New Routines

Well everyone, it's official. I think med school's finally starting to settle into a routine. I realized its been about 10 days since I've written and I had to think what we've done over the past few days and my first thought was "well, nothing really special happened" (which isn't REALLY true, but that was my first thought). At the end of this week, we'll be half way through block 1 (and I'll be 1/8 of the way to becoming a real doctor!)

So my classes... Biochem spent the last two weeks trying to get us to do "self study modules" then spend class time teaching each other/making up skits and other nonsense. Needless to say, it didn't go well (as reflected by nearly half the class failing the biochem portion of our last quiz). So note to anyone who might someday want to go to medical school: schools are all soooo proud of their attempts to integrate curriculum and offer "group learning experiences" instead of just lecture. Fair warning "group learning" translates to "waste of your time". I never thought I'd say this, but I really wish they'd just lecture to us.

Physio has gotten harder but more interesting. We've moved through cardiac physiology and now to respiratory physiology. Best part about physio: its currently taught by an instructor who looks EXACTLY like Saul Tigh. I really really want him to come to class with an eye patch on one day (I know theres a couple of you who will be tempted to comment on this, but careful with any spoilers, at least one or two people who read this are still in the middle of the show :) )

and now for anatomy... Stanley's abdomen has been.. interesting. The first day we opened the abdominal cavity a TA came over and said "what the fuck is wrong with your guy's abdomen?" It turns out Stanley's had a couple of abdominal surgeries- his appendix and gall bladder were both removed. And after abdominal surgery all the connective tissue in your abdomen creates "adhesions"- which are exactly what they sound like... everything gets stuck together which makes dissecting (without breaking open any bowels) really difficult. The abdomen also smells realy REALLY bad (just in case you wanted to know). And the blood supply to abdominal organs is really complicated (although I did get another compliment on my dissection skills. The instructor said my dissection of the inferior mesentaric artery was "beautiful, even though the cadaver's guts are all stuck together").

Up next: we're learning the male GU system this week. I'll once again refrain from details but basically we're learning the exams for male genitalia and the rectal exam (yes they're exactly what they sound like. No, I don't know why this is one of the first exams we learn and no, we do not practice on each other). So this should  be an... interesting week.