First Anatomy Lab

For the past week or so, I have felt that the days have flown by (which could be a good or a bad thing depending on the angle). Good, because it feels like the semester will  be done before I know it. Bad, because the semester will be done before I know it. (Yes, I realize that I used the same point). Let me explain. I feel like I don't have enough time to finish what I need to complete, and then the following day I get an entirely new set of complicated material to consume. (And this is  before I even get done chewing, let alone swallowing and digesting the previous day's buffet). I see med school like a competitive eating competition. If you have a tiny stomach, learn to stretch it or it's game over. I will be PAC MAN. waka waka. :-)

This leads me to today, which has been my "longest" day of instruction yet. In this particular case, in a very good way. Today was my first day in lab with the cadavers. Now before you get all "eww gross" on me, I want to say that this has been a shining experience for me. I loved it. Before we did any dissecting, my group had to decide who will do what, each week for the remainder of the semester (switching off duties periodically). I of course, am really into this type of stuff so I eagerly volunteered to be a dissector today. Before we even got started, I managed to split 2 different gloves on my left hand. One  caught on my dissection tool and the other broke just being put on my massive Hercules-esque hands (I wish). So after my mishap, we took a look at the vertebral column of the cadaver. While trying to avoid any of the graphic descriptions ( I could have a field day describing texture and smells but I won't go there), we removed the portion of the "spiny" part of the back. If you feel your spine from the outside (go ahead and feel for it, you're learning something), the bony protrusions is called the "SPINE- US  PROCESS" (spelled phonetically for the non medical folk). So we basically took that off.  No, it didn't just pop off like K-NEX or LEGOS, it was removed carefully by a professional anatomist using a precision instrument.(I am not referring to myself, and I'm not that egotistical). Just think about what could cut a bone in two and that's the answer.
  Beneath the removed bone is the spinal cord. You can see lots of  stuff protruding from it like rami, ganglion, cauda equina, denticulate ligament, conus medularis etc. (for the medical people reading this, don't judge me for using dull terminology). So after identifying the structures, my group recorded  me explaining the different structures, where they are found, what they look like and so on. IT WAS AWESOME.  Sorry to disappoint  people but it is forbidden to take pictures of anything in the anatomy lab  (which I believe is a good thing) for the sake of the families of the cadavers. So I will not take pictures during anatomy.  This was a great learning tool for me and really helped me visualize what I had been learning all this time. I have a lot of respect for the people that donate their body to medicine, and thank you for giving me this chance to learn from you.

On a goofier note, now I'm going to add  some images of stuff  from the past few days.

 I met this guy studying in front of me. Its not too often I meet 

someone with red wings gear thousands of miles from home.

 A stall in the men's bathroom.

 Me in the green "Anatomy scrubs"

 My dinner yesterday, and lunch today. Spiral Mac n'cheese

 Image of my chicken sandwich from the shacks. I've gotten it 3 times now. It's about 1.5 times the size of the big mac. Take that McDonald's.

 This one needs an explanation. So I opened my loaf of bread and it smiled back at me. It was my bread's way of making me laugh, ( I added the third hole for the eye) and poof! Bread face.




 I hope you enjoyed my bread face!... and maybe my blog too.

So long!

Nick