Today’s inane image of the day:
 |
| Challenge: Can you guess what we’re modeling here? [Leave comments with what you think this is — no OUWB students, please!] |
I apologize for the lack of updates lately — Mike flew into town late Friday and I have been busy relishing his presence since then [I even took him to school with me yesterday and today!]. Since things are still pretty hectic around here, I’ll just leave you with my PRISM reflective writing piece [fictional, about anatomy lab, not my best work but still something!]:
As she stepped into the anatomy lab for her first session, the distinct scent of formalin filled her nasal cavity and sent chills down her spine. She looked around at the room filled symmetrically with metal gurneys. Each gurney had a similar white body bag, but the outline of each cadaver was unique. As her thoughts drifted away during the professor’s introductory presentation, she realized that she had never come this close to death before – in fact, there was a horribly eerie quality to standing in a room full of vibrant medical students ready to pry into the flesh of a deceased and preserved human being.
The professor stopped speaking and she looked down at her assigned cadaver. Her team members were ready to unveil the body, but she wanted to take a step back and consider what lay in front of her. This woman was once a living, breathing person. She lived a life that this medical student would probably never know about. Family and friends probably loved her and probably still miss her. And now, 5 medical students were about to invade the physical entity of this woman’s life. They were about to explore her like no other person has before.
After mulling over her thoughts, she slowly approached the body with a scalpel and forceps. She was hesitant to plunge a knife into this woman’s flesh. There was something wrong about violating this woman’s body. But she recognized how this learning experience was one of the pinnacles of her medical education – there would be no other future opportunity to explore human structures in this manner. With this in mind, she began swiping unsteadily with her scalpel to retract the skin of the cadaver’s back. Two hours later, the group had exposed the superficial back muscles and she was relived the lab session was finally over.
Months pass and she is hunched over a new cadaver’s plantar region. A withering old man with surprisingly intact musculature replaced the previous cadaver. She was comfortable with the odd smells, sights and sounds of the anatomy lab. Time and experience have resolved her apprehension about dissection. Her blade now pierces the flesh with confidence to rip through the thick aponeurosis. After successfully exposing the 2nd layer of the plantar muscles, she washes everything up and leaves the lab with a sense of excitement for what mysteries are to come. As she walks outside in the brisk, fresh air, she barely notices the distinct lingering scent of formalin in her nasal cavity.
Happy Thanksgiving! More updates soon, promise.
Today’s medical school fact of the day: “The quadriceps femoris is subdivided into four parts: rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, and vastus medialis. All four parts have the same insertion [tibial tuberosity] and innervation [femoral nerve].” — Anatomy
P.S. w00t, 100 days in and still going strong!
woohooooo actin myosin cross bridging