk (and cephalic vein), and finally, dissect down throuh external, internal, and innermost intercostal muscle planes. So I got to the lab, and they were having trouble with the prossector video - thus, my group and I decided to dive right in. The gentleman upon whom we have the continuing pleasure of working was lying on what used to be his stomach, that day - task 1: flip him. That being accomplished, we set to palpating the jugular notch (sternoclavicular joint, whatever you want to call it), because that was the point of the first incision. Please, do not think me odd when I say that I enjoyed the fluidity of my no. 3 scalpel's glide through this gentleman's pectoral skin - nevertheless, once the easy part was finished, the rest became very tedious. A lab professor came along and helped us find the cephalic vein in the delto-pectoral triangle - suggesting that we find the easy things and follow them back, rather than searching for a needle in a haystack (followin the cephalic would take us back to the subclavian - right in the vicinty of our goal).
The going was incredibly slow - so much so, in fact, that, despite our attempts to dissect everything carefully and preserve every little possibly important strand and fiber (artery? nerve? just fascia? ), several lab professors came along and pointed out what we needed and what we didn't, demonstrating the proper dissection techniques all the while ("This is medical school - don't hold those scissors like you're in kindergarten"). One even went as far as to say "See this? What is it? That's right...it's a vein. Are you looking for veins? Then cut it out and get rid of it!" That was the end of the excitement, as our lab devoled into an exercise in the excision of the tiny globules of fat that God put in to cushion the branches of thoracoacromial artery (and to teach me patience). It actually wasn't until the very end of the dissection when I felt confident enough in this to explain it to people for the demo.
(Just so we're clear, the thoracoacromial artery is a branch of the axillary artery, which feeds the clavicular region, the acromial region, the pectoral region, and the deltoid region. Clinical relevance? Working on it - although I suppose that it's not something you'd want to cut in surgery. Like most arteries)
This past weekend was very productive; we had that extra day because of Carnival. While I didn't get to go "jump up" and "mash it up" over in the next town just around the bay, I did get to listen to the continual, repetitive thumping of bass as I studied. The mini is on it's way, and I feel like I've got a decent handle on things, but decent isn't enough - I want to be adept in all things biochemical; I want to have mastered the minutae of microbiology; I demand excellent in the anatomical. Nicole and I have begun this grand note-collation, in which we utilize the objectives posted by professors concerning their lectures slip our own notes into this Medical Magna Carta - a single document (growing by pages every day) from which, hopefully, we will be able to study for the minis and the comprehensive tests at the end. She's much better about it than I am - but at least I'm not skipping class. I mean...I could be...we can watch all of the lectures on Mediasite (ad double speed, no less, which really works for some people), but I need to get my butt to class. That "I'll learn it later" mentality is what drove me to the Caribbean in the first place.
I'll post those pictures of my domain as soon a possible. And by domain, I mean the Island I occupy for 16 months, and the school at which I study. Ok, back to class - today is eukaryotic gene expression, fertilization, and the brachial plexus.
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