The Curious Scalpel

Yep, so we've made it through one "semester" of medical school... cross Histology, Genetics, Immunology, Cancer Biology, and the first parts of Biochem and Anatomy off.  By "we" in "we made it" I refer not only to myself and my classmates, but also to my wife and son, who thankfully still remember who I am. And after getting back the grades this morning from my Biochem test three days ago, I can finally proudly say I got the highest mark possible on every single test. Today, I had an unwinding day.  I went to the gym, I watched some TV on Hulu, and I cooked some food for our upcoming party, for which I am inviting some friends who are NOT in medical school (still keeping in touch with them!).  Should be a blast.  But back to the TV for a second.  I stumbled upon the last episode of Scrubs and then watched the New Scrubs: Medical School Years, which I had heard of but was too busy studying too take a look at. I wasn't a crazy Scrubs fan for t...

On Friday afternoon, I came back from lecture and was preparing for Shabbos, cleaning up and everything. The TV was just on because Yoni was playing with the remote, when Dr. Oz's show began.  I had seen a commercial for it the day before, too, wherein the Doc opened by saying "We all have cancer." That's sort of true, albeit misleading (since having cancerous cells in your body is not the same as "having cancer" to a lay audience) according to one theory of immune surveillance, but of course it's very sensationalized so that people can be frightened of it and listen to what Dr. Oz was telling them to do.  What did he want them to do to prevent their cancer from overtaking their immune system?  Eat free-range yogurt, dark berries (for antioxidants) quinoa, and other healthy foods. And to exercise.  Smart advice. I'm certainly not trying to undermine Dr. Oz's authority, but it's obvious that he dumbs things down for the public, to make it b...

There are specific points of our dissections that prove to be very traumatic to our cadavers.  The ones I've witnessed and/or performed in so far include: 1) The first incision.  Even if the patient (we call the cadavers "patients" because they really are serving as our first patients) had gotten surgery during their lifetime, the medical student's first incision is usually the first time this person's body is cut open for someone else's benefit.  It's the start of the student's journey to knowledge, and at the same time it is the beginning of a very traumatic series of events for this body. 2) Opening the thoracic cage. This is the ribcage, which protects important stuff like your heart, lungs, liver, and major blood vessels. I would spare the queasy reader from a detailed account of the method which we employ, but this is after all a first-year medical student's blog, and I think I would be cheating the non-queasy readers if I omitted those...

Now that I've justified my existence, I'll relate the first thought-provoking nugget.  I drove my friends to the airport tonight, neither of whom are medical students (proving it's possible to keep in touch with your old friends while in med school).  They asked how anatomy is, and exclaimed that it's really cool, and such a wild thing, etc etc.  So, yeah.  It really is.  Cutting open another human being is something that a very small percentage of the people in the world get to do.  Legally , anyway. But, as our professors explained to us so thoroughly, it's not something to be taken lightly.  It is our responsibility to treat the cadavers with respect and to appreciate the tremendous gift that they give to us.  And we do... most of the time.  But it also gets kind of crazy in there, we make jokes, laugh about stuff... we're not all serious all the time. How could we be?  Contrary to what last generation's doctors would like you to ...

I think everyone who starts a blog these days should have some explanation for it. So off we go! On the blog: 1) I'm a first-year medical student, and for anyone, like myself, [updated: I started watching it] who doesn't watch the New Scrubs , interesting and funny things happen to medical students. I'll try to record those here for posterity when they happen, and in between those times... I'll probably be studying anyway, like I should be doing right now. 2) I need something to do during my study breaks besides going to the gym, something that doesn't require showering afterward, as I already have the gym and the anatomy lab bringing me up to about two times the recommended daily amount for showers. On the title of the blog: 1) It sounds nice. Admit it. 2) I will try to provide some sharp analysis along with my little med school anecdotes. On days when I'm exhausted from studying or too busy procrastinating, however, I'll be relying on my rea...