First Cut is the Deepest: Dissection in Gross Anatomy!

Every med student awaits then day when they get to fulfill their psycho tendencies and cut up a dead body...legally. HAHAHAHAHA

Yesterday we had our first dissection class headed by our uber- awesome Doc JC. There was this kind of crazy panicky feeling in the air when we were putting on our lab gowns and goggles, and Doc Jah, Doc Kent and Doc JC oriented us on the dos and donts.

For our team of 8, we were divided into two where the first four were to dissect first, and the second half stayed in the briefing room to do research, study the bones, and do clinical correlations. 

Walking into the dissection room, we all felt giddy with excitment, heading over to our cadaver in the far end of the room.

"You may now uncover your cadavers."

All of us panicked and were pointing at each other to do it, and then we peeled back the cloth and plastic to reveal....of course, our cadaver.

Honestly, I had a different idea of what a cadaver would like. A little more...fresh, i suppose? The cadaver was black and leathery, average sized male, physically fit i guess because there was minimal fats when we cut him open. 

At first, we were careful with the first cut, a vertical cut from the C7 to the Lumbar area, and we were all, "hey dont cut too deep, we might damage the underlying tissues!" 

And five minutes into the dissection, we didnt even break through the skin yet! We dug in a little deeper, slicing a little deeper, and voila! we could see the pink flesh beneath!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPZ-n_axrfw

This is just an example of what we did since we cant take pictures or video our dissection classes--out of respect for our cadavers also. 

Seriously, dissecting is hard work. The skin is so tough and the connective tissues underneath are sooooo many, one of us was in charge of holding the edges of the skin back so that three of us could slice away at the connective tissue and expose the fascia, and then the underlying muscle. 

In 10 minutes of dissection, we were sweating like pigs, our muscles ached from all the pulling, tugging, slicing, and craning our necks to get a better view of the connective tissue beneath. 

BUT...IT WAS FUN AS HELL. 

We were able to identify and take apart the trapezius muscles, the erector spinae, deltoids, and the fascia. It was awesome to take apart the body and see these structures in real life. And I have to say, the books have it down to the details, except, of course, for the color. For gross ana and dissection we use Netter.

Much better if you studied Netter beforehand so that when you dive into dissection, you dont have to keep guessing what you're looking at or if you already sliced up an important structure.

Before I forget, here's a list stuff that would be handy during your dissection class. For our first dissection, we really had a hard time cleaning up and prepping because we forgot soooo many things.

DISSECTION HANDY PACK LIST:

1. Gloves- you can go for the disposable ones or if you're really icky with those things, you can opt for thicker ones that you wash and use again (kinda gross though, but if its your thing, who am I to stop you :) )

2. Goggles- much better if they were the suction type, not the glasses type since some of the formalin can sneak through your glasses and it hurts like hell. You  can buy this at your local hardware store. 

3. Lab gown- you wouldnt want to smell like the walking dead and have parts of your cadaver staining your uniform.

4. For girls- wear flats, never wear heels to your dissection class, (honest mistake though). standing up for hours and walking around your cadaver in heels messes up your legs, and they hurt.\

5. Bandana, hair ties, clips- keep the hair away from your face, and cover up your hair, because it will smell like your cadaver after several hours of dissection.

6. Feminine Wash aka Betadine- most of my classmates swear by this. We have used rubbing alcohol, all kinds of soap, and nothing else except betadine removed the smell of dead body on our hands.I dont know how they found out in the first place, but it works. HAHAHAHAHAHA

7. Vaseline- and plenty of it. Needed to maintain your cadaver from drying up and preventing unwanted insects from swarming and breeding in your cadaver.

8. Dissecting kit- standard set.

Thank You Doc JC!!!

Cool thing happened this week. :)

HSI really takes care of their students. one of the things they do is have this Guidance Day for freshie Med students, which was more of a talk on adjusting to the medschool life. And after 3 weeks of med school, I have to say that I need all the help that I can get to survive my first year.

