So I should probably start this post with a little word of caution. There is one point in this post that I will use some sort of explicit content. I try to avoid this as much as possible, but the context for this one is just perfect. So, when the time comes I will warn you again, however, I think after reading it you will understand it's purpose.
So yesterday was the final day for Miss Ethel for a while. We have seen all we need to see for the time being, and now it's time for her to give us the test. No, this isn't the test of meeting her parents, but rather a long and strenuous test over her beautiful innards. I don't know which test would be easier...but we don't really have a choice on this one. Either way it is good to have a break from her but now it's time to study.
Outside from Miss Ethel we've had a variety of things happening. We've had some classes over X-rays and MRI's and other image stuffs. Unfortunately all of them were just about worthless so I probably know little more than all of you who read this. We also had another PBL of sorts today, which is termed "problem based learning", or something similar, I'm not really sure. Today we had to discuss some bone injuries and we started off with a quiz about it. I'm pretty sure I got every answer wrong on that quiz except for the one question that everyone else got wrong. Don't ask. After we debriefed that mission we were given another problem with only a single question. While the rest of my group, and all of the groups for that matter, went with one answer, I chose to travel the road less traveled and voice my opinion to my group about it. Seeing as how I didn't have much credibility at that point, and rightfully so, my word was not heeded well. However, in the end it paid off to stand out and be an individual as I triumphed! (My answer was right :D ) I owe that victory to Dr. Duncan and his teachings and clinical experience.
Tonight we had gotten a group of people together to have a dinner of sorts. I am tired of eating fast food and other crap personally, so I thought it would be nice to have a group of people rotate cooking responsibilities. So tonight I kicked it off with the ole family favorite, the Jack Daniel's BBQ Pork Tenderloin. (If you want that recipe you can find it on the JD's website). Anyways, it was pretty awesome if I may say so. I'm pretty sure that all the girls who experienced my cooking are now ready to marry me, and all the guys are probably wishing I was gay. Ha, well maybe not. But it's good to be confident in one's cooking. And hey, nobody died of food poisoning yet! Chalk up another victory!
Ok, so here's where I issue the warning. WARNING for fragile eyes/ears/stomachs/vases...whatever is fragile.
So this weekend I took a little aptitude test on our school's website that is supposed to determine which specialties are best for one's personality type. It asks you all sorts of questions like, "Do you like people?"...no, "Do you like listening to people?"...no way man, "Do you like to be in charge?"...get back to work or you're fired!. Well, none of those responses are entirely my personality actually, but you get the idea of what types of questions there are. So after I completed my test they gave me a list of specialties which were ranked as to how they would fit for me. I will now give you the top 5 responses from my exam.
1. Colon / Rectal Surgery
2. Emergency Medicine
3. Anesthesiology
4. General Surgery
5. Radiology
Ok....so, now that you've finished laughing and have made it past #1 on my list, let's review them in reverse order.
5. Radiology - This sounds interesting, however, after listening to the world's crappiest medical imaging lectures these past couple of days, I don't think I could tell the difference between an X-ray showing Hulk Hogan's forearm from the little green army dude lodged in little Timmy O'Toole's nose.
4. General Surgery - This is pretty good. It is one of the things I have considered. So, good job aptitude test.
3. Anesthesia - Again, another good option. Probably my most considered option as well.
2. Emergency Medicine - I don't want to have to deal with the little green army dude in that kid's nose.
1. Colon / Rectal Surgery - HMMMMMMMMMMM...I've never thought about this one! I mean, who knows? This could be my calling. I guess all I have to say is, if you're an asshole, look out!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
M-Day Plus 76
So it was about a year ago now that I had the most horrible interview of my life. This is roughly the anniversary of my medical school interview at Arkansas. I got grilled and there wasn't any defrosting in the microwave. I was taken out of the freezer, plopped face down (we'll assume this is a fish gettin' grilled), and grilled. But, somehow, some way, I managed to get in to this school.
So here I am today, we have had one long week of dates with Ethel. I'm ready to trade 'er out. Somehow I don't feel that she's going to let us do that quite so easily. We have basically spent an entire week looking at Ethel's arms. There is a lot of junk in there. All sorts of nerves and arteries..just lots of crap. It's all confusing, and clustered, and hard to get to, and we're just sick of it. We have been in the gross lab for 10 consecutive school days now, which is a long stretch, and we have one more until our test in about a week. I'm honestly so tired of thinking about that dang lab that I don't really want to write anymore about it right now.
Well, I probably go study, or watch a football game. Happy days everybody!
