Day 4, 5, 6 ,7 .....

Day 4

Another day, another anatomical adventure. I reflect today upon my second day at school in light of some good and perhaps not so good things to come.
Up early again, and after killing bugs in our residence in the evening. I decided to write a letter to our landlord. She was very understanding, as I dropped it off to her in person in the morning and promised to address the problem as soon as possible. I trudged down to school to find the class already full at 7:45am. Luckily, my roommate had kindly saved me a seat and I sat down relieved as she informed me that she had arrived at 7:15 to find the first four rows filled, and that there had been a line at the front door of the class apparently at 7am. We certainly have a bunch of keeners in our class. I need to be more proactive perhaps. I figured staying up late and studying was good enough. But evidently enough it is not. This school continues to feel undeniably competitive though students are all friendly to each other.
Today’s histology class covered cell transportation, proteins/enzymes and vesicle formations. Most were topics I had already studied, so the first part of the morning was relatively relaxed. The second half of the morning and afternoon we covered embryology, just the beginning , starting with gametogenesis, fertilization, and the first several weeks of development.
Lunch was nice with my roommates, we ate together as usual and chatted about the class. Our landlord stopped by and left a note about cleaning and spraying our apartment for bugs. These critters are tough though! We still found them in the kitchen and the rooms throughout the rest of the day. It is going to need another spraying, though the problem has been marginally reduced.

Then we returned to school for out afternoon class, through which I almost fell asleep – rescued by a small cup of coffee. The coffee is served in the smallest coffee cup I have seen in a long time. It is smaller than a “short” cup at Starbucks (which is essentially the small coffee at Starbuck’s they don’t advertise). I ordered a coffee from the cafeteria, and the attendant noted that it was my second cup of the day and feigned worry or smugness at my tiredness on the second day of classes. I should have told him the cups of coffee are overpriced for 1.50 and also, I studied very late. Well the reason I am defensive is because he is right. I need to get more sleep. It’s really important. I am just continually behind. Luckily I will be meeting with my mentor and another upperclassman tomorrow. Maybe they have some tips for me, or perhaps they know how to bend time and give me an extra couple hours of the day!
After class we grabbed the SUSOM bus off to Windwardside to go pick up groceries because today is Wednesday, food shipment day. Luckily it was there right as we were contemplating on taking a cab. Apparently the town has four groceries stores, we went to JC’s I think. I need to double check the name. Anyhow, they had great fruit and went a little crazy. I hope they will last for a bit because I got a lot of food. Oh dear. Anyhow, we got driven home with our food because we bought so much and it was wonderful.
When we got back, I relished in my treat of Nutella and banana. Oh how I have missed you, made some Vanilla Rooibos tea and packed up my gear for the library. My roommate and I sat together until 11pm, I took a Skype break, and now I am here talking typing this out. Time flies when you have lots to study, or sometimes it ticks by so perceptibly you would think it was going backwards...
I just need more time. I didn’t even get to look at Histology tonight! Well, the material was review, BUT STILL! Oh embryology though, I love it! Time to do some clinical application questions! I love those, but I have to get through this memorization and understanding first to apply the knowledge.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I saw some locals walking a cow down the street today! It was HUGE cow. Wow. That was an interesting event. It is so funny that on my off time I feel like I am living on a different planet.
Thanks for reading!

