Kicked to the curb

An interesting week. Lauren has been sick all week. Our house has been like Rome under Caligula. Lots of ranting and raving and the servants are forced to just obey. She made us pronounce her teddy bear as her successor and top general. She getting a little better now, which is fortunate, because I think that means we won't have to follow through with the gladiatorial games in the kitchen.

Lk kept us both up so much lately that I missed 1 1/4 classes on Thursday. Not that that was such a bad thing, she kept us up the night before, I made it to class Wednesday, and slept right through most of an otherwise engaging discussion of the human bowel. As this is the area of the human body we are studying in earnest right now, I will not mention too much of the laboratory escapades from this week. Its better for you and better for me this way. If you find yourself disappointed or in withdrawals from this lack of explicitness, don't worry, we start the perineum next week.

With my cold I have apparently (at least this is what I'm told) started snoring. Subsequently I was summarily sent to the couch the other night. I have been subject to some master log sawers in my day, so I in no way consider this unjust treatment. And we do have a pretty comfy couch, but I do hope it resolves soon (Breath right strips are so 1995).

In truth we each taken turns on the couch. Its not because of Meredith that I was sent to the couch, the snoring just so happened to awaken the beast (Caligula), so it was really better for everyone involved that my snorting was sequestered to the living room. Otherwise LK would simply try to best my own noises with her dog whistles pitched screeching. I'm completely outmatched, I assure you.

I have two recommendations this week. One is "Word Play", an endearing little documentary about the cross word puzzle championship of the world. Oh my goodness, this must be what happens to the kids from "Spellbound" when they grow up. The next suggestion I have is that you look up Helmuth Hubener. (That's Hubener with an umlaut over the u".)
If you can find his leaflets, they're pretty astounding. He was a 17 year old german boy that resisted the nazis by tuning into the BBC and putting out leaflets refuting Goebbels progaganda. Really gutsy stuff.





Hmm...Breath Right strips are actually kind of nice....

Check
Check
and...Check..

Thank you Halls brand name menthol cough drops, for seeing, and checking off, all of my most irritating symptoms. Yes, I have come down with malignalitaloptereosis. And you've caught me Mim! That's Mad Madame Mim, not Mimi. I had to set the controls on cruise for the rest of the week starting on Wednesday because of this blasted cold. But, slid through two more tests on Thursday, skipped out on lectures Friday, and..... he's safe at Saturday. Now the weekend to recover and its back to the grind. I'm pretty sure I got this sickness from the cadaver lab. It is certain to have some sort of curse akin to that of King Tut's tomb attached to it.

Cryptosporidium?



This is LK executing a perfect swim move on her dad. She's going to be a heck of a defensive end one day.

A note to any that may be reading. Please leave a comment. It is a really sad sight to see no comments. I'm afraid "I'm just standing in the rain, talkin' to myself" If you can guess where that quote came from you win a prize*....but all entries must be made through the comment section of this blog. So get commenting people.

*Subject to availability

Goncrats to Ali!!

This post is entirely dedicated to my sister Alison and her exceptional performance in passing her CPA exam. That's an official ace of the test from my sister, definitely one of, if not tied for, the smartest person I know in the world. Yay, Ali!
Rock on, and come visit us.

Where are you going?... with beards all a wagging?

Histology test tomorrow. Have no idea how that's going to be. Histology...the study of tissues...Seems simple enough. Then its back to lectures, and back to lab (the heart tomorrow, so exciting because this man probably had bypass surgery (deduced from the nasty staples holding his sternum together)}. Wow, double brackets. Double brackets are the surest sign of a wandering mind, are they not? I was typing (then I had this thought (then this tangent) and back to this thought) and back to reality.

It's the sort of thing a guy should edit. Lauren had her immunizations on Friday. Everyone was brave. Lauren was brave while being a voodoo doll. Mom was brave waiting for it all to be over to her poor baby, and I....well, I was just cold and calculating. But honestly, which of these would you rather your kid get

this














or this

















on a more serious note, I have been referring to the cadaver I have working been on using a number of names, all of which I think are apt. The terms "patron" and "benefactor" are my favorites. I really do see this man as such. There is the strong potential for an objectification of a body under such circumstances, but I think it important to mention the rever in which I actually hold this body. This is not to say that you won't find jokes, bad puns, and maybe a limerick or two about my experiences this fall in the lab. You will... I guarantee it... It's pretty much all I have to talk about.



But in a real way this man (who's name I actually do know, though I'm not sure this was intended) is a contributor to the art of medicine in the same way that the man pictured above was the means by which so much fine art was produced in Florence. Knowing nothing else this beneficence earns this man a measure of respect. Lorenzo De Medici had his own flaws in character, ruthlessness in the struggle for power, perhaps lavish tastes at times (maybe this is more description of Cosimo) and failures in business. But his unique generosity lives on. In this same way I consider this previous owner of this cadaver as a patron.

I know nothing of his life (other than pathology evident from his anatomy, i.e. heart issues, pace maker, etc), but he has donated something beyond value that will live on in six future doctors, who will in turn treat hundreds of patients, who will in turn make donations of their own to this world. I just wanted to put in this bit, because previous posts and posts that are sure to follow are bound to be irreverent, morbid, and/or macabre. Call it a way of coping. Call it a way of celebrating. Call it a cheap way to get people to read my blog. Just understand that if I am to meet my patron in the afterlife, I will probably be at a loss to express my gratitude for his generosity.

Even more of the stryker bone saw

Just in case anyone wanted to see how delicate the art of medicine is, here are some photos of some of the tools that I have been using to finesse my way into my benefactor's spinal column and chest cavity.





It took a considerable amount of time to expose said patron's lungs. This was due mostly to the fact the a pacemaker was found in said chest. If you can be a organ donor, could you be a biotechnology donor? I wonder if someone could have used this fine piece of Medtronic hardware. Due to the aforementioned finesse, no one will be using this piece of equipment again.

I did get to watch LK for most of the night as Mer went to a function. You would never believe a grown man would make such noises to a stoic face infant and not feel ridiculous, but they do. It was still nice when Mer came home, after LK was snoozing fitfully.

Laminectomy

I put nice cutesie pictures of LK up here to fool people into reading the following which contains gruesome details of my daily life. I have always listed the smell of burning bone as one of my least favorite experiences. The first time I can distinctly remember smelling burning bone was when Bobby Wood was fashioning some sort of bridge for his guitar (if there's one thing I am totally ignorant of, its the anatomy of a musical instrument). The smell is truely awful. Well today I had the distinct pleasure of sawing through the vertebral column of a dead, but generous, man of about 250 lbs.

It didn't last too long, we soon decided to just use the chisel, chipping and tearing away part of this philantropist of the latest kind with reckless abandon