Well, to be fair, it IS the adjustment period for every student, but, I think there's no excuse for failing a quiz (which I had done yet again, hahahaha--quiet sobbing) or being unable to read all the material you need to understand the lesson beforehand. 

Honestly, I had difficulties in memorizing and understanding all the information that came out of each 3-4 hour lecture. But, the anxiety this caused me was lessened somewhat by this seminar.

I'm not bulls--ting you when I say that their pointers helped a ton load and you could actually see the results the day after.

 Doc Tata started the seminar with a few words of wisdom to impart on our young fragile, impressionable minds (lolwhut? hahahaha) and made us think about our future as med students. Are you living the dream for your parents? Yourself? Your boyfriend?

Next up, Doc JAA, our doctor/lecturer/professor for Embryology as well as our Student Adviser. We sent a good part of the hour just laughing. He gave us the statistics on med students, what works, what doesnt work in med school, and--my favorite part--categorizing things to do into neat little categories namely: a) negotiable or non-negotiable.


Physiology? Non-negotiable.
Biochemistry? Non-negotiable.
Anatomy? Non-negotiable.
Boyfriend/ Girlfriend? Pwede bang non-negotiable?


He also covered effective studying techniques as well as the usual techniques practiced by students that excel, students that are average in performance, and those who perform poorly. 


One of my favorites is using mnemonics for studying. He gave out a few examples (sorry, couldn't remember them that much, hahahaha) and my dorm mate and I tried it out while studying for Histology--Connective Tissue. 


Another doctor, Doc Kent was also there, and I wish he could have shared more of his experiences also. 

Aaaand finally. The rush I had that day. 


Doc JC, shared his experiences on surviving his first year of medicine. He excelled in his first year, being exempted from all the finals in all the subjects, and at the same time, still being active in several student/academic organizations. Pretty hard to follow that, right? Well he showed us that it is completely attainable, if he could do it, why couldn't we?


Well, in one of the slides he presented, he showed....(drumroll please....) one of my blog entries!!!! He said that he came upon the blog on the internet, and he wasnt sure if the author of the blog was present already, or was in thE room.


GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I was freaking out in my seat. I turned white right then and there and my seatmate asked if I was feeling ok. 


I actually wasnt sure if it was my entry because it was so long ago, but it was my post about why you wanted to take up Medicine. 


It surprised me that Doc JC, or anyone actually from my school would stumble upon this blog. (I'm not sure who actually reads my blog, I sometimes think that they got misdirected to this page or something. hahahaha)


And what he said made me sooooo happy. He commended me for the blog/post that I wrote and said that I should come by the office and let him know it was me. 


WELL, that sure didn;t happen. I was scared/shy as hell. And I didnt know how to react to it all. 


But it certainly made my day. 


THANK YOU DOC JC!!!!

Will be sharing more of their tips and advice in another post, kind of groggy from all the studying. :)) Happy weekend guys!

2nd Week of Med

SUBJECTS OF THE WEEK: Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Community Medicine


From now on, I'm just remembering the week based on the subjects for the week. Why? Because everything else seems like a blur, and the only way I can remember events is when I associate them with the mind-boggling, overwhelming, and at times, depressing lectures--just like the ones we had this week.


First off, June 13 was the first day of classes for the rest of the courses in HSI (PT, OT, Nursing, Rad Tech) and we all met up at the Animo Center for the Opening Ceremonies. The place was awesomely decorated, taking on a carnival theme, balloons were everywhere!

They hired stiltsmen (dunno if this is a correct term for the entertainer, hahahaha) and a mascot too!

Cavite's symphony band came in through the middle aisle playing Michael Jackson's Thriller with the entertainers dancing to the beat, and then the finalists for the Talentadong Pinoy show (pretty much like America's X Factor or something) performed for an hour. 

People were cheering loudly, and just high as hell (hahahaha) and the performances moved on to the different dance groups of each college. 

