Today was lung dissection, and I discovered another reason why people should not smoke and should workout:
Last session, we took out the saw and bone cutter and cut through the clavicle and the ribs. Sawing was pretty difficult, but it was nice to hear the last crack of the ribs. When we took off the front of the rib cage, we discovered two huge lungs that were black. Ah...smoker? How unfortunate. I also managed to cut the diaphram when I thought it was the parietal pleura.
Our role today was to take out the lungs and check it out. We looked at our lung and wondered why it was so small compared to another table's, which slipped right out. Well, according to our manual, the lung should slip right out if you cut the bronchi and the nerves/arteries/etc. After cutting all the nerves, arteries, nerves, muscles, diaphrams, and whatever...I decided to be careful and use my fingers to pry the lung away from the thoracic cavity. After a little prying, the lung still refused to budge, so we moved to using scissors. Soon, scissors didn't fit into the whole, and we moved to scalpel. Before long, we were digging our fingers as deep as possible (I'm sure I got cadaver juice on my wrists), and we pulled as hard as possible. Actually, SW pulled on the lung in one direction while I pulled the body in the other direction - all to no avail. Stupid lung! Why won't you come out?!!! We decided that after this, we should work out for the sole purpose of pulling out organs during anatomy. With more cutting, and eventually moving to using a chisel, we pulled the lung out - in 3 pieces. oops.
There you have it, another reason not to smoke: make med school student dissection not a test of how fit we are.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Medical School: Oops, I cut another nerve
Anatomy: how the heck are you supposed to tell what's a nerve, an artery, a vein, or just plain ligament?
Dissection is so much fun! I just love the smell of formaldehyde and the large quantities of cadaver juice we recover each day, and most of all - I love the fat that just oozes out of that 2 inch thick fat layer. yum. If it was unclear, that was sarcasm. But truth to be told, various group members keep on associating certain cadaver parts with food items! No!!! I will never be able to eat those things again... :(
The other day we tried to find the various branches off the axillary artery, which includes pectoral, acromial, clavical, and deltoid branches. I also wasn't aware that the arteries were white colored. I thought arteries had blood! Ugh, what makes it worse is that the nerves are about the same, but have different names. Great! And, it's exactly like an artery, but probably a tiny bit more translucent.
Well, to prevent me from cutting things, I decided to use my fingers. But to my dismay, I was pulling at the pectoral minor muscle and accidentally pulled the whole muscle off. oops!
Dissection is so much fun! I just love the smell of formaldehyde and the large quantities of cadaver juice we recover each day, and most of all - I love the fat that just oozes out of that 2 inch thick fat layer. yum. If it was unclear, that was sarcasm. But truth to be told, various group members keep on associating certain cadaver parts with food items! No!!! I will never be able to eat those things again... :(
The other day we tried to find the various branches off the axillary artery, which includes pectoral, acromial, clavical, and deltoid branches. I also wasn't aware that the arteries were white colored. I thought arteries had blood! Ugh, what makes it worse is that the nerves are about the same, but have different names. Great! And, it's exactly like an artery, but probably a tiny bit more translucent.
Well, to prevent me from cutting things, I decided to use my fingers. But to my dismay, I was pulling at the pectoral minor muscle and accidentally pulled the whole muscle off. oops!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Medical School: Cutting out the breast and skinning a person
Anatomy started before the first day:
As a typical eager medical student, a few of us decided to venture into the morgue (okay, not really the morgue, just the classroom with 30 some cadavers) to check out our bodies. Well, not really OUR bodies, but the bodies of those people who generously donated their body to science. The three of us were at different tables, and we all wanted to see what our cadavers looked like. The first one was pretty small, but distinct breasts revealed it to be a female. Next one was about the same size, and also seemed to be female. Then we got to mine, and I was thinking "Holy moly! It's huge!" We were sure it must have been some man who probably had an unhealthy diet of some sort.
First day of dissection neared, and once again being the eager medical student, I checked out the morgue again and found descriptions of the body. The person wasn't yet 50, had diabetes, and to my astonishment, was female. ah...very sorry body.
Then there was lecture. Oops. He talked about how we should treat the bodies as our first patients, and how we should be respectful. Boy...I felt bad saying my body was huge. :( hm...I wonder if the person wouldn't have minded me making cadaver jokes. Oh boy, what would medical students say when they see my body when I donate it? Smelly? It's interesting that they shave off their head and bloat their face to make them not so recognizable.
It cut like hot knife through butter:
So we put on our stinky scrubs and goggles, and we, once again eager medical students, pulled back the sheets that covered the bodies. There was a huge pool of cadaver juice (not the kind you want to drink). I made the first incision. But b/c the body had such a thick layer of fat, I didn't know where exactly to start or end b/c I really couldn't feel the bone at all. Lab teammate said go kind of deep b/c skin is probably tough. As we peeled back the skin, it turned out to be about 1 mm thick. oops.
