Who Wants a Bagel? (Warning: do not read if you have a weak stomache!)

*this post is not for the faint of heart...er, brain.


So I am into week 2 of our Scary Neuro Block. I LOVE THIS MATERIAL. I mean come on, who doesn't love the brain??

The neuro labs are kick a**! Our prof (slightly crazy, as they all are) often calls parts of the brain or vasculature "ooh preettty" or "cute". I totally understand this as all of us crazy medical people find one thing or another cute about the human body that no normal/non-medical person would find appealing in the slightest. Take example my love of the human lung...last semester my friend looked at me like I was certifiably insane as I cradled it like an infant. Haha. But they are so squishy :)

Anyways today I was mediasiting (watching an online recording) of our 5th neuro lab which entails coloring time and labeling print outs of brain sections. At the end of the lecture Dr. Welke takes the time to show us actual brain sections (she takes them out of a fun filled brain bucket at the front of the classroom) and puts them up on the Elmo projector. She is usually wearing gloves. Usually.
Today she actually surprised me when she placed a brain on the projector and then took a large knife that resembled one you'd use to cut a loaf of bread...or a bagel. I thought, "Oh my god she's going to cut that brain apart!"

Welke, "when I was in graduate school we started off by cutting up fruit...now let's look at a coronal section."

She proceeded to cut the brain up (in many slices) to make several coronal sections. Then she said "next I will cut the brain like this, to make axial sections... like you would cut, um. Anyone have an analogy? Oh yes, like a bagel! Good for you!"
And that's just what she did.

Amazing how easily such a vital, complex and utterly spectacular organ can be cut into tiny pieces with a blunt tool. Very humbling. But then, that's med school for ya.

More later!

SEMESTER 2: INFORMATION EN MASSE

So let me start off by ranting about my horrible journey from the U.S. to the Island that I undertook Last Thursday.
3 Days spent in the San Juan Airport (2 nights in the attached hotel paying $120/night + 1 night on a military cot provided by the airport in the airport terminal)
3 Days of waiting in a chaotic mass of Ross students trying to get information from the 1-2 American Airlines agents who refused to use mics and instead called our names a normal volume to tell us if we were luck enough to get boarding passes for the next day's flights.
3 Days of finding out that AA plans can not (more like would not) attempt the 1 1/2 hr flight to Dominica and land because of light cloud coverage around the mountains...Liat (the island airline) sent planes to the island every day with no problems.
No acknowledgement from Ross University during this time was sent to us despite the fact that at least 5 professors were stuck in the same situation.
By Day 3 my friends and were afraid that we would have to miss the first day or possibly first week of class due to flight cancellations. In a half delirious completely desperate state we plotted to pay $500 a piece to hire a private chartered plane to take us to the island.
That night we composed a mental scenario for the day we landed on the island...
"I want this put down in my file by Dean Laville when we get there: this student use his/her ingenuity and own finances to hire a chartered plane simply to get to the island in time for classes. She/he deserves the TOP residency position at the TOP medical school hospital."
Some how the fates smiled upon my friend Alexis and I but scorned our two other cot-airport buddies, Gerret and Mesen. While Alexis and I were on the only flight for the past week that successfully landed on the island, Gerret and Mesen were given "stand by boarding passes and did indeed hire a private plane with a few other students. I still have yet to see either of them on campus but Alexis assures me that they made it here safely.
The key to surviving medical school, I am realizing now, is maximizing your autonomy to its full potential. You are a medical student, i.e. nobody at your school gives a damn about who you are or how you do, i.e. you must take Everything involving school and life into your own hands and find the time to do it All well or even great. This includes dealing with locals trying to gouge you for every US dollar you Don't have...school administrators blatantly ignoring your trials and tribulations (not one Ross email was sent to us during the travel fiasco and the professors were given alternate travel tickets while students were left to figure out how to get to the island on our own).
It is apparent that being an "adult" in the "real world" (working a 9-5 job in the States) is exceedingly simpler than being a medical students in the "third world". While we must learn to be infinitely flexible no one else in our micro chasm even attempts to be, and they rarely offer a helping hand.
Also, we inevitably lose sight of our humanity as it is drained out of us to be replaced with "What cranial nerve exits this foramina? and what deficit is seen when it is injured at this location?" The amount of information for the Neuroscience unit is disgusting...just looking down at my notes right now makes me fear for my life and this is just Week 1, Day 3. I am already behind and although I have been sleeping and eating I am fatigued.
I can't even remember people's names any more that I met two days ago.

But, we must persevere and push on!