By lunchtime, they ended the opening ceremonies and we were free to go...study. :)) 

The day before, it was Labor day i think, I didn't go home, I just decided to stay at the dorm to make up for the lack of knowledge in Biochemistry. Spent the whole half of the morning studying basic/highschool chemistry using my brother's book. Yup, if you have your old highschool chemistry book, I recommend  you use it. It really does help you a lot especially with the bonds (ionic, covalent), the hydrocarbons, structures of the functional groups, etc. The second half of the day, I spent on review for Organic Chemistry. Our Doctor-lecturer advised us to backtrack on orgchem so Biochem can come a little bit easier for us. 

So for the next 6 hours, in between mini breaks on FB, I studied orgchem. I did this at HSI's student center, located at the old med building. Its a small room furnished with study tables, benches, a small sink (for those who study there overnight), and airconditioned. Its open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is open only for Med students. This was a lifesaver for me since the dorm is full of temptations (food, bed, tv), and it was stuffy and hot, so going to the Student Center was pure heaven. Not to mention that you can charge your laptop and cellphones there and wifi! woot! woot! The connection there is pretty fast, so the only con in studying there is the unlimited access to the internet.

http://www.dlshsi.edu.ph/Gallery/MED/images/IMG_3379_jpg.jpg

For the internet connection, you have to have your devices configured by the school's IT staff located at the ground floor of the Angelo King Building. You are only limited to 2 devices, so I had my smartphone and laptop configured. 

Anywho, I spent the next few hours in the student center and got to meet upper classmen, and honestly, I was thinking--these guys are invincible. They passed the first year. HAHAHAHAHA

They were absolutely friendly, and gave me tips on how to study for certain exams. For example, in Biochemistry, the questions are pretty straightforward so all you need to do is remember structures and functions. In Physiology, it helps to read it AT LEAST two times so you can understand the processes. 

But the usual advice is: STUDY STUDY STUDY. No matter what subject it may be, you MUST MUST MUST STUDY. and READ a lot. In Med, you can;t just stick to one book and expect everything to be there. For the doctors, they usually use 2-3 references for their presentations/lectures. And, if you can (and you should), read all the books. 

So Biochemistry down, we have, drum roll please... ANATOMY.

This subject really depresses me. Results for the first two quizzes came out, and surprise surprise. I failed both of them by a measly one point (7/10). Its frustrating when you studied your ass of the week before, and boom, you still fail. But, as the professors and upperclassmen advised, try to accumulate as many extra points as you can to make up for the failures. They're pretty generous with it, but the failures are overwhelmingly strong in this subject.

We had our laboratory period in the Old Med building, and looked at the cells found in different parts of the body.

We looked at cells from the spinal cord, blood smear, compact bone, and liver. Each student had their own microscope and set of slides.

The last time I used the microscope was in highschool, and using one again, and more extensively, was pretty fun. 

Physiology was the same, and the topics were already merging with the ones in Histology and Biochemistry. Well, of course, they're supposed to be interrelated, but you'd never expect it to just blend in perfectly unlike the way of teaching in highschool and college where each subject is boxed seperately with little to no connection bridging them together. 

This week was tiring, but still gotta push. This is just the second week. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH/

Panic Sets In

School tomorrow. 

I woke up today with an oncoming panic attack. I swear by the holy nose hair of Badjula that I just stood up from bed in a panic frenzy remembering that I'll be going back to the dorm and start a brand new week of med school.

Why was I panicking?

Because its a habit. Joke. Lol.

Some subjects were worrying me a whole lot--namely, Biochemistry, Physiology, and Anatomy.

Physiology- I can understand it, its pretty good, but the pacing is really, really fast. I'm having a little bit of a difficulty with the ions and whatnot floating in and out but, the sheer volume of stuff to study.

Next up, Anatomy. This is stressing me up a little bit because of the before lecture and after lecture quizzes that they have. Say goodbye to the 1/4 sheet pad papers that you leech off of your classmate because the professors in Med do it by bubble sheet.

Its 10 items, no erasures, they flash the questions on screen for 20-30 seconds per item. 

What's so stressful about this???

Out of the 10 items, you can only have two wrong answers to pass. Yup. 8/10 is passing. 7/10, your quiz is crap and you learned nothing.

