Anatomy

Anatomy has finally started! On Friday we had our first anatomy lecture, which involved using pencil crayons to colour in most of the anatomy of the chest. It was insanely fast paced. Our anatomy prof is absolutely amazing -- definitely one of the funniest profs I've ever looked at / listened to.

After this introduction we were taken up to the cadaver labs and introduced to our cadavers. That day all we did is basically stand over the bodies and expose their chests. I was definitely more anxious than I thought I would be for the uncovering of our bodies. I think it was just the big work up to the event (i.e. all of the lectures on professionalism, death and dying, respecting the wishes of the donor, etc.). And also the fact that it stinks in the anatomy lab like formaldehyde and phenol.

All of the anxiety I felt on Friday was definitely gone by this afternoon however. Today was our first day of cutting. We cut through the skin along the sternum and the costal angles along the rib cage. Its crazy how easily a scalpel will cut through flesh! We then proceeded to cut "finger holes" in the chest wall so we could pull the skin off and cut away the underlying superficial fascia (fat). It was awesome! We continued to dissect the pec major muscles. Its amazing how tough nerves are! Blood vessles rip very easily, but the nerves are like tough threads. We had our hands deep inside the body, underneath the pec majors, feeling around for the lateral pectoral nerves. It was so cool!

Now I'm not so sure that surgery would be that horrible of a position. I would still like to have patient contact in whatever specialty I end up in, so up until this point I hadn't really been considering surgery.

Endo Ender

Here's a pic from the med party at the Rum Jungle the night of the Endocrinology final exam. That is my "dancing" shirt. For this party the med class arranged to have limos pick us up from the hospital and take us out to the club at West Ed. The Rum Jungle is the largest club in Canada and has one of the largest sound systems in North America. Its probably my favorite club in Edmonton so far (I'm not sure what the usual crowd is like, because I've only been there on pub crawls and med parties).

Catch and Release Squirrel Fishing

This is a funny story: This Christmas while visiting home in Victoria my dad and I went on an adventure. A couple of days earlier my dad had baited his "squirrel-trap" with peanut butter because he noticed a squirrel hopping around our yard. I'm not sure why my dad exiles all squirrels from our property, but it has something to do with the possibility of them eating insulation or something like that. We ended up taking this squirrel for a car ride with us, up to the summit of the Malahat (10 miles away from home) where it was released into its new habitat. I figure it will only take a week before it finds its way back home.

Winning Gingerbread House/Cathedral

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Originally uploaded by alphageek101.

Isn't this insane. It took a group of 2nd year meds 26 hours to complete this gingerbread model of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Notice the illuminated stained glass windows (apparently made from melted Jolly Ranger candies).

New Layout

I'm avoiding studying, so instead I've redesigned the layout of my blog. My new plan is to post photos on the right, and to post mainly text in the main part. I found this new website called Flickr which is awesome for posting photos on the net. It has a nice program for posting multiple pics at once, and you can even just email attached photos in order to have them posted. So much better than Picasa, which is what I have been using up to now.

New Semester

This semester I will finish off the endocrinology course I'm currently in, and start the CPR block (cardio, pulmonary, renal). I'm looking forward to CPR because thats when we start anatomy (this link will take you to some sweet dissection videos)! I will probably buy my own human dissection kit sometime this week. Nothing major like buzz-saws and corkscrews, just some forceps, scissors, and scaples.

Cutie

Isn't my girlfriend beautiful? She is not really happy to have braces again, but that just means that she'll have perfect teeth by September!! I wish Carla was living over here but instead she is going to move into her mom's house for a semester. I can't wait until she is living with me with those perfect teeth!

Very Very Bad Day

Wow. I only had 2.5 hours of lecture this morning. So I went to school all bundled up and proceeded to the men's med locker room to put away all my stuff. I suppose during that 2.5 hours somebody cut through my lock, went through my stuff and took my wallet and palm pilot. FUCK!!

Lets see, wallet had all of my credit/bank cards, $200, most of my ID, and some receipts. My palm is probably worth $600 new, and contains every little detail about my entire life. Including where I'm going to be every 10 minutes for the next month, as well as every detail about my identity (they'd have to dig deep for that). Unencrypted info would include where I live, where I buy my food, what groceries I need, what music I listen to, what classes I have when and where, where I get my hair cut and when, and basically what I've done every single day for the past year and a half. That's kinda scary.

So now I'm stuck without any money or any way to get money, no ID, and the guy who stole my crap knows everything about me. Oh and he has access to my building now. Hmmmmm....

This is especially frustrating because my stuff was taken out of the med student locker room in the hospital, which is only accessable through 2 doors. One door has a 5 digit numeric code, and the other you have to swipe your keycard to gain access. My 60-digit combo lock was also secured on the locker at the time. So it really doesn't get much more safe than that (you would think).

On the bright side (very dimmly lit side...) maybe I'll get a newer model palm pilot!!! That would be fun. I think maybe the Palm Tungsten T5.

Vickie

Don't I have a cute dog? This is Vickie.

Holidays in Victoria

Ahhhh I'm back in my room in Edmonton, after having spent 2 weeks with friends and family in Victoria. I definately needed a break -- just to relax and hang out with my girlfriend. We had lots of quiet evenings watching movies. I also had a couple of chances to drink with my buddies from highschool, which is always fun. For Carla's christmas present I bought her a digital camera, a Canon Digital Elph PowerShot SD200. I think she liked it!

I'm kinda sad to be home. My room is so small and the building is absolutely empty tonight. I've spent the past 2 weeks in a super busy huge house, with cousins (1, 2) and aunts and girlfriends everywhere! And to come home to absolutely silence is definately a change. The only person I can talk to is my blog :(

My only regret this holiday was not having a more spectacular New Year's. But that being said there really wasn't much going on in Victoria. All my friends were at other friend- of-a-friend-of- a-friend's parties, so Carla and I just hung out a my place playing video games and sleeping. I definately recommend playing GTA: San Andreas if you haven't already -- its amazing!!

I've decided as of this post to include more links in my posts, that should be fun.