Day 11+

Day 11 +
Before I left Toronto, several months ago, I used to spend time in the U of T library. I read and took brief notes on medical school books and documents that I could find. I came across a picture of a skeleton sitting down at a desk, analyzing a human skull. At the time, I found the image confusing and just plain weird. After speaking to a doctor, who was studying for his USMLE Step 2, I finally could at least understand the principle of the image – it alluded to the fact that we were humans studying ourselves. I think only now do I finally only superficially grasp what it means philosophically. The more time you spend in the anatomy lab, the more “normal” it appears to cut a dead human body. But, watching the anatomy professor perform a laminectomy (that is the removal of the laminae on the back of the spinal column to expose the spinal cord), with a hammer and chisel, was still a little nerve wracking, though incredibly interesting.
I feel so lucky to have the privilege to learn from the bodies, yet I notice the eeriness of doing so. Having the experience to palpate (that is, “touch”) the bodies, either in separating muscle, or removing layers of tissue/fascia (fat)/muscle, is an experience that I can’t easily explain. It is a combination of understanding that this is your opportunity to learn from a body, and secondly, momentarily forgetting that you are cutting a dead body.

We did our first real dissection on Monday. This was after spending essentially an entire weekend catching up on material. But before I knew it I was behind again. The experience of cutting up a human body for the first time was a new experience, as far as I knew, for the entire group. We had an older woman to dissect, the only woman in the bunch, and several students confidently began cutting her skin, dermis and superficial fascia (fat) off her back to expose the muscle. I was excited, because I was given the opportunity to do so myself, and participated in exposing some of the back muscle. I kept in tow with Dr. P who meandered around the bodies and pointed out structures and asked questions to unprepared students (like me!). But being beside him truly helps you learn the material, as he gives you information, and then later quizzes you.
Monday was overwhelming, and I spent the evening, partially in the lab studying bones and muscles of the back, memorizing origins, insertions and actions, but I stayed up far too late. As a result, Tuesday was a really hard day. I got next to no sleep (after having no sleep on Sunday night). I was sleeping in class before I knew it. I was upset and stressed out by lunch. A conversation with the lecturer was no more reassuring, so I dealt with my insecurity, and feelings of failure and inadequacy myself, which was appropriate.
Lab was an interesting day, we cut open the breast tissue, looking at the components that made up the glands of the breast, and then we opened the chest. We exposed the muscles of the thorax, pulled them back and then (gulp!) cut all the ribs and opened the rib cage to expose the upper portion of the diaphragm, lungs and mediastinum, that is the area between the lungs which contains the heart. This was our most exciting dissection yet. I followed Dr. P and he remembered my name, which was great! And though I knew none of the structures, he explained them to me and before I knew it I walked out of there with an understanding of the arterial and vein system. Dr. A helped us identify the holes in the side of the lung after the removal of the lung. Holding a lung has to be one of the coolest things in the world, it was so much bigger than I thought it would be! Pointing out this fact to my sister dashed most of my homesickness – where else could I do something so incredible!
Later I also had a realization about the contents of the anatomy notes and content. I won’t go into details here because I don’t have much time, but an old professor here wrote out the bible of Anatomy notes over a year ago. I have had this document for weeks, scratch that, at least a couple months. I had not been using them at all and finally discovered the pure genius of them on Tuesday. Studying from them and my Netter’s was never so productive! Forget this ridiculous cue-card making I have been doing all this time! I only wish I had realized this a week ago. I will hopefully have time to make up for lost time the rest of this week and weekend too. I went to bed earlier last night, so hopefully I will be primed for class today. I want to be 100% for the heart today!
I still miss you all but I think that I am happier to be at medical school than I have in the week previously. Accepting the fact that you will constantly be behind can be reassuring in some ways. You just keep trying!
However, I have given up on Hyperbaric Medicine. I don’t think I can manage another class on top of this one. Besides, I would be incredibly unhappy if I managed to not do well on a main class as a result of work in Hyperbaric.
I had some wonderful pineapple this morning that I cut with my own two hands, but now I am feeling a little unwell. Uh oh, not so good. Oh and one more update, the bugs are next to gone, thanks so much to our landlord for helping us so much in that regard! What a nice lady.
I may not write until after the first “block”, that is the first set of exams on all the material we have studied thus far. I will try my best, but it will be a couple days full of studying and time with cadavers. Thank God for the library and twenty-four hour anatomy lab hours!
Interesting things:
1. The anterior and posterior intercostals spaces (spaces between the ribs) have different arterial supply and venous draining systems (blood supply systems) clearly making my life difficult.
2. The internal thoracic artery can be used to bypass a carotid artery that is obstructed. It is attached to the aorta and then past the blockage on the heart. We saw that a heart specimen that had bypass surgery and how the artery was attached.
3. I smell like formaldehyde all the time. It sucks.
4. Breast cancer occurs most often in the upper lateral quadrant (upper side closest to your armpit) and no-one knows why.
5. Strawberries cost 5 dollars here. I wish they put the prices on the food so I would know how expensive they were before I bought things.
6. We have fat everywhere. It even covers the heart.
7. I am scared of my anatomy professor. I have to go to his office at 7:15 am tomorrow and tell him the arterial and venous supply of the thoracic cavity and the heart itself.
:D