But when we had to remove the fat layer, oh boy, that was maybe 1 to 2 inches thick. Imagine squishing this yellow gooey fat btwn your fingers. Message to all: if anything, please don't eat so much so that the medical student who dissects your future donated body wouldn't have to labor through your thick layer of fat. There are no other reasons to eat healthy.
I was so eager to dissect that I decided to dissect myself:
There is a first for everything right? Well, I got to be the first to cut my finger with my scalpel. Great move, huh? It's tiny, but there's nothing worse then feeling a pinch, hoping you didn't cut yourself, then taking off your glove and finding a drop of blood ooze out of the cut. Hopefully I won't get cadaver disease.
As a typical eager medical student, a few of us decided to venture into the morgue (okay, not really the morgue, just the classroom with 30 some cadavers) to check out our bodies. Well, not really OUR bodies, but the bodies of those people who generously donated their body to science. The three of us were at different tables, and we all wanted to see what our cadavers looked like. The first one was pretty small, but distinct breasts revealed it to be a female. Next one was about the same size, and also seemed to be female. Then we got to mine, and I was thinking "Holy moly! It's huge!" We were sure it must have been some man who probably had an unhealthy diet of some sort.
First day of dissection neared, and once again being the eager medical student, I checked out the morgue again and found descriptions of the body. The person wasn't yet 50, had diabetes, and to my astonishment, was female. ah...very sorry body.
Then there was lecture. Oops. He talked about how we should treat the bodies as our first patients, and how we should be respectful. Boy...I felt bad saying my body was huge. :( hm...I wonder if the person wouldn't have minded me making cadaver jokes. Oh boy, what would medical students say when they see my body when I donate it? Smelly? It's interesting that they shave off their head and bloat their face to make them not so recognizable.
It cut like hot knife through butter:
So we put on our stinky scrubs and goggles, and we, once again eager medical students, pulled back the sheets that covered the bodies. There was a huge pool of cadaver juice (not the kind you want to drink). I made the first incision. But b/c the body had such a thick layer of fat, I didn't know where exactly to start or end b/c I really couldn't feel the bone at all. Lab teammate said go kind of deep b/c skin is probably tough. As we peeled back the skin, it turned out to be about 1 mm thick. oops.
But when we had to remove the fat layer, oh boy, that was maybe 1 to 2 inches thick. Imagine squishing this yellow gooey fat btwn your fingers. Message to all: if anything, please don't eat so much so that the medical student who dissects your future donated body wouldn't have to labor through your thick layer of fat. There are no other reasons to eat healthy.
I was so eager to dissect that I decided to dissect myself:
There is a first for everything right? Well, I got to be the first to cut my finger with my scalpel. Great move, huh? It's tiny, but there's nothing worse then feeling a pinch, hoping you didn't cut yourself, then taking off your glove and finding a drop of blood ooze out of the cut. Hopefully I won't get cadaver disease.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Med School: Beginning
Wow, summer came to an end WAAAAAY too quickly:
8/7: fly from Yulin to Beijing (visited Olympic stadiums - so awesome!)
8/8: fly from Beijing to Seattle
8/9: fly from Seattle to St. Louis
8/11: Start medical school orientation
And ...no longer pre-med! woot!
So many people to meet! So many things to buy! Get settled. The dorm I'm living in is called "Olin." So it's pretty nice in general, except for two things:
1) There is wireless everywhere EXCEPT for Olin, which is literally attached to the medical school
2) There are kitchens on every odd floor (yes! I'm on the 7th!), but there is only a refrigerator in the basement and the penthouse (11th floor) - what the heck?!! So there are dish washers in some of the kitchens, but no freakin' fridges? Ahhhhhhh!
Time to get fridge:
Ah...another lesson learned! I found that many students got new fridges from stores that were more than $100, and so I searched on Craig's list. I love Craig's list. I called the number listed, and the first time she said she'd meet me, she turned out to have a doctor's appointment. Next time, she wasn't around. 3rd time, she had lupus, and finally...I managed to get to her on the 4th try.
There were supposed to be fridges that were $50 somewhere nearby, so I asked, and it turned out that those were sold, but there was something for $35 that had a bit of rust on the handle. Being a frugal Chinese, I decided to go for the cheap fridge. And $20 delivery fee wasn't something I wanted to pay, so I asked a friend to help me retrieve the fridge.
