Unfortunately, thanksgiving Monday is not a holiday over here. TBH, I don’t think we have any holidays. As you could expect, the Canadian thanksgiving isn’t really a big deal on SK:P You get the odd “hey happy thanksgiving” which is nice, but aside form that it’s a normal day. I think a month from now when the Americans celebrate it will be a little bit more of a thing. I might even get turkey out of it if I play my cards right;)
On the school side of things, not much has changed. We had our first medical ethics evaluation today which turned out to be pretty easy. Our prof kept stressing that it was a quiz, but at the end of the day it was still worth 20% of our mark.. Most people would agree that if you looked at the notes even just once or twice you would have been fine. We will likely get those marks later today (one benefit to doing everything online).
For anatomy, we started on the abdomen last week and are continuing with it today. Anytime you first open up a new section of the body it is very confusing and overwhelming. As the days go on however things get a little bit easier to handle. Its not that things are easier then you imagine them to be, its actually that you just learn it all. If you participate in the lab it happens fairly naturally. The thing is that you actually have to participate. If you show up and don’t put in the effort to actually learn then you are doing yourself a huge disservice. You get one opportunity to dissect a true human body and that’s it (aside from when you go through surgery rotations and even then you really aren’t hands on). Don’t give up the opportunity. Now a days it is a huge privilege to get to work with cadavers. The abdomen started out being one of my least favorite parts of the body, I think mainly because it didn’t come easy to me. For all of last week I felt like I was learning nothing and was behind everyone else. This weekend I put in a bunch of time learning some of the gross anatomical structures and blood flow. Today when I got to the lab it all clicked. Things were awesome and it all made sense to me. You will find that these little moments happen quite a bit. If you’re not getting something at first, try to attack it from a different perspective and you might find everything will make perfect sense. Just don’t let it get you frustrated. If you get upset and ignore your problem (lack of understanding) you wont ever learn it. The pace doesn’t allow for you to put things aside. Don’t assume that you can skip it and worry about it close to the exam because this really wont work.. We should be finishing up the abdomen shortly then on to the pelvis, legs, and feet. This block is very busy in the anatomy lab and should prove to be a challenge. The other really cool thing about the lab today was seeing some of the anatomical abnormalities. Our body for example had a super deviated abdominal aorta. Almost an “S” which is quite rare. In another body they found a massive abdominal aortic aneurism (AAA). By the end of the semester we are supposed to have an idea of a cause of death. If the body with the AAA had not passed away from something else, they certainly would not have survived for long had that AAA ruptured. Below are a few pictures. If you're grossed out, I’m sorry. Just squint your eyes and scroll past :P I figure some of my medic friends back home would appreciate seeing the AAA.
In PD we practiced vitals today. 2 hours of watching people take temperature and blood pressure… Even better, some of the instructors are big about not letting us sit down, so we spend this whole time standing in a circle.. Today I had one of the more relaxed instructors so it was a nice change. I’m looking forward to starting respiratory and cardiac exams in the next few weeks of PD!
Cell bio hasn’t changed too much. Our schedule moved around a little bit which resulted in us having 2.5 hour classes instead of 3 (actually will be so nice). That’s about it on the academic front.
This past weekend was pretty good! Friday was supposed to be a chill night where a couple of us were going to do some casual studying at a friends. It turned into something very different. It was a fun night but I didn’t get too much studying done.. Saturday was productive however. A large group of student went on a catamaran trip Saturday so I got to hear a few fun stories about that. They ended up going to Nevis (large island which makes up St. Kitts and Nevis) which I am pretty jealous about. I have a few days after finals before flying home so I will likely make a trip out there. Saturday night I went for some sushi with some friends. A little expensive and the portions were small, but it was tasty. Sunday was another semi-productive study day. As an aside, I showed up to one of the usual study spots and half the room was converted from isolated desk chairs to wheelie chairs! I remember during orientation the president told us that a few students were complaining about the uncomfortable chairs in one of the classrooms and that they were going to do something about it. Today I guess they started the process! Its awesome to see that our input really does lead to change. So make sure you pass on your concerns to the student government and likely things will change if enough people have issues! There is a pic below. As for the rest of Sunday, I ended up going to see Pan with a few people in the evening. I find going to see movies is super relaxing and is a great way to break up the day of studying. That’s really all I have to say, this week there are a few exciting things happening I believe, so I will keep you updated. I really wanted to write about food options on SK (I keep saying im going too..) but I will have to save it for next time. My study break has been too long already! So look for that definitely next post.
A very Happy Birthday to my Dad today! Wish I was home to celebrate...
Things I learned recently;
-Cooking is very low priority on my to do list. I tried all weekend to make food for the week and never got around to it.
-I have very blue eyes apparently. I’ve never been told this ever, but got told the same thing three times last week
-I learned a new move to add to my salsa dancing repertoire (almost)
-For all the times you tried to avoid seeing teachers outside of school when growing up, the profs here are a lot of fun when you run into them outside of class
-I’ve ridden a motorcycle for the last 5 years at home but have pretty much decided its never going to happen here. Not the safest place for 2 wheeled vehicles
-I wish my laptop had a mat screen
-I'm no longer worried about drinking tap water :P
-Some people are being assaulted my mosquitos on the regular. I have been lucky so far.
-Whatsapp is very annoying as it saves every picture to your camera roll that is sent to group chats. I have about 1000 memes I have to delete every night. Thanks everyone.
** A note for the pictures below. It is very hard to orient yourself to the body from a picture. Almost impossible actually. If you are able to, Kudos. The AAA is the light white structure that looks like a ball. the whole structure is the aneurism and is not supposed to be there.
Good vibes everyone!
Until next time.
Mike