tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20494904722165277722024-03-13T10:29:15.192-07:00Medical School: The battle for my sanity.Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-83650011366931977892010-08-28T21:41:00.001-07:002010-08-28T22:16:13.486-07:00M-Day Plus 384Howdy guys! It's been a long time as I've been reminded on numerous occasions. I ran out of stuff to say for a while, but now, I've had some happenings take place that I just can't ignore. So, without further ado, I'mmmm back!!! (At least temporarily)<br /><br />A lot has happened in the past few months. I passed first year which was pretty sweet. Always gotta like not having to do that junk over again. There's a lot of moments people often look back to and say, "I wish I could relive that". Not only do I not say that about first year, I make that comment about anything PRIOR to first year for the simple fact that I do not want to REPEAT first year!<br /><br />After passing, I had a nice long summer where I decided to ride my bicycle across Iowa. This was pretty sweet. I did over 425 miles on my bike, and DID NOT LOSE A SINGLE POUND! Thank you Mr. Pork Chop! (And of course your pie, too!)<br /><br />Now, I have been back to school for about 3 weeks. I have currently moved out of the dorms and am living in a gargantuam sized house. It happens to be on Princess street so it has been appropriately named, The Princess Palace. It is an incredible 4BR 3BA house with a humongous back yard! It came with a newly furnished kitchen, 2 living rooms, and a compound bow in the attic. Oh, there was also a creepy looking trunk at the end of the attic, placed right in the center. Unfortunately there was NOTHING in it...but we'll have to find something to put in it when we leave. (Insert dark laugh here)<br /><br />So, the craziest thing has happened to us on Friday. You remember when you were in school (possibly you still are and maybe you still do this), and you had a test that you wished would just get canceled for the most absurd excuses? I remember in college I always had this evil idea that if I were a professor, I would schedule a test for Wednesday, and then as they show up for the test tell them that it was going to be on Friday instead. My logic was, if you spent the time cramming over a 3-4 day period that you would normally do in the 1-2 day period before a test, that you would do better and learn more. I would always wish a test would be postponed, and still strangely do from time to time.<br /><br />Well, Friday I experienced my moment. We had our first med school exam of the year, a rather large one really, and I found myself ironically wishing that I had just a couple more days to prepare. I sat down to my computer and ran through all those crazy thoughts and ideas of how the test might just be moved to another date, just so I could have a little more time to study. Well, I got my wish! After sitting down to the exam, we answered questions for about an hour when all of a sudden the whole system crashes! In a weird bit of irony, the test was down, and I find myself in that one opportunity I've waited my whole life for, a few extra days to study. I didn't even have to fake having the swine flu! So now our exam is Wednesday afternoon.<br /><br />So, I have been given my second chance. A few extra days of hard studying. You might be curious to know how I've spent my Saturday preparing. My response, by watching two movies and playing plenty of ping pong on my new ping pong table located in one of our 2 living rooms!Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-83417080212075165372010-04-22T21:53:00.000-07:002010-04-22T22:05:10.700-07:00A long time in to school...Man it's been a long time since I've written on here. There has been so much that has happened that I don't really know where to start.<br /><br />Back in late February we finished off Physiology and Microanatomy. I thought that was the happiest moment of my life, and then I finished Gross Anatomy like 2 weeks ago. Ethel and I weren't friends towards the end. We had to cut open her face and dig out her eyes and brains. Trust me, I hated it just as much as she did I am sure. The head is some complicated stuff I have to say. That simple little cold and sniffle you complain about when you hit the clinic is a pain in the butt to me. <br /><br />Other news...gosh I should keep up with this thing. We've had lots and lots more physical exams that we have learned lately. Recently we had to visit the VA hospital here and take a full H&P (History & Physical) of a veteran. For reasons pertaining to HIPAA regulations I cannot divulge too much information on this subject other than that it was a rather interesting experience. If I didn't know better I would say that geriatrics might not be the field for me. I guess I'm not patient enough to listen to the hyperbole of a story about your life guys. Sorry.