So it has been a while since I blogged and I have quite forgotten everything that happened in the last few days. But for the sake of keeping track of what is going on and for the sake of those who want to know what is going on in my world (which I am starting to think only exists in my head) I am going to try and piece it all back together.
I believe on Tuesday I went to class and we had family members of body donors talk to our class. It was really interesting. They told us all about why they donated and how it affected the family and everything. I thought it was interesting how they didn't care if we knew all about our donors or not except in how it affects us. They seemed to believe we should only be protected from knowing our cadavers if it helps us feel less emotional and more ready to learn in lab. Other than that they figured it would be fine for us to be able to read a biography about our cadaver if we so chose. I would so choose. I am really curious about Stan. I would like to know his real name and what he did and how big his family is. I have become much more callused towards the general public and I wonder if this isn't a product of how I have been forced to dissociate from Stan. I cannot be close to him, but I cannot disrespect him so I have to just be emotionally distant. I understand we are supposed to be callused towards death so we don't freak out everytime a patient dies because they do that quite often. However, I think I need to be able to emotionally connect within my profession. I think I am over-reacting though and it will all get better after anatomy when I work with living patients and can emotionally connect with my profession again. So don't listen to me because I am crazy. I believe this is a product of both the stress, insomnia, and time spent in a lab of cadavers.
Tuesday night I got home and realised I couldn't keep my eyes open and took a 3 hour nap. After my nap I really didn't want to study so I went to my cousins' soccer game. They are identical twin tornados on the field. They were rocking it and the other team tripped them as much as possible so they wouldn't get embarassed 1000-1. My cousins won 4-2. After the game I had Wendy's and a frosty!! I really enjoyed it as opposed to my typical diet of fruit and vegetables. I also hung out with my cousins and aunt and uncle. They gave me these new chocolates that are caramel pumpkin spice. All I have to say is delicious. I could have eaten ten. And I did, but I saved two for ninja if I remember to take them home this weekend.
So Wednesday was the longest day of my life ever in the world. Not really, but I had an 8-5 day with no lunch break. It started out with lab where I finally got to dissect. I did I good job if I may say so myself. I got all of the structures out that I needed and didn't sever anything I wasn't supposed to. Then over lunch I had my wilderness medicine elective where we learned all about altitude sickness. There were a lot of things in there which seemed counter-intuitive. Like that people who are in great shape are more likely to get acute altitude sickness. I know! It seems so backwards. So when you train a lot you really train your lungs to not react to low levels of oxygen and so it takes your body longer to acclimatize. This is because you are oxygen deficient so often when you exercise that your body doesn't think it's a big deal until well after your couch potato friend has started to acclimatize. We also learned that there is no shred of evidence showing that drinking water helps with altitude sickness. Really altitude sickness and dehydration have the same symptoms and so usually when drinking water fixes the problem you were just dehydrated. However, you are more likely to be dehydrated at altitude which is why they can be confused with one another so often. If you have altitude sickness you should still drink a lot of water though because the action of kidneys helps you acclimatize so peeing a lot will help you get better. So it kind of helps to drink water in a round about sort of way. We also learned that there are more than a significant number of studies currently showing that Viagra is the most effective drug in treating acute altitude sickness. I was really tired from my long day so I have no idea why Viagra is so effective because the explanation made no sense to me. But maybe someone could look it up and let me know. After all of that I had 4 hours of lecture in the afternoon. However, I skipped the last two hours and watched them later at home. I spent the afternoon trying to get rid of my tan lines and complaining about how I didn't want to study.
Wednesday night I picked up one of my friends from the airport. She didn't have a cell phone so I was a little concerned about finding her there because we couldn't really call each other. I parked to wait and within 2 minutes one of the parking police people came up to tell me to move my car or get a ticket. I really wanted to pretend I was deaf because I knew it would take over half an hour to get an intepreter there and by then my friend would have shown up. But since I was talking on the phone to ninja it really wasn't an option. So she told me I had to take a loop around the airport. It only took a minute. So I ended up taking a few more loops before my friend called from a pay phone to tell me she would come out soon. So I decided I would just park and if they felt like lecturing me again I would pretend I was deaf this time even though they knew I was not just to waste time. Anyway, she got there before any more police people and so it all turned out fine. Then we stayed up way too late chatting.
This morning I had class at 9, but I skipped it because it was another MSA lecture in a track I don't like and I just went in from 10-12. So this afternoon in lab they are cut the cadavers just below the arms and then cut that top piece in half down the middle. So poor Stan will be in three pieces when I go in tomorrow morning. I hope tomorrow that they split us into two groups and I can just dissect from 8-10 and then go shower and sleep until our head and neck physical exam practice at 3. After class I went home and my friend and I walked to eat and realised it was a pretty long walk. Once there we extended our lunch just to avoid the walk back as long as possible. On the way back we took the route through the middle of campus and it was much shorter. I also took her on a tour of our school. It is actually really big. I know I should have noticed before now, but I have been too busy with all of the anatomy stuff to really notice I have a huge campus and that there is more to life than the lecture hall and the lab. So I pretty much got lost in my own library. Don't worry, we eventually got out. Eventually. Once back we went on the porch and were total creepers. We looked into as many apartments as possible and watched everyone in the courtyard and coming back from classes. We also saw Spider-squirrel climb up a vertical wall. Now at least I know how they get up on my 3rd story porch to eat all my bird seed. They go and get bitten by a spider in a radioactive lab and then come by for a snack. Not cool genetically altered squirrels. Not cool.
So we got really hungry way too late at night and decided to go to The Shoppe. The Shoppe is an amazing cupcake bakery/cereal bar on a really bad section of Colfax. On our way there we drove past an entire block taped off with police tape. There were also about 8 police cars. I have no idea what happened, but it made me feel safer because I knew for the next few blocks no one would try anything funny. So we got to The Shoppe and got delicious cupcakes. I had chocolate pumpkin spice with chocolate milk and my friend had apple cinnamon with coffee. It was fantastic. I would risk my well being on Colfax after dark any day for a taste of those delicious creations. Then we got more gourmet food at Taco Bell. I miss Taco Bell so much. Really, you never know how delicious fast food is until you never really get to eat it anymore. I would have hugged my burrito like the Cheetos at the store, but the burrito was paid for and mine so I just ate it rather than gaining warmth from holding it close. Oh Cheetos, I will return for you someday. So on the school front, I have memorized the first two of the cranial nerves and most of the bony landmarks of the skull. I must say that is impressive for an hour. Now I only have ten more nerves and all the blood flow and relationships to get down and I will be set. I am just SO excited to get this learning over with so I can just be focused on the wedding. I am more than ready for this transition phase to be over. I mean, who likes being all alone when there is a ridiculously handsome guy willing to live with you? Don't say a straight man because I think we both know ninja is handsome enough that even the straightest of men wants to live with him. And don't get any ideas about trying to take him. Ninja is mine and soon I'll put a ring on him to prove it.
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