First Days and I HAVE A CAMERA!

So the weekend went by somewhat uneventfully which was just what I needed. Monday came a little too quickly, but I felt as ready as I could be when I walked in the door Monday morning. Monday consisted of syllabus handouts, meeting cadavers, and Cell Biology. We met all of our teachers and learned a little about each of our teachers. Then, the Anatomy professors took us on a tour of the cadaver lab where we will be doing all of our anatomy labs. My group has a 90 y.o. female that was a seamstress. She died of supposed MI or renal failure. A lot of the bodies had died of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) which is apparently the other disease to fear besides cancer as you age into your elderly years. Finally, after a quick lunch, we went over to the brain institute for the presentation of our code of ethics to the Dean and for our first Cell Biology lecture. At the exact moment cell bio lecture was about to begin, the fire alarm began to sound and the entirety of the building began pouring into the staging area in front of the building. 30 minutes later, there was little progress on getting back to the lecture hall, so we all retrieved our bags and went to the MDLs for our lecture and lab. The first histology lecture and lab were all about lecture and lab, so it was nice, fun and relaxing. After class, I went to the Family Medicine Interest Group meeting at Mother's pub where we got free Miller High Life and Cheeseburgers. At the same time, we got to talk to a bunch of residents, family physicians (most of which work for my mom, lol) and sports medicine fellows. It was really informative, and I'm actually seeing why family practice is appealing to M.D.s. It's definitely in my list of possible specialties. After Mother's, I went over to Jeremy's apartment and watched some Battlestar Galactica (my only real means of relaxation this week so far). Three episodes later, I realized I should be in bed, but upon returning home, I noticed the online anatomy quiz that I had to do. By 11:30, I finally got to sleep. The best thing about Monday was that all of my textbooks came in as well as my CAMERA!!!!!

Tuesday, I decided to take my camera with me to photo-log my day, so here we go! I woke up early in the morning at 6am to prep for class. Today was my first day taking the bus into campus. I started the day taking a look at my poor car that will finally be getting into the shop on Wednesday morning.

After mourning over my car, I headed down to the bus stop in front of my apartment.

There aren't many people on the bus at 6:50am.

At 7:10, I arrive at the HSC. It's actually kind of pretty in the morning.

I then went into the MDL (our Multi-Disciplinary Teaching Laboratory). It looked like I was the first one in today although 4 people walked in about 30 secs after I took the picture below.

The MDLs are the staging area for our class. We also have Cell Biology lab in this room. Everyone gets a locker here to put your stuff in. I mostly keep scrubs and books in mine. (the box on the right is the free stethoscope they gave us!)

By 7:20, I head up to Wendy's to have the breakfast of champions (pictured below).

By 7:40, I finished my breakfast and went into the lecture hall in the Medical Sciences Building.

Our first order of the day was smoking cessation orientation. We will in a couple months be sent out into the community to promote quitting smoking. Just another way we med students are helping the community. My classmates were somewhat excited about it, but at the same time, everyone was tired. Kim finally realized I was taking pictures of people when I snapped a shot of her in the next one, lol.

David (black shirt), Kim (left, white shirt), Steve (beige shirt), Kathy (white shirt, right)

We then had some SPICE infosec training, and Avi (the presenter), was actually quite entertaining.

We then all gathered in the MDL to set up our laptops for the network and printing.

It was not fun.

Leslie got bored and wanted to leave (and not get her picture taken apparently).

Then everyone put on their scrubs to get ready for anatomy lecture and lab, OH YEAH!

Next came lunch. I met Jeremy at the cafeteria and he joined me for lunch at the new cancer hospital cafe. It was pretty nice. He then had to suffer through me, Leslie, Jorge, and Sheylan talking about all of our medical stuff like nerds. It was really enjoyable and we actually ran into some classmates there. Finally, we got back, learned about the back, and then headed on down to the lab. Dissection was fun. After we pulled off some of the skin, I rarely realized that we were actually dissecting a person. It was challenging and messy, but very informative at the same time. Dr. Williams did indeed keep an eye on me and was very helpful in finding our vasculature and nerves on the back muscles. Sadly, we're not allowed to take pictures in the lab. My group finished right on time, and we managed to find everything we were supposed to while only minimally destroying some anatomical features. Every was kind of beat and we slowly made our ways back to the MDLs to change.

I then walked my way to the bus stop and waited for my ride home.

Once I got home, I took a shower and tried to wash all of the dead bodies smell off of me...to no avail. I then read over my textbooks some and went to Moe's to get some food. However, you can't eat without studying I'm realizing. I guess I'm going to have to get used to my meals looking like the one below (food, drink, and KNOWLEDGE).

After Moe's, I went to watch some more Battlestar Galactica with Jeremy and Joe, and then I went home to upload all this for you guys. Now it's time to study 2 more lectures, preview 2 lectures, and read a chapter and a half about physical exams. Hooray!