<br /><br />At the present moment I'm wasting my life away on this blog while I wait for the new Buffalo Wild Wings to open up. Should be coming soon. Hallelujah! <br /><br />There have been quite a few things that have brought joy to my life lately. I am pretty ecstatic with the KC Chiefs right now. Good work on drafting Eric Berry. Also, thanks for screwing up Kansas....HAHAHAHAHAH. This might be the worst post I've ever done. Ever. I'll do better next time.Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-70437875309614250432010-02-15T18:34:00.000-08:002010-02-15T18:53:45.907-08:00M-Day Plus 190Dieting sucks. It is incredibly difficult to deprive one's self the things that are so abundant in life. Especially when those things include food. It's easy to not eat much when you are out in the wilderness, because well, there just isn't that much food to be eaten. Unless of course you are able to kill a boar with your bare hands, but I'm going to just assume that at least most of the US population hasn't had the same amount of training as Rambo had received. But alas, here I am, not in the wilderness, but attempting to not eat the abundance of food which is perched in my pantry. Or at least as much of it. Fortunately though in a land of plenty I am blessed with an abundance of something else, technology. I have discovered an app for my sweet little iPhone that helps me to keep track of the calories I've burned/consumed. It's pretty handy and has helped me to discover something amazing! If I exercise, I can eat more food! Hallelujah! Now if only the weather would cooperate around this place for me to be able to get outside and do this.<br /><br />Speaking of weather, we have had 3 snow days now here in Little Rock. This is nuts. What the heck? That's not supposed to happen here! It has been fun, though. We have had snowball fights and chili for our bellies. Unfortunately all this snow has hampered my exercise/training. I'm supposed to be riding my bike across Iowa this summer. I guess it should be flat though so I probably have not much with which to concern myself.<br /><br />Not a whole lot has happened lately at the med school place. I've quit going to probably half of my classes if not slightly more than that. Amazingly grades have improved greatly since I've begun to do this. We finished studying the kidney and pelvis a couple of weeks ago, leaving Ethel with about a month long break from us. We just have to make sure we give her a bath from time to time so that she doesn't smell too badly. At the present moment we're studying hormones and sex. It's pretty interesting, although I have a hard time understanding the women. I guess dad was right. I'll never understand. <br /><br />The olympics are on right now in case those of you who live in a cave were unaware of that fact. Although if you live in a cave you probably aren't reading this. Maybe so, who knows. I think it's crazy how I can barely stand on skates but someone can twirl and flip and GO BACKWARDS ON SKATES! These folks are nuts. Well, happy winter everybody.Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-90273460836350162932010-01-29T09:55:00.000-08:002010-01-29T10:09:30.597-08:00M-Day Plus 173Four years I spent in the blistery, blundery, wet, and frighteningly cold winters of Kansas City at my wonderful alma mater. Four years of inches upon inches of snow. Four years of threats and follow-throughs of ice, sleet, and freezing rain. Four years of sub-freezing temperatures and sub-zero wind chills and some of the most brutal winters of my young fragile life and NOT ONCE did I EVER get a snow day. Sure we had people cancel class every now and then, but never by a hardcore science professor. Those hours of hoping and praying for an ice storm of monumental proportions to cancel an organic final were all for naught. But alas, in the supposed-to-be warmer climate of Little Rock, Arkansas, at the higher educational institution of UAMS medical school, I have a snow day. YIPPEE!<br /><br />Today there is just a wee bit of ice on the roads but enough to cancel classes. We're all pretty excited as it gives us one extra study day for our exam on Monday. We are about to wrap up our pelvic dissections and will not have anymore dates with Ms. Ethel for a whole month.<br /><br />I should probably include in this post an apology to our dear Ms. Ethel. I said some comments in my last post that were questionable in some peoples' minds. Ms. Ethel has been a lovely specimen for us and I would like to extend an apology to her should I have offended her. We are done with our probing of your private parts Ms. Ethel.<br /><br />Zane and Hunter were still apparently not satisfied of my introduction of them in my post here. So I would also like to say that they are a couple of pretty cool dudes. But, unfortunately for them, that's <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> what she said.<br /><br />Amy demands an apology and a correction for my statements of her in my last post. I may have exaggerated a little bit about her being Indian. She's more like a Vietnamese. However she could have maybe been from a certain Indian Vietnamese tribe??? No person shall probably ever know the answer to that. So I will stand to make that correction. However I still stand by my other statements. Well I don't know much of anything else. Off to studying.Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-28001389320223311872010-01-24T19:07:00.000-08:002010-01-24T19:25:21.542-08:00M-Day Plus 168So I received some of the best news I've heard all year long the other day. Little Rock is finally getting a Buffalo Wild Wings. Jake was right. Life is Good!<br /><br />A lot has happened lately. We started school somewhere in the beginning of January. It's too long ago for me to recall. During those first couple of weeks we learned about poo. Our professor kicked off the entire unit by dancing around the lecture hall in a colon shaped tube spewing out what I assume were Tootsie Rolls. I didn't care to figure out what it was though. My friends had to restrain me that day. I was ready with my knife to pounce on him and perform an operation. As is my apparent calling in life. (Don't understand this? Read one of my previous posts.)<br /><br />So while studying poo we got to look at everything that makes poo, gas, and all the other fun stuff down there. We cut into Ethel's belly which remarkably didn't have much fat. Pretty surprising since the entire rest of her body was composed of only fat. There wasn't anything unusual in her belly I don't think. No nematodes, green army men, or hamsters in there. Must mean she had a relatively normal diet.<br /><br />After we looked at her belly we decided to gut her. Just like a fish. :) I love fishing. We cut out her gizzards so that we could "see them better". We had to go clean them out and prepare them for further viewing. In the midst of this process the small intestine almost went down the garbage disposal. This would have been pretty amusing in all honesty.<br /><br />Ok now, my lab group has been all up in my case for not having mentioned their names in my posts. They think I'm ashamed or embarrassed by them. I think this is a good time to mention them. Zane and Hunter are a couple guys in my lab group. I blame them for having almost lost the intestine down the garbage disposal.<br /><br />So that was a few weeks ago. This past week we have started a new unit. We have moved to the pelvis and perineum. What does this mean for gross lab and for Ethel? It basically means that we are in the midst of a 2 week rape session of Ethel. It's ok though because all of her friends around the lab are receiving similar treatment. Even the guys. We're actually pretty nice to her, relatively speaking. Some of her other friends had tree trimmers and saws taken to their legs and torso. Ethel is, well, mostly in tact at the moment.<br /><br />So there is a fourth member of our lab group I didn't mention earlier. Her name is Amy. She is Indian. She is the one responsible for most of the raping of Ethel. Pretty interesting if you ask me.<br /><br />Well this is all I know for now. Random news, I got a new bike which will be put to some good use in the near future.<br /><br />Also, I think this is very funny and a good point to end on. The Daytona 500 is on Valentine's Day this year.Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-69093457585455277642009-12-20T19:25:00.000-08:002009-12-20T19:43:04.941-08:00M-Day Plus 133Christmas Break!!!!! Holy crap it could not have come sooner. It's been a long time since I've posted on here. Sorry about that folks. I guess we ought to recap the past...2 months?<br /><br />So...life sucked there for a while. Microanatomy was, err...still is awful. We had a test on Friday right before break which had a fair chunk of that junk (<-- rhyme). I don't know if I have ever truly hated something as much as I hate microanatomy. It really is bad. Last Sunday as I was studying for the test I decided that if Microanatomy were a person that I would have little problem with killing it in the worst ways and spending the rest of my life in a federal rape me in the butt prison. That, my friends, is how much I loathe Microanatomy. I do not enjoy it and it keeps knocking me on my butt and laughing at me. So, what do you do when something keeps knocking you down? You smack it in the...uh...face. Yep, you smack it in the face. So what did I do with it and that test on Friday? I took a freaking club to it. And not just any club, a club with rusty ole spikes! It was a great test which was much needed.<br /><br />Ethel has had some more action these past few weeks. It's been getting a little more personal too. We just finished inspecting her lower limb, which means delving into her wonderful feet, calves, thighs, and of course, the butt! Grrrr..pretty hot stuff wouldn't you say? Ok, that was wrong on too many levels. But, I've already typed it so it's apparently impossible to change.<br /><br />Let's see, it's Christmas time! But, I think I've already said that. This must mean that I am running out of things to say. Well, have a happy holidays everybody and I'll do my best to keep posting on here more often. Ciao!Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-63556686970546168852009-11-11T19:54:00.001-08:002009-11-11T20:15:27.970-08:00M-Day Plus 94Happy Veterans Day everybody! Especially for all of you postal workers, bank employees, and students at UAMS! Yes that's right. For the first time in my life I was able to rightly honor my veterans by taking a day off from school. For all of the hard work and sacrifice of the men and women who are in or have served in our armed forces, it is only fitting that we honor them with a holiday. So how did us med. students choose to honor our veterans? Well I'll tell ya. We honored them with trivia night down at the pub! Yup, we thank all of our veterans for their hard work and sacrifice so that we could enjoy a wonderful mid-week day off from school and an excuse to take a trip to the pub. Is this a satirical post? Well, part of me thinks it should be, however, I would be lying if I said that part of me also wasn't sincerely happy for having the day off. So, take it as you wish.<br /><br />That is about the highlight of medical school at the moment. We have had beautiful weather here in Little Rock for the past few days. It's hard to believe I am still wearing shorts, T-shirts, and sandals in mid-November. This rarely happened to me in late September in Kansas City, let alone November. So I've taken this opportunity to go for some bike rides. Pretty awesome if you ask me.<br /><br />Ethel has been retired for a little while. Last week we removed her heart and lungs and cut them open. Since then we have given her a rest. In other news, we are learning a lot of information about the heart at the present moment, including how to read an EKG...or at least we're supposed to be learning this. I have to say it's pretty rough. I almost like the looks of the straight flat line personally. It's much simpler to interpret.<br /><br />Well, I know little else at the moment so I shall go study. Again, Happy Veterans Day all!Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-32295795057420760302009-11-05T18:33:00.000-08:002009-11-05T19:24:03.090-08:00M-Day Plus 88So you know that story about Alexander and his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? I think most of us probably read it when we were kids. It was a great 30 something page book about Alexander and his awful day. Well, I think I could probably write an entire novel about this past week. They say that bad things come in 3's. Well, if that is the case, I don't know which one to call #1 or the first one and which one would have been the last one. The sad thing too is that it seems like once I find some glimmer of hope to squelch this awful week, that piece of hope gets crushed with a sledgehammer. I mean, let's put this into 20th century perspective. Imagine you're playing Pacman and you're just about to beat level 99 for the first time ever (or in my case level 1) and you have one dot to go, with no pacmunchers in sight. You have a clear path to this final dot, but then, all of a sudden, a glitch in the game changes that last dot into a freakin Pacosaurus Rex who chomps the living crap out of your Pacman!!!!!! That has been my week. Now I've delayed posting about this for quite a while because I don't normally like writing publicly about bad things in my life for the simple fact that I don't like to be down in my life nor do I want other people to believe I'm some gloomy dismal person. But alas, here we are.<br /><br />So Monday we had our first combined Gross Anatomy, Microanatomy, and Medical Physiology exam. For those of you who don't understand what I mean by the word "combined", this was a 3.5 hour, 155 question exam over 3.5 weeks of material from each of the aforementioned courses. And to top it all off, we had a 1 hour Gross practical exam in the afternoon which basically means that we have to go into the Gross Lab and identify tagged items on the bodies of the cadavers. So as you can see, this was a monster exam that requires studying. This, however, just sets the scene for my horrible week. I will now back up about 3 days or so.<br /><br />So on Thursday I think Little Rock recorded its 30th day of rain for the month of October by re-enacting the great flood from Genesis. For those of you who are observant, you will also notice that Thursday was the 29th day of the month of October and note that this was a monster hyperbole. And if you don't know what that word means....: www.wikipedia.org. So anyways, it rained, yes big whoop. Friday we had the day off to study for this monster exam. It rained some more, but most importantly I woke up with a sore throat. Now you see where this is going.<br /><br />I figured this sore throat would be nothing and proceeded to take vitamins and attempt to study my tail off. Well, Saturday comes, and things get much much worse. I had <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">swine</span> <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">flu</span>.<br /><br />Not really, but it makes me feel better by saying so. I did have a monster sinus infection that only proceeded to get worse and worse over the course of the weekend, and thus made studying more and more difficult. Well, Monday rolls around, and it turns out that Halloween decided to linger. The test was the worst test I've ever encountered in my entire life. That test made me it's butt pirate. For those of you who don't know what that one means....nevermind.