So here I am today, we have had one long week of dates with Ethel. I'm ready to trade 'er out. Somehow I don't feel that she's going to let us do that quite so easily. We have basically spent an entire week looking at Ethel's arms. There is a lot of junk in there. All sorts of nerves and arteries..just lots of crap. It's all confusing, and clustered, and hard to get to, and we're just sick of it. We have been in the gross lab for 10 consecutive school days now, which is a long stretch, and we have one more until our test in about a week. I'm honestly so tired of thinking about that dang lab that I don't really want to write anymore about it right now.
Well, I probably go study, or watch a football game. Happy days everybody!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
M-Day Plus 70
Disclaimer: This post has little to nothing to do with actual medical school itself.
What would you do with 2 million dollars? That is the question I have for all of you who read this. Some of you might say you would build an orphanage, feed the hungry, or save the whales. Others might build a big fancy house, buy a nice Mercedes, or take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to some exotic location. These are all great things, but not what I would do if someone were to give me 2 million dollars right now.
What I would do, if someone were to give me 2 million dollars, is build a Buffalo Wild Wing here in Little Rock. Yup, that's what I would do. As some of you might remember in my first post, I was a little irate at one point when I discovered that Little Rock did not have a Buffalo Wild Wings. So, I took it upon myself to do a little research into the franchising costs for such a place. It turns out that it costs anywhere between about 1.25-1.75 million to open a Buffalo Wild Wings in Arkansas. So, if anyone would like to make me about the happiest man in the world right now, feel free to donate 2 million dollars to my cause. I'll take checks, the paper kind or the big cardboard ones. I'll even accept cash. I rather enjoy the sound of someone opening a briefcase full of money. I think that may be one of the coolest things in life that I will most likely never ever experience is a briefcase full of money being opened. Oh well I suppose, but anyways, think about it folks. I would most definitely give you free wings and drinks.
Other random stuff to write about today. I think I may have finally found a church which is exciting after a 2 month hunt. I will still keep my eyes open for other possibilities but I think I may have a near winner. I did come to a rather cool realization at church this morning. There were people giving praises for various things in their lives and it seemed as if at least half of them pertained to some sort of medical condition and how God worked through the doctors to heal them. This is really cool to think about because I will have the opportunity to be a visible instrument of God. Pretty neat if you ask me. All the more reason to ground my faith where it ought to be.
Well, that is all I have for now. We have an embryology quiz tomorrow. It should be a doozy. For those of you who don't know what embryology is, it's how babies are made. I never knew how it was done before...and before you all give me grief about this one too, I would be willing say that 99-100% of you who read this don't know either. On that note, I'm signin' out.
What would you do with 2 million dollars? That is the question I have for all of you who read this. Some of you might say you would build an orphanage, feed the hungry, or save the whales. Others might build a big fancy house, buy a nice Mercedes, or take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to some exotic location. These are all great things, but not what I would do if someone were to give me 2 million dollars right now.
What I would do, if someone were to give me 2 million dollars, is build a Buffalo Wild Wing here in Little Rock. Yup, that's what I would do. As some of you might remember in my first post, I was a little irate at one point when I discovered that Little Rock did not have a Buffalo Wild Wings. So, I took it upon myself to do a little research into the franchising costs for such a place. It turns out that it costs anywhere between about 1.25-1.75 million to open a Buffalo Wild Wings in Arkansas. So, if anyone would like to make me about the happiest man in the world right now, feel free to donate 2 million dollars to my cause. I'll take checks, the paper kind or the big cardboard ones. I'll even accept cash. I rather enjoy the sound of someone opening a briefcase full of money. I think that may be one of the coolest things in life that I will most likely never ever experience is a briefcase full of money being opened. Oh well I suppose, but anyways, think about it folks. I would most definitely give you free wings and drinks.
Other random stuff to write about today. I think I may have finally found a church which is exciting after a 2 month hunt. I will still keep my eyes open for other possibilities but I think I may have a near winner. I did come to a rather cool realization at church this morning. There were people giving praises for various things in their lives and it seemed as if at least half of them pertained to some sort of medical condition and how God worked through the doctors to heal them. This is really cool to think about because I will have the opportunity to be a visible instrument of God. Pretty neat if you ask me. All the more reason to ground my faith where it ought to be.
Well, that is all I have for now. We have an embryology quiz tomorrow. It should be a doozy. For those of you who don't know what embryology is, it's how babies are made. I never knew how it was done before...and before you all give me grief about this one too, I would be willing say that 99-100% of you who read this don't know either. On that note, I'm signin' out.
