Of late, UMMC has been at the center of certain ethical controversy. A physicians' group has filed a complaint about the university's treatment of pigs in a lab for medical students. The day the article was on clarionledger.com was the day before I was supposed to do said lab. Now having done it, let me just say, IT WAS AWESOME.
On the day of, I was freaking out. I have a tendency to get light-headed around certain medical procedures, usually weird things. I thought I was partly over it, since I was fine all last semester, but some friends were talking about drawing each others' blood for practice at the Jackson Free Clinic last weekend, and somewhere between "she didn't stabilize her hand" and "I thought the needle would poke back through the skin," I had to leave the room. So it wasn't looking good for the pig lab. All day long, I went through waves of panic and self-encouragement. I prayed quite a bit.
Right beforehand, I'm getting calmer as the physiologist that ran my side of the room was explaining what would go down. Then we walk in and the barn-like smell wasn't as intense as I was expecting, but my legs were feeling a little like Jell-O. The first cut on the pig, and I have to look away. The room only spun a little, though, and I recovered quickly, but I'm thinking to myself, "This is not good. This is just the beginning."
But once I came back, I was fine for the rest of the lab. I'm pretty sure it was the praying. My apprehension went away completely, and I'm pretty sure nervousness was the only reason I got dizzy in the first place. From then on, the lab was just really interesting. I got to feel life under my hands! A beating heart, breathing lungs - these cannot be replaced by a simulator; lungs are really mushy. Also, I prefer that my first go-round with a defibrillator and heart massage be on a pig rather than a person. That's all I have to say about the legal issue.
The best thing to come from this lab is the fact that I'm no longer concerned about surgery rotations in my 3rd and 4th years. Now I know I'll be fine. God is good.
In other news, our school days have been considerably shortened without dear old gross lab. Today, I only went from 10-12, so I intend to buy some curtains this afternoon before settling in to study.
Before I go measure my windows, I would like to share this week's handy-dandy tip.
If you knock out a tooth (or your child, because they lead with their faces), pick up the tooth, rinse it off with water (do NOT brush it), and shove it back in. Then get to a dentist. If you don't get the tooth in within an hour, the connection between tooth and gum starts to break down, so it won't heal as strongly.
Happy Monday!
Erin
Monday, January 24, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
knowing things
Knowing things is my favorite. And now, if you bring me your EKG, I should be able to tell you what's going on. That's right. I know stuff. Or, at least, I should.
This weekend I did not study very much, but instead chose to hang out with Mama at home. There were cookies involved. I did get to go to my first basketball game of the season, and since Auburn is not very good, it was a good one. I got to see State friends too, which is always a plus.
In Dr. Manning vacation news, we did not go to Utah. I was looking forward to Utah. I've never been to Utah. But in the next lecture, he had skipped a few pictures. We went to Japan and Hawaii that day. They were quite beautiful, but I still want to know what Utah looks like. Now I'll never know. We currently have a different lecturer in phys, but Manning comes back on Friday, so maybe I'll get to see Utah then. I can only hope.
Tomorrow starts Biostatistics. I do not know what that means. I only know it's at 8:00 in the morning, so I'd better go if I'm going to Zumba, shower, and go to sleep by 10. Ciao, bella gente
This weekend I did not study very much, but instead chose to hang out with Mama at home. There were cookies involved. I did get to go to my first basketball game of the season, and since Auburn is not very good, it was a good one. I got to see State friends too, which is always a plus.
In Dr. Manning vacation news, we did not go to Utah. I was looking forward to Utah. I've never been to Utah. But in the next lecture, he had skipped a few pictures. We went to Japan and Hawaii that day. They were quite beautiful, but I still want to know what Utah looks like. Now I'll never know. We currently have a different lecturer in phys, but Manning comes back on Friday, so maybe I'll get to see Utah then. I can only hope.
Tomorrow starts Biostatistics. I do not know what that means. I only know it's at 8:00 in the morning, so I'd better go if I'm going to Zumba, shower, and go to sleep by 10. Ciao, bella gente
Thursday, January 13, 2011
i'm alive, i promise
You would think that with two weeks off from school and an extra day for the Ice Apocalypse that I would have updated you, but there really wasn't much to say. I went home, slept, watched TV,read normal books, spent a couple days at the cabin, slept, watched TV, read more books, saw friends when State went back to school. Neither super-eventful nor super-productive, but wonderful. Friends, family, food, reading, sleep...these are the things I needed. I had a great Christmas with fun presents, as always, and I hope you did too. But we now return you to our regularly-scheduled programming.