<br /><br />Tuesday rolls around and I begin to feel a little better but not great. Turns out everyone did bad on the test as well, however, that doesn't change my grade any. Maybe I can atleast mow the grass here at UAMS someday if things don't work out. But anyways, I decided I would breakdown and visit the doctor though about my condition to just verify that it wasn't actually the flu. I tried to get in that afternoon, but to no avail. I had to wait until Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday afternoon rolls around and I head to our clinic on campus. I was seen by a 1st year resident who I think was somewhat intimidated by me. I don't know why, but his hand definitely was not very steady as the little otoscope was jammed in my ear. He evaluated me and came to the same conclusion I had come to which was that I had just had some sinus and congestion issues. He then proceeded to write me a prescription for Robitussin....which all of you saavy people might know is an over the counter drug.<br /><br />Another downer moment was the realization that I might be allergic to green tea. I had noticed I had developed a couple of rashes that started about the time that I began to drink this new type of tea and which seem to be aggravated with my further drinking of this tea. This is a bummer since I really enjoy this tea. Well, I mentioned this to the inexperienced doc who writes me a prescription for a steroidal creme that is not over the counter. This led to me having to deal with an incompetent Walgreen's staff for over an hour with no success. The mom and pop store across the street later completed the task in 10 minutes.<br /><br />So that's about the bulk of the awfulness of my week. Or at least of the stuff I care to mention on here. There have been a few upsides to this week though.<br /><br />In gross lab on Tuesday, we got to look at Miss Ethel's lungs. This meant that we had to get through the chest wall. As you might know, the chest has lots of ribs and bones. Soooo we took a hack saw to them :) And, to the clavicle, we used a tree trimmer :) :) This was fun. After we got the chest wall out we looked at her lungs and cut them out. Then on Wednesday we reached what our professor regarded as a monumental moment in medical school. We took out her heart. This was pretty neat I have to admit and a major step in our relationship with Miss Ethel. After all, in just two days time she has given me her heart and I in return, have left her breathless.Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-81175222879470798332009-10-27T20:22:00.001-07:002009-10-27T20:51:51.065-07:00M-Day Plus 79So 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />Ok, so here's where I issue the warning. WARNING for fragile eyes/ears/stomachs/vases...whatever is fragile.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />1. Colon / Rectal Surgery<br />2. Emergency Medicine<br />3. Anesthesiology<br />4. General Surgery<br />5. Radiology<br /><br />Ok....so, now that you've finished laughing and have made it past #1 on my list, let's review them in reverse order.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />4. General Surgery - This is pretty good. It is one of the things I have considered. So, good job aptitude test.<br /><br />3. Anesthesia - Again, another good option. Probably my most considered option as well.<br /><br />2. Emergency Medicine - I don't want to have to deal with the little green army dude in that kid's nose.<br /><br />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!Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-19320881249861811342009-10-24T09:05:00.000-07:002009-10-24T09:22:02.962-07:00M-Day Plus 76So 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Well, I probably go study, or watch a football game. Happy days everybody!Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-71703380827292090012009-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:002009-10-18T21:30:45.380-07:00M-Day Plus 70Disclaimer: This post has little to nothing to do with actual medical school itself.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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 <span style="font-style: italic;">doctors</span> 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.<br /><br />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.Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-90028333888083033592009-10-16T14:07:00.000-07:002009-10-16T14:37:05.022-07:00M-Day Plus 68So 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!<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2049490472216527772.post-59104394584134453362009-10-14T15:05:00.000-07:002009-10-14T20:59:18.874-07:00M-Day Plus 66Hey 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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!Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172060168185820613noreply@blogger.com0