Sadly, when we got there, not only did the fridge not fit into the car, but we mistakenly let some rough person try and shove it in the trunk, which was OBVIOUSLY way too small, which ended up scratching the car. And it was a new car. ah!!! Stupidity runs in my blood! Now instead of paying that $20 delivery fee, I get to pay a buttload of money to fix the scratches! Sadness. Lesson learned: don't be a cheap Asian.
WashU is NOT a pedestrian friendly city; conclusion: get a bike:
Craig's list! Yes, I found a bike on Craig's list for $35. Called the guy, said to come right away, and he'd be there for the next 2 hrs. While on the phone, I searched up the bus route, and found it was possible, so I rush out the door to catch the bus, and prepared to ride the bike back. But on the way back, found that the bus stop didn't seem to have the bus number I wanted. Uh oh. I also forgot the directions. So I could only resort to going back to Olin, and attempt to call people who might give me a ride.
On the way back, I saw a car drive out of the Olin parking lot, and saw somebody waving to me. I waved back, not really knowing who it was, and realized he was a first year I had met earlier. Without thinking properly, I thought perhaps they are going my direction! Perhaps they can give me a ride! Being friendly med students, they offered to give me a ride, and as I sat down, I realized I didn't even know the driver. Did an awkward introduction, and they drove me off to get a bike. Very nice people indeed...
My bike is so great that a thief will steal my lock before they steal my bike. Cost of bike: $35; Cost of lock: $30
First time bowling; score: 126
I signed up for a musical: ack!
I played soccer: ball hit me in the face, hard...twice.
I played basketball; I shot at the hoop...zero times.
I went to a bar and had three sips of "Angel on Acid" (tastes like ice cream)...and felt my Asian genes (aka Asian flame) taking over.
8/7: fly from Yulin to Beijing (visited Olympic stadiums - so awesome!)
8/8: fly from Beijing to Seattle
8/9: fly from Seattle to St. Louis
8/11: Start medical school orientation
And ...no longer pre-med! woot!
So many people to meet! So many things to buy! Get settled. The dorm I'm living in is called "Olin." So it's pretty nice in general, except for two things:
1) There is wireless everywhere EXCEPT for Olin, which is literally attached to the medical school
2) There are kitchens on every odd floor (yes! I'm on the 7th!), but there is only a refrigerator in the basement and the penthouse (11th floor) - what the heck?!! So there are dish washers in some of the kitchens, but no freakin' fridges? Ahhhhhhh!
Time to get fridge:
Ah...another lesson learned! I found that many students got new fridges from stores that were more than $100, and so I searched on Craig's list. I love Craig's list. I called the number listed, and the first time she said she'd meet me, she turned out to have a doctor's appointment. Next time, she wasn't around. 3rd time, she had lupus, and finally...I managed to get to her on the 4th try.
There were supposed to be fridges that were $50 somewhere nearby, so I asked, and it turned out that those were sold, but there was something for $35 that had a bit of rust on the handle. Being a frugal Chinese, I decided to go for the cheap fridge. And $20 delivery fee wasn't something I wanted to pay, so I asked a friend to help me retrieve the fridge.
Sadly, when we got there, not only did the fridge not fit into the car, but we mistakenly let some rough person try and shove it in the trunk, which was OBVIOUSLY way too small, which ended up scratching the car. And it was a new car. ah!!! Stupidity runs in my blood! Now instead of paying that $20 delivery fee, I get to pay a buttload of money to fix the scratches! Sadness. Lesson learned: don't be a cheap Asian.
WashU is NOT a pedestrian friendly city; conclusion: get a bike:
Craig's list! Yes, I found a bike on Craig's list for $35. Called the guy, said to come right away, and he'd be there for the next 2 hrs. While on the phone, I searched up the bus route, and found it was possible, so I rush out the door to catch the bus, and prepared to ride the bike back. But on the way back, found that the bus stop didn't seem to have the bus number I wanted. Uh oh. I also forgot the directions. So I could only resort to going back to Olin, and attempt to call people who might give me a ride.
On the way back, I saw a car drive out of the Olin parking lot, and saw somebody waving to me. I waved back, not really knowing who it was, and realized he was a first year I had met earlier. Without thinking properly, I thought perhaps they are going my direction! Perhaps they can give me a ride! Being friendly med students, they offered to give me a ride, and as I sat down, I realized I didn't even know the driver. Did an awkward introduction, and they drove me off to get a bike. Very nice people indeed...
My bike is so great that a thief will steal my lock before they steal my bike. Cost of bike: $35; Cost of lock: $30
First time bowling; score: 126
I signed up for a musical: ack!
I played soccer: ball hit me in the face, hard...twice.
I played basketball; I shot at the hoop...zero times.
I went to a bar and had three sips of "Angel on Acid" (tastes like ice cream)...and felt my Asian genes (aka Asian flame) taking over.
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