In my time (nope, I'm not that old, I just like to talk like an old timer), 6/10 was the passing, and with the really nice, easily persuaded teachers, you can pass with only 5 items.

It would have been ok if I didn't  spend 3 hours on that one particular topic, but, what can I say, I think I may have gotten a 7/10. I'm still adjusting, trying to study a little bit faster, and a little more efficient. Holy Badjula knows I'm trying.

The professors/ doctors are really nice but absolutely strict, and I guess for good reason too. 

CHED dictates that if a student fails 40% of their load, they are automatically kicked of the roll. Meaning... you will be kicked out of the Doctor of Medicine program and will never be accepted into the DLSHSI Med Program. Ever. 

Guess what? Anatomy makes up 39.5% of the academic load in first year.

39.5%

So all you need is just one more subject (minor or major), anything to fill up that .5% that remains, and BOOM. You are taken out.

Every doctor-lecturer emphasized that. Every single one. 

Harsh, but its the truth. They said that around 6-10 students were not able to be promoted to the 2nd year because of failure in this one.

Good news is, if you failed JUST Anatomy, meaning you didn't fill up the whole 40%, you can still take up Anatomy next year. Yey!

Finally, Biochemistry. 

The doctor-lecturer was awesome, really nice. The topic? not so nice.

We were reviewing the basic (ahem ahem) concepts in Organic Chemistry. The doctor was assuming that all of us took this up in college and was going through the subjects like food goes through you during diarrhea.

My reaction to the first four slides was...

During the lecture, the doctor would ask, " Is everyone ok? Can everybody follow?"

And then some bibbo classmates would shout out in sing-song unison-- Yeeeeeeeeessssssssss Siiiiirrrrr. 

For those classmates, I would like to punch you in the face. Not. I just felt frustrated then. :)) It was extremely difficult to follow, and I would have appreciated it if the students who did get it would just quiet down a little and let the old timers like me struggle with a resounding " No Sirrrrrrr."

So now, I'm planning to study Organic Chem from scratch, while at the same time, struggle with learning Biochem and a bunch of ultra-toxic subjects. 

Fun. Fun. Fun. 

At the end of the Biochem lecture, students flooded the lecturer. One guy remarked,

"Sir, nawala po ako sa first few slides palang, wala na po ako naintindihan." 

~ Translation: Sir, you lost me at hello.

And the build up all these subjects led to the panic attack I had this morning.

My reaction to my future. I think it would be easier to walk into Mordor than pass these subjects.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Way to start the week.

1ST WEEK OF MED SCHOOL!!!

and I am still alive.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, hello guys, I have just survived my first week in Med School!!! Its not that bad...yet. Since majority of the classes were orientations on subjects to be covered for the year, doctors introducing themselves, exam policies, grades, and, for some subjects, the first topic of the year.

A view of the room, and my classmates.

Inspiring. Dunno how I'll react when I start studying for Biochem and Anatomy (act like a crazy woman, I guess)

The school's guidance office oriented us on the different policies, and ran through the handbook. 

The week went by in a blur, and I cant really remember the order of subjects unless I look at my schedule, but basically, we had Biochemistry, Bioethics, Physiology, Anatomy, and Community Medicine.

All the doctor-lecturers were amazing, funny, and very accommodating. Even if classes were 3-4 hours long,  the doctors really had a way of making you pay attention and understand and not mind the long class hours. It also helps that the new classrooms are comfy, well ventilated (which is extremely important because of the heat outside of the building), and conducive for learning.  So from 8-12pm, one class, and from 1-5pm was another class. Usually, most of the professors don't use up the whole four hours, and dismiss us early.

Our doctor- lecturer up on stage running through the basics of Organic Chemistry.

A view from the back.

Classes are awesome, just kind of worried aboout Biochem, Aatomy and Physiology because I have nooooo background whatsoever. But, I just have to double time. 

As all the doctors advised, " You only need to do three things to survive Med School...one....study...two....study...three...study."

< insert evil laugh>