Day 9 (First anatomy lab experience)

Now we are going.  Keep the comments coming.  So far I've been asked if I was high (which I was not), been called a pussy (which I am not), and lectured by my mother (one day, she will learn what I have learned)  Positive or negative, I don't care, just comment...and honestly, leaving one anonymously is pretty weak sauce.

Tomorrow's Goals

Work out in the AM

Kick ass on the PAcE quiz (We'll know how I'm doing)

Give 3 random compliments (I'm actually going to succeed this time)

Today's Lessons

BIOCH - Enzymes

Physiology - Membrane Potential

Anatomy - Scapular Region

Interesting Fact of the Day

Did you know that your right clavicle is bigger than your left clavicle?  (Collarbone)  It is also the most fractured bone in the body (yes, I have fractured it, stupid Max McGuffey and Corey Keift [I was beating Max's ass in 3rd grade until Corey pushed me off of him and against the log cabin I went] It was probably the terrible air quality that did it to me [Lincoln Park has the worst air quality in the COUNTRY])  The weak point of your clavicle is at the 1/3 lateral portion because here is where the cartilaginous bone and the membranous bone converge during development.  Wow, now you are almost a doctor...like me :).  

Anatomy Lab

I was exposed to almost every type of basic surgery during my time as a Surgical Orderly at Mercy General.  I can't say that I've seen it all, or even close to it all, but I've seen a lot.  I loved it.  Surgery is amazing.  I can still remember the way I felt going into work, wondering what amazing things I was going to see that day.  Wondering if I'd see anything new, anything out of the ordinary.  It was my way of looking into the future.  Looking into my future.  I was able to see the human body in ways that very few people are afforded.  I can still see my first breast reduction.  It turns out it was also an enlargement.  It wasn't done the cosmetic way.  The incision was made below the breast and up and around the nipple.  The entire breast was pulled back.  All you could see was the yellow adipose (fat) tissue.  It took me days before I could look at breasts the same way.  I could have been yesterday when I saw my first beating heart.  I watched as they stopped it, and also got to see them start it back up again.  I was so excited that day.  I witnessed a miracle.  Not through God, but through science.  

Today, I saw my first set of cadavers.  The life was drained out of them.  The red blood turned to gray.  The warmth of the body was non-existent.  The skin resembled leather.  The muscles resembled the meat in a chicken leg from a Detroit area KFC.  The smell, well, don't get me started there.  The formaldehyde burned my eyes.  It was so powerful one of my fellow colleagues had to run out of the lab and return her lunch...

I loved seeing what I saw while at Mercy.  Although not nearly as appealing, I loved seeing what I saw today.  While at Mercy, I was a nobody.  I stood in the corner and observed.  I didn't care though.  I was doing what I wanted to be doing.  Everything was new and exciting, but it didn't mean anything because I was a nobody.  Today, my excitement has nothing to do with that fact that I saw my first cadaver, although a new experience.  No, today, I saw my first patient.  Today, I was a somebody.  Today, I mattered.  How f-ing exciting is that?!

Daily expenditure: 84 (almost $30 US) on 24 cans of diet AW root beer (won't happen again, so I better really enjoy the root beer), 82 on groceries...166