Physiology is the name of the game now, which is wonderful. It's an engineering class! There are graphs and charts and vectors, things that are comfortingly familiar. We're studying the heart and cardiovascular system right now, topics I learned under Dr. Cathcart in bioengineering. If I saw him in the near future and it were socially acceptable, I would kiss that man. The only reason my brain isn't already on overload is his teaching. It helps that I really like the subject, but I think that's thanks to him as well. Plus, our current teacher, Dr. Manning, is precious. He takes 1-2 minute breaks in the middle of each lecture to show pictures from his vacations so we can rest our brains. And today we went along the Columbia River gorge, down which our family drove during our trip to Oregon when I was in high school. He showed a picture of the bridge over Multnomah Falls and I got really excited because I've been on that bridge!
Unfortunately, these trips through Wyoming, British Columbia, Washington, Nevada, etc., make me extremely jealous. But tomorrow we're venturing through Utah, so I'm looking forward to that.
Have I told you about my Spanish class? There is a group called La Sociedad de Español Médico (Medical Spanish Society), and of course I was all over that. I joined the advanced class since I have a Spanish minor from State, and it has been so fun. We had several meetings last semester, and last night we met to review the things we learned. Basically, we've gone over how to interview a patient. Not having known how to do this in English, I've learned way more than just Spanish so far. I feel like I now have a pretty good grip on what to ask of a patient in both languages now, so hopefully I will be more comfortable with that M3 year. The club recently received a grant to turn it into an actual class, including an opportunity to do a rotation in a Spanish-speaking country, which is really exciting.
In other news, I've apparently lost all ability to keep food upright. Monday, my Diet Dr. Pepper flew right off my tray onto the cafeteria floor, spilling on both tray and floor, and generally causing problems. The food remained untainted, however, unlike today. Today, we were trying to fit too many people around the table, and my tray was hanging dangerously far over the edge. Soon thereafter, said tray flipped over said edge onto ME. There was gravy involved. And more DDP (that's what we call Diet Dr. Pepper on the street). Fortunately I had on a cardigan-type garment that I used to cover up this little mishap. I hope I haven't developed some sort of nervous condition. Maybe that will be a symptom when we get to psychiatry. "Dangerous around food. Do not let patient use cafeteria trays." Maybe next week will be better. Incidentally, that's how I view all symptoms of any illness I have. I go all Scarlett with my, "I won't think about that today. I'll think about it tomorrow."
I just realized I've missed fifteen minutes of Friends! It's a miracle I can watch it on my $5 cable, so I try to take every opportunity so they don't take it away from me. Until next time,
Erin
Physiology is the name of the game now, which is wonderful. It's an engineering class! There are graphs and charts and vectors, things that are comfortingly familiar. We're studying the heart and cardiovascular system right now, topics I learned under Dr. Cathcart in bioengineering. If I saw him in the near future and it were socially acceptable, I would kiss that man. The only reason my brain isn't already on overload is his teaching. It helps that I really like the subject, but I think that's thanks to him as well. Plus, our current teacher, Dr. Manning, is precious. He takes 1-2 minute breaks in the middle of each lecture to show pictures from his vacations so we can rest our brains. And today we went along the Columbia River gorge, down which our family drove during our trip to Oregon when I was in high school. He showed a picture of the bridge over Multnomah Falls and I got really excited because I've been on that bridge!
Photo: multnomahfallslodge.com
Unfortunately, these trips through Wyoming, British Columbia, Washington, Nevada, etc., make me extremely jealous. But tomorrow we're venturing through Utah, so I'm looking forward to that.
Have I told you about my Spanish class? There is a group called La Sociedad de Español Médico (Medical Spanish Society), and of course I was all over that. I joined the advanced class since I have a Spanish minor from State, and it has been so fun. We had several meetings last semester, and last night we met to review the things we learned. Basically, we've gone over how to interview a patient. Not having known how to do this in English, I've learned way more than just Spanish so far. I feel like I now have a pretty good grip on what to ask of a patient in both languages now, so hopefully I will be more comfortable with that M3 year. The club recently received a grant to turn it into an actual class, including an opportunity to do a rotation in a Spanish-speaking country, which is really exciting.
In other news, I've apparently lost all ability to keep food upright. Monday, my Diet Dr. Pepper flew right off my tray onto the cafeteria floor, spilling on both tray and floor, and generally causing problems. The food remained untainted, however, unlike today. Today, we were trying to fit too many people around the table, and my tray was hanging dangerously far over the edge. Soon thereafter, said tray flipped over said edge onto ME. There was gravy involved. And more DDP (that's what we call Diet Dr. Pepper on the street). Fortunately I had on a cardigan-type garment that I used to cover up this little mishap. I hope I haven't developed some sort of nervous condition. Maybe that will be a symptom when we get to psychiatry. "Dangerous around food. Do not let patient use cafeteria trays." Maybe next week will be better. Incidentally, that's how I view all symptoms of any illness I have. I go all Scarlett with my, "I won't think about that today. I'll think about it tomorrow."
I just realized I've missed fifteen minutes of Friends! It's a miracle I can watch it on my $5 cable, so I try to take every opportunity so they don't take it away from me. Until next time,
Erin
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