Week 1 of medical school

January 23 2015

BEST DAY EVER. 

It has been a tough week-mentally draining and academically challenging. I will not say that I got through it-because that is not something that can be measured at this particular time. Everyday has been full of the lectures that have me lost at the get go. 

But tonight was so good! We had an anatomy review after lecture and the professor gave a very realistic yet encouraging and honest talk on this first term and what we have to know and be able to do. Of course being able to do the actual work is important-but having a tough mentality is equally important because where my mind wonders-my thoughts, actions and habits will follow. 

I went home after the lecture and was about to cook dinner after having gone for a run when a classmate reminded me that we would be going to anatomy wet lab (the cadaver lab) together. I thought about the anatomy instructor advising us to wait to go until we had prepared and knew what structures to look for-but decided that an hour spent with the body was more productive than 3+ hours spent with a text book and boy oh boy was I right! 

That hour in the lab with the body was the BEST HOUR of this ENTIRE WEEK!

I learned so much and was able to touch and feel and test myself and others and LEARN! 

That really really helped-in regards to understanding the things we're learning and gaining some confidence in studying effectively. Myself along with 4 other students taught and tested each other and found the muscles for this first week on the cadaver then found it on each other and ourselves. It was so cool! We were palpating each other and then the cadaver and flipping through the pages of our books-and subsequently spreading the scent of formaldehyde on everything outside of the cadaver :) My room smells like formaldehyde and bug spray-haha-I know it is gross but funny too. I not only sleep because I am tired but also with a mind that is at peace knowing that no bug would dare to ever enter my room. Haha. 

Ever since studying the muscles this afternoon (Saturday)-I see each one as if it were on the body and know what it really looks and feels like on a person-not a piece of clean, smooth paper. Wow-I do not know how to convey the amount of relief I found when I finally started making sense of these structures. I LOVE that feeling of being able to look out and picture the muscles and tissue that we examined last night. If you were to walk by my study table-it may appear that I am staring at the island in the near distance or the catamaran sailing by-but rather a cadaver’s superficial and deep musculature of his back are what my mind and eyes are focused on (well sometimes those other things distract me :) ) 

Back to studying. 

Psalm 20:4

May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed.

-M.H-

Fist year medical student who is literally sitting in the storm (it is raining right now and very windy)