Carla Visits!!

Carla's parents surprized her with plane tickets to Edmonton for this weekend!! So I've been visiting with Carla for the past two days! So far I have showed her off to all of my roommates, given her a tour of campus (something I haven't even done myself), showed her the hospital, and we've gone out for dinner twice (including going out for Chinese food with about 20 meds from my class to celebrate the Chinese New Year). I found it funny to learn that the menu in Mandarin is not the same as the menu in English. The meals are different and significantly less expensive. I only paid $11 for a 4 course meal with something like 10 dishes.

Unfortunately that night Carla got really sick. It started with GI upset, and by Saturday morning had somehow evolved into a nasty cold. I have seriously never been as sick as Carla is right now, in my whole life. She has been in bed all day long. Its too bad because we had big plans for today, including shopping at West Ed and clubbing with some of my friends. Well at least I got to take care of my girlfriend for a weekend (which I will probably be repaid for in some form or another ;-) and get in more studying than I originally would have. Hopefully Carla will be all better tomorrow morning...

On another note, I have been getting discouraged over the past couple of weeks in the anatomy lab. What started out as an intensely interesting experience, has quickly changed into a monotonous, required task. I think the problem is that the cadaver I am dissecting is very obese, so I spend a huge amount of time (i.e. at least 3 hours so far) simply cutting away fat. And this fat is everywhere, attached strongly to all of the vessels, and basically prevents you from observing anything in the anatomy without carefully teasing away the fat with tweezers. Hopefully my disections for the next course (Gastroenterology) will not be so tedious.

FAAMSCAR Banff Conference

I had an amazing weekend at Banff. The first year med students at UofA and UofC got together for a retreat at Banff for "student wellness". This trip started with getting drunk on a bus for a 7 hour trip to Banff while playing strip poker with about 10 people at the back of the bus (the game ended when Phil striped down to nothing but his socks...). After arriving in Banff, we checked into our rooms, had a welcoming dinner/lecture and then headed out to the local clubs for some dancing all night. The next morning i slept in and eventually dragged myself to a couple of lectures: the first was a meditative Yoga session, while the second was a discussion on wellness and relationships in medicine. After which I shopped with some friends at downtown Banff, and watched a movie at the local theatre. The next morning most people went skiing, while I instead hit up the hot springs (that picture is the entrance to the springs). After a nice 2 hour dip in the pool, I walked back to Banff (40 minute walk!!), had a latte downtown and enjoyed another 7 hour bus ride back to Edmonton!!

I really enjoyed the chance to get to know some of my classmates better, and interact in a non-academic environment.

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.