Friday, October 16, 2009
M-Day Plus 68
So today was a rather informative day for Ethel and her fellow companions, however, I should probably fill you in on what happened on D-day plus 67 first (this would be yesterday...). Now I should warn you, I will include some technical detail in this post. I do this partly so that it helps me to remember it and also because hey, it just makes me sound smart! So get your Wikipedia handy and let's get to it!
Yesterday was a looong day. It started with lectures/tutorials at 8:00 in the morning and concluded at 5 when we "wrapped up" our 4th date with Ethel. Haha, "wrapped up!", get it? We literally have to wrap her up after we're finished with her in a big cloth and plastic sheet! Oh boy, I crack myself up sometimes. Anyways, yesterday we took a little more skin from her and give her some more of a weight reduction procedure. We skinned the arms down to the wrists so that we could see the cephalic, basilic, and median cuboidal veins of the forearms. In addition we observed her superficial branch of the radial nerve, the dorsal branch of the ulnar nerve, and the lateral and medial cutaneous nerves of the forearm. This was pretty exciting and was quite the delicate procedure. Not the type of thing you do with a mallet and chisel. But this was yesterday, it's in the past baby!
Today was fairly quick and simple. This was nice since this is now our 5th day in a row of gross anatomy labs and we will have another run of 5 more next week. Today we cut into Miss Ethel's shoulder. We observed her deltoid muscle, her Teres major and minor, her supra- and infraspinatus, and also her axillary, supra- and sub-scapular nerves. We also viewed her circumflex arteries and veins and her suprascapular arteries and veins. This was pretty neat, but this wasn't the greatest find of the day.
When we got into lab today there were sheets posted on the wall. No, these weren't grades, or the list of those who made the team. These sheets contained information as to how Ethel and her fellow friends had passed. Yesterday I made the hypothesis that Ethel had died of some form of heart condition. Whilst skinning her arm we noticed that she had been bruised pretty badly from IV's and that she had a little knot tied in her skin up towards the anterior of the right side of her neck, suggesting she may have had a central line. This all indicated she had been in the hospital prior to passing. I speculated a heart condition, and today it was confirmed by the little white paper on the wall that Miss Ethel indeed passed from "cardiac arrest". RIP my fair lady. Perhaps we should have hit you up about that dietary counseling a little sooner, or maybe at least studied your diet diary a little better.
In other news, we also got to learn of some of the other conditions with which the people around the lab had died of. The most interesting had to have been one that was caddy corner to our own Miss Ethel. This man, in all seriousness, passed of a methamphetamine overdose. I guess all the commercials I've been seeing lately didn't reach him in time. This did raise some of my own questions though. My main one is, who makes the call on whether your body is used for science? I mean, I was always under the impression that this was a voluntary thing. But I ask you, what meth addict would plan to donate his/her body to science? Interesting question to ponder if you ask me.
One last thing for the day. I know I'm about to open the Pandora's Box of ridicule and grief with this but I just have to share it. I witnessed today, the greatest anus I have ever seen in my life. Now, I haven't....really seen one, or any...ever...before except for the others cadavers' in this lab. But, this anus was probably close to 2x the diameter of a Kennedy half dollar! Hooooly crap! The sheet says this person died of natural causes too...Now I could make all sorts of comments about this, but I'll just leave you to ponder it on your own.
Yesterday was a looong day. It started with lectures/tutorials at 8:00 in the morning and concluded at 5 when we "wrapped up" our 4th date with Ethel. Haha, "wrapped up!", get it? We literally have to wrap her up after we're finished with her in a big cloth and plastic sheet! Oh boy, I crack myself up sometimes. Anyways, yesterday we took a little more skin from her and give her some more of a weight reduction procedure. We skinned the arms down to the wrists so that we could see the cephalic, basilic, and median cuboidal veins of the forearms. In addition we observed her superficial branch of the radial nerve, the dorsal branch of the ulnar nerve, and the lateral and medial cutaneous nerves of the forearm. This was pretty exciting and was quite the delicate procedure. Not the type of thing you do with a mallet and chisel. But this was yesterday, it's in the past baby!
Today was fairly quick and simple. This was nice since this is now our 5th day in a row of gross anatomy labs and we will have another run of 5 more next week. Today we cut into Miss Ethel's shoulder. We observed her deltoid muscle, her Teres major and minor, her supra- and infraspinatus, and also her axillary, supra- and sub-scapular nerves. We also viewed her circumflex arteries and veins and her suprascapular arteries and veins. This was pretty neat, but this wasn't the greatest find of the day.