Day 5, 6, 7..... I don’t even know anymore – May 10, 2009

I have to skip forward a couple days because I haven’t been keeping up with things. School has gotten a lot busier, and I have been sleep deprived as it is, so I am going to have to start just giving highlights and interesting things.
In the past couple days we have finished off our introductory anatomy work and begun studying the back: muscles, vertebrae, nerves etc. Everyone in the class has been at the library/studying pretty much day and night to catch up on things, or at least the people I know.
I also had a couple of interesting events in the past little while, that were different from the usual grind. I met my mentor a couple days ago, she is very nice and in third semester here. She and a friend of hers were very supportive and passed on a lot of helpful information about testing, professors, workload, study habits, living on the island – you name it. But I think the greatest thing to hear was that what we were experiencing they had already gone through and survived. As I listened and was struggling to comprehend with four hours of sleep the night before, I was comforted in that they had passed – it was possible.
But along with the positivity there have been lots of rumours. I heard about how small the island was and I finally have started to understand. The most prevalent is that of people dropping out, various rumours of attrition combined with people failing classes and the increasing stringent nature of administration with students who fail to pass classes with the required 75%. All in all, my only mandate is to do whatever I can to put in as much time as possible, combined with getting to know professors and giving myself the opportunity to learn as much as possible.
As Dr. C told us this week, our mandate at SUSOM and as doctors is to, “Know your stuff and do not harm.” I think I can handle the first task, and I will try my best to know and learn as much as I can and the latter will hopefully come with the knowledge!
Other interesting things included our first trip to the anatomy lab. I think the only dead body I saw before this was at an open casket funeral. So, all decked out in our scrubs we waited outside the lab to be ushered in. We complimented each other on our scrub colour and choices (The more unique the better!). I tied my hair up like a ballerina to soak up less of the formaldehyde and we were ushered inside.
After a brief introduction, students began lifting cadavers out of cardboard boxes and onto dissection tables. They were wrapped in plastic bags and all of sudden the room was in a bit of a confusion. We had been given the instructions to, “Divide ourselves in groups of 16,” and then the groups attempted to collect their own body. Did they really think people could organize themselves? People are clamouring to be with friends and to be in the best group. Not such a good idea. I wanted to be with the smartest people, but I really don’t know who is the smartest yet, so instead I got with the group that was the most organized and had already gotten a body.
Before I go ahead with writing this, if you are squeamish, stop reading here!
The plastic bag came off and I finally had a good look at the person and body. He was an average-sized gentleman with his eyes closed he had a large scar across his face under his eyes. I later found out the reason for this, his brain had been previously removed for use of the neuroscience students in later semesters. Almost like a horror movie type scar. I have a deep respect for the human body, and as such to take stock of looking at person who has chosen (or their family have chosen on their behalf) to have their body donated to help students learn is something I sincerely appreciate. I think I thought I would be more shocked at the cadaver’s general appearance, but he looked more alive than I though and I tried to picture him how he might have been and looked. As it happened I was transferred to another group, and we are in fact going to dissect a woman.
The experience is exciting, I do believe the only downside is the smell. Wow and formaldehyde can really stick to you too! I felt like I smelt it for hours on my books and clothing. And the fluid that the cadavers are preserved in is quite disgusting I must say. But there is really no better way to learn anatomy as they all say.. The first day we just turned over the bodies, into the prone position, for dissection of the back.
One other interesting experience to mention is the “Welcome Back” party last night. I want to make this short and sweet because I am SO tired. It was fun, and I was happy I went because I met a lot of people. But I learned a couple of interesting things. The way they prepare drinks here is insane. I think there was more vodka than cranberry juice in my Cape Cod (Apparently alcohol is cheaper than water). I think it took me a good hour to finish my drink. I also really like the group of students I am in classes with and the ones I met at the party, they are a lot of fun. Back to the interesting stuff. The party was held at a place called Lollipops. We literally walked half way out of the valley to someone’s house that was semi-converted into a bar. The washroom still had a shower in it and had not been modified in any way in the conversion. The owners were very friendly, and welcoming, and the music wasn’t bad either! They had some extremely strong punch as well, wow! A fun night for sure!
Today was super boring, I had a wicked headache and spent the day in the library with my roommate, at least I am almost caught up and I only have to do the back muscles now, histology and hyperbaric. Woo hoo!
Interesting things continued:

1. I saw a huge rabbit today! And he wasn’t even really scared of me! He looked so fluffy and I wanted to pet him really badly. ☹
2. I found out that there is a fracture called a “Hangman’s Fracture” that is the actual fracture get when you hang yourself. It is caused when the body of the second cervical vertebrae is displaced over the third vertebrae. This breaks the vertebrae in half essentially and as far as I know severely compresses the spinal cord causing the nerves to your brain to be cut off as well. As I was told, this was the best way to go, because apparently if this does not happen, you suffocate to death which is worse....
3. A student has already left the school, I don’t know who. I found this out from running into one of my anatomy professors, and I now know the official number of students in our semester, 100 even now.
4. I think I will never get a tan here because I spend all my time in the library.

Happy Mother’s Day to all Mother’s out there! But especially to my Mom! I love you and thank you for being the wonderful person you are!