It's time for the real deal

So this week was our first 2 lecture sessions and cadaver labs. Wow. The first day when we walked in many groups had already uncovered their cadavers and I almost got stuck in my tracks. The head is covered until the final block, for which I'm grateful. We want to treat the cadaver as a human patient, but it is just kind of a wierd emotional thing to see the face, especially if we saw it on the first day. But after we started "digging in" (literally...) and got into the muscles of the back, it was much better, amidst frequent uncertainty because for many of us it was our first time. Even though we have the lab manual right in front of us we kept asking "do we cut here? how deep do we cut? is this something we shouldn't cut?" I will spare you all the gross details (harhar--gross anatomy lab, get it?).. I was EXHAUSTED by the time I got out of there...4 hrs later. We had our second lab on thursday and discovered the spinal cord. IT IS A GOOD THING that it is so tough to get in there, or we all would be paralyzed the first time we did anything.

After having our first lab, I started really feeling like a medical student--kind of "initiation." But today, Friday, was our "White Coat Ceremony," the entrance ceremony where our class is introduced into the professional community as student physicians. It was great that my family could come up for it. There were several speeches (what is a ceremony without them?) and then the moment when they call your name and you walk up on stage to shake the dean's hand while donning your white doctor's coat. It really was cool hearing all the different kinds of people we have in our class--a few people with PhDs!! several with master's, and many kinds of bacherlor's degrees. Even anthropology and geology. And finally we recited the oath of Geneva--a modern Hippocratic oath. We had spent some time earlier in the week talking about professionalism and what that would mean--altruism, integrity, humilty, and a host of other virtues. As an aside, last week we shared about our hopes for the next few years, and I mentioned how I hoped to grow in my faith and understand more of how to integrate my faith and being a doctor. I want to be salt and light, I just hope that I'm being wise too with my words, as I want to be an extension of God's love to the world, and not cause stereotypes to unecessarily form just because it is obvious I am a person of faith. Anyhow. when we said the oath of Geneva together--that was what really cemented to me in the ceremony that I'm gonna be a physician and the great responsibility, privilige, and honor it will be. When you pledge that "I will make the health of my patient my first consideration," it isn't to be taken lightly.

To end the afternoon, my family and I went to the Rose Garden. Then my roomie and I went for a great bike ride on the Springwater Trail--it goes along the waterfront on the eastside of the river. Absolutely B-eautiful and the weather was fab. So begins the weekend. I should be studying right now probably, but it's Friday night and really hard for me to be motivated.

In other news...I encountered 2 racoons on my walk down to the fitness center this week, free food is awesome, and practicing trombone felt really good today.

Back from the Pack

I just had a fabulous weekend away in the wilderness with my dad! Because med school classes haven't really started yet, I was able to continue the tradition (from since I was 12 years old) of going backpacking every summer. This year we went up to a place called Gothic Basin, a huge basin (trail beginning up the mountain loop highway past Granite Falls) with several lakes, waterfalls, towering rugged castle peaks, and plenty of cool rocks. Speaking of rocks, looking at some of them was like looking at a time capsule--seeing all the different layers created by tons of pressure and time. We saw brown limestone, what looked like fools gold flakes, granite, agate, and stuff that sounded (when you dropped it) like and iron or steel slab and with edges sharp enough to be a dangerous weapon. Dad and Sonata and I took off Friday morning and returned Saturday evening. It was probably a 9-10 mile round trip up to Foggy Lake, plus 2 extra hikes (one the first day after we arrived at camp and the second before we left camp the next day). The views were INCREDIBLE. We even ran into some fabulous LOADED huckleberry patches. So good even Sonata was grazing on them. Whenever I go up to the mountains and then come back below and hear songs that talk about how "mountains bow down ... at the sound of your Name" or "the heavens declare your greatness...the mountains bow down before You" -- I envision how GREAT and AWESOME our God is, that even this seeminly insurpassable and dangerous mountains which challenge man to conquer them were created by an even greater, more powerful God. When you're out there everything seems to shout praise to God...well, maybe not the soreness you feel when you're done, but it's all good. It was a great time--spending some time with dad too, pondering things...for example, my dad made the comment "wow look at this rock--so flat it looks as if it was cut with a machine." and it made me think about how human-centric we are. not that he made an evil comment, but is it nature that mimics man and man imposes his ideas on it? or in reality, is man trying to copy nature (i.e. our machines are made to cut like time and pressure had created that flat rock)?

Anyhow, enough with the philosophy. Saturday night was fun too--I hung out at a pizza place with my sister and her bf and our friend Sachiko who lives with us. Good for laughs and even some more philosophical type conversation. But now I'm back from the pack and life is moving on this week.

Getting to know you

Today we learned about our first patients which we'll be officially seeing next week. They're can't talk with their mouths and they spend a lot of time laying flat on their backs, but we're really thankful for the opportunity to see them. In short, they're cadavers. At the mention of standing in a room full of 31 dead bodies, my stomach began to quiver. But then again, it is a really awesome opportunity -- some schools don't even have dissection anymore. We also got a preview of our first course--Gross Anatomy, imaging, and embryology. According to the course director, "there's a horrific amount to learn" which I believe. Though an impossible task for one person, I guess it's necessary one and I know we'll make it through step by step. Just gotta hang on tight. We got our scrubadubs because as one staff member said, "you'll want to burn whatever came in here [gross anatomy lab] when you're done." And now I really have a skeleton in my closet--actually my partner's locker (we got bone boxes and lockers today).

In other news, I finished this really interesting book called "Dominion" by Randy Alcorn. I convinced myself I needed to finish it because I was spending a lot of time with it and need to do away with the distraction. Actually, it dealt really well with the issues of racism, gangs, the Christian response to these, black history, and some interesting ideas about heaven along with a great mystery plot. It is long (603pgs) but worth it. Maybe I'll bring up some topics later to discuss.

Well, I'm hoping to go backpacking this weekend. The last really free one because real classes start next week with prep stuff this week.

The Beginning of the Transformation Process

The dean of medicine spoke to us today about the journey we're embarking on...a transformation process to become a physician. I just began medical school TODAY, and so I tried to keep my cool this morning as we incoming students hovered around the coffee and pastries table. It was funny--about 9:15am I saw all these intense walkers going the same direction I am, and so finally when walking side by side with one, I pipe up, "I'm guessing you must be a first year too." That broke a little ice, and soon the chatter of new students was flowing easily. I met a lot of interesting people today, and there was plenty of time for that as we stood in glacier-speed lines to get pictures taken with white coats to put in the student directory (apparently these pictures will stay with us for a good while) and then in the id badge line (which I ended up not getting through). I was so excited to meet people because I'm used to community and friends and living with a family of 6+ in the summer time and it's a little too quiet up here. But that will all change I'm guessing soon when studies actually begin. So far it's mostly paper/web work, but tomorrow we get "bone boxes". That's a whole half human skeleton loaned out for the gross anatomy unit.

The dean talked about how "if you're a lone-ranger you will not become physcian. sure you might pass the tests, but the transfer of knowledge is not all there is to medical school." That's a good thing to know!
Another thing the dean told us about was how professionalism is one of their top priorities. The scary thing is that you could let that mean that you always have to be serious. Maybe, but I sure don't want medical school to erase my personality with all its intensity and I'm sure they don't really want to either.