When we got into lab today there were sheets posted on the wall. No, these weren't grades, or the list of those who made the team. These sheets contained information as to how Ethel and her fellow friends had passed. Yesterday I made the hypothesis that Ethel had died of some form of heart condition. Whilst skinning her arm we noticed that she had been bruised pretty badly from IV's and that she had a little knot tied in her skin up towards the anterior of the right side of her neck, suggesting she may have had a central line. This all indicated she had been in the hospital prior to passing. I speculated a heart condition, and today it was confirmed by the little white paper on the wall that Miss Ethel indeed passed from "cardiac arrest". RIP my fair lady. Perhaps we should have hit you up about that dietary counseling a little sooner, or maybe at least studied your diet diary a little better.
In other news, we also got to learn of some of the other conditions with which the people around the lab had died of. The most interesting had to have been one that was caddy corner to our own Miss Ethel. This man, in all seriousness, passed of a methamphetamine overdose. I guess all the commercials I've been seeing lately didn't reach him in time. This did raise some of my own questions though. My main one is, who makes the call on whether your body is used for science? I mean, I was always under the impression that this was a voluntary thing. But I ask you, what meth addict would plan to donate his/her body to science? Interesting question to ponder if you ask me.
One last thing for the day. I know I'm about to open the Pandora's Box of ridicule and grief with this but I just have to share it. I witnessed today, the greatest anus I have ever seen in my life. Now, I haven't....really seen one, or any...ever...before except for the others cadavers' in this lab. But, this anus was probably close to 2x the diameter of a Kennedy half dollar! Hooooly crap! The sheet says this person died of natural causes too...Now I could make all sorts of comments about this, but I'll just leave you to ponder it on your own.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
M-Day Plus 66
Hey ya'll, I've decided to start a blog. I probably should have done this 66 days ago, since that was the official start of medical school, or as I like to refer to it, "the battle for my sanity", but as you know life happens.
To put everyone up to date, this is the 66th day of medical school, hence the phrase "M-Day Plus 66". I am enrolled at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences studying to be a doctor of some sort. It's a pretty nice school in a town that is slowly winning my favor. As some of my closest friends know, I was rather alarmed when I learned that Little Rock, AR did not have a Buffalo Wild Wings. This was a minor defeat for my sanity. To balance this defeat; however, I had managed to discover some very nice bicycle trails around the city. So I guess you could say I'm in somewhat of a neutral, entrenched stance at this point.
Last week we were off for the entire week for our fall break. This was very nice as it helped to cap off our first two classes, biochemistry and cell biology. They went well and I enjoyed them, but now it's on to the real business.
Two days ago we started gross anatomy with classes, and teachers, and students, and dead people. Some people prefer to call these dead people cadavers. Whatever floats your boat. We met this person two days ago and found a lively, well-nourished, elderly female. Well, maybe she wasn't so lively, or well-nourished...then again maybe she was. Anyways, it was exciting, we got to meet Ethel. Our group has yet to decide on a name, but I like Ethel so that's what she shall be for now. Ethel has lots to teach us and I was just ecstatic to meet her. As you might expect, we did all the normal things you might expect to do on a first date with a lovely lady, we skinned her back. I realize this sounds like a pretty selfish endeavor so far, after all, she does give us a lovely pile of skin from her back. However, it was not an entirely one-sided affair, because after she donated her skin, we trimmed all of her unwanted fat from her backside. And believe me, there was a lot of it. This part was pretty gross actually. The lab was very fun for about the first hour, but eventually I decided it would have been better had Ethel just exercised a little more. We might have to have a consultation about this later. Anyways, that was day 1. Off to a good start.
On day 2 Ethel was apparently not so happy with us. She seemed to let off this odor to indicate that she did not approve of our first date. Nevertheless being the persistent little boogers that we are, we decided to get to know her a little better. This time we decided to get a little more intimate with her and give her a deep muscle massage..or..removal. She allowed us to observe her trapezius muscle and her latissimus dorsi along with a dozen others deep in her back. And then we cut them out. Yup. We don't waste no time with our women here in Arkansas. So, that was about the jist of yesterday.
