Kaliiiiimaaaaa!!!!!

So this is what we did in anatomy lab today (except it was a little messier and significantly less Evil):

(From Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)

Ok so backing up, this week we're studying the thorax in anatomy. So on tuesday we took off the anterior wall of the thoracic cavity. This involved using trauma scissors/EMT shears to cut the first five ribs. We had to get an instructor with bigger shears to help with Stanley's clavicles (according to the instructor we have "mr burly man cadaver"). Cutting through the ribs was really neat, but the sound is really disturbing. If you've ever heard someone's bone break, you know the sound I'm talking about. Except this is louder (because theres nothing between you and the cracking bone) and you can feel it breaking through the scissors. After taking the wall entirely off, we took out the lungs. The lungs felt like sea cucumbers (remember those from the aquarium touch tidal pool thing?). Still need to make a point of going around the lab to find some smokers for further ammunition to harass all you smokers into quitting. ;)

So then today, we studied the heart. We got as far as clearing away a bunch of fat, identifying the major nerves and vessels around the heart, opening the pericardium and then cutting out the heart. They say your heart should be the size of your fist... Stanley's heart is the size of 3 or 4 of my fists, its HUGE. Its also completely packed with clotted blood (and not gooey flowy blood, this is blood that's turned into a solid. Its like clay), which we have to figure out how to remove on tuesday. Anyway, holding the heart in my hands was pretty damn cool. Also got to see evidence of bypass surgery in a couple of other cadavers (staples and stitches in the heart in one and a wired together sternum in another).

Today we also did surface anatomy, which is basically "ok guys, turns out you don't get to dissect your patients, so now we're teaching you surface land marks to know where the internal stuff is". Today we did lung and diaphragm surface anatomy. So we all took our shirts off and drew lungs and a diaphragm on each other. Nope, I'm not joking. Although we were thankfully warned ahead of time to wear a sports bra or swimsuit top. This was less awkward than I expected since everyone was doing it and everyone seemed a little shy about it. It was also nice to have a female partner :p and it did cross my mind that maybe this is part of why med school has a reputation for being a hook up environment.
During surface anatomy, I discovered I can palpate ribs 2-12 on myself, most people can only feel 2-10 (first rib is under the collar bone). 11 and 12 are usually buried under muscle, but I KNOW I found my 11th (I can get my finger around the tip of it) and I'm pretty sure I found the 12th on my back. If you ask nicely, maybe I'll show you (lol).

In other news... physiology is studying the endocrine system. And biochem is starting to move into some genetics, which makes me very happy :) And doctoring is finally starting some real DOCTOR stuff instead of just epidemiology and biostatistics. We have our first meeting of our physical exam groups next week (so more on that later).

Quiz 3 is on Monday. Wish me luck!