Today, ok now we're finally caught up on this blog. Today was the most exciting. We got to see what makes Ethel dance...somewhat literally. We had to look at the spinal cord and some of the surrounding nerves. In order to do that, however, you must get through the spine. How do you do that you might ask? Well, you take this big mallet, and this big chisel, and you go....WHACK! And then you repeat. I have to say it's a little unnerving at first, but after a while..man that became fun. I struggled at first, I was just trying to lightly tap it until one of our instructors showed us better. After that point...well, my lab group swears I have anger management issues because I was just whacking the crap out of that spine as they said. Although they chose to use more explicit terms. I haven't turned on the explicit content warning on this blog so I will spare you the details of some of those comments. Anyways once we broke through the vertebral column we got to see the spinal cord. Man that was cool! And Ethel, who once was a pain in the rear because of all her fat, turned in to a beauty! There were people from all over the lab coming to check her out. They need be reminded, however, that she's ours. They can't take our Ethel! We're just startin' to get to know each other!
Well, that's about it up until now. Miscellaneous items...there is a sweet coffee shop nearby I shall visit again soon. Um, our power went out yesterday from sometime in the afternoon til about 10 at night due to some idiot deciding the building's transformer box should be low enough to the ground to collect water and flood. Um...that's about it. We'll let ya know what happens tomorrow!
To put everyone up to date, this is the 66th day of medical school, hence the phrase "M-Day Plus 66". I am enrolled at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences studying to be a doctor of some sort. It's a pretty nice school in a town that is slowly winning my favor. As some of my closest friends know, I was rather alarmed when I learned that Little Rock, AR did not have a Buffalo Wild Wings. This was a minor defeat for my sanity. To balance this defeat; however, I had managed to discover some very nice bicycle trails around the city. So I guess you could say I'm in somewhat of a neutral, entrenched stance at this point.
Last week we were off for the entire week for our fall break. This was very nice as it helped to cap off our first two classes, biochemistry and cell biology. They went well and I enjoyed them, but now it's on to the real business.
Two days ago we started gross anatomy with classes, and teachers, and students, and dead people. Some people prefer to call these dead people cadavers. Whatever floats your boat. We met this person two days ago and found a lively, well-nourished, elderly female. Well, maybe she wasn't so lively, or well-nourished...then again maybe she was. Anyways, it was exciting, we got to meet Ethel. Our group has yet to decide on a name, but I like Ethel so that's what she shall be for now. Ethel has lots to teach us and I was just ecstatic to meet her. As you might expect, we did all the normal things you might expect to do on a first date with a lovely lady, we skinned her back. I realize this sounds like a pretty selfish endeavor so far, after all, she does give us a lovely pile of skin from her back. However, it was not an entirely one-sided affair, because after she donated her skin, we trimmed all of her unwanted fat from her backside. And believe me, there was a lot of it. This part was pretty gross actually. The lab was very fun for about the first hour, but eventually I decided it would have been better had Ethel just exercised a little more. We might have to have a consultation about this later. Anyways, that was day 1. Off to a good start.
On day 2 Ethel was apparently not so happy with us. She seemed to let off this odor to indicate that she did not approve of our first date. Nevertheless being the persistent little boogers that we are, we decided to get to know her a little better. This time we decided to get a little more intimate with her and give her a deep muscle massage..or..removal. She allowed us to observe her trapezius muscle and her latissimus dorsi along with a dozen others deep in her back. And then we cut them out. Yup. We don't waste no time with our women here in Arkansas. So, that was about the jist of yesterday.
Today, ok now we're finally caught up on this blog. Today was the most exciting. We got to see what makes Ethel dance...somewhat literally. We had to look at the spinal cord and some of the surrounding nerves. In order to do that, however, you must get through the spine. How do you do that you might ask? Well, you take this big mallet, and this big chisel, and you go....WHACK! And then you repeat. I have to say it's a little unnerving at first, but after a while..man that became fun. I struggled at first, I was just trying to lightly tap it until one of our instructors showed us better. After that point...well, my lab group swears I have anger management issues because I was just whacking the crap out of that spine as they said. Although they chose to use more explicit terms. I haven't turned on the explicit content warning on this blog so I will spare you the details of some of those comments. Anyways once we broke through the vertebral column we got to see the spinal cord. Man that was cool! And Ethel, who once was a pain in the rear because of all her fat, turned in to a beauty! There were people from all over the lab coming to check her out. They need be reminded, however, that she's ours. They can't take our Ethel! We're just startin' to get to know each other!
Well, that's about it up until now. Miscellaneous items...there is a sweet coffee shop nearby I shall visit again soon. Um, our power went out yesterday from sometime in the afternoon til about 10 at night due to some idiot deciding the building's transformer box should be low enough to the ground to collect water and flood. Um...that's about it. We'll let ya know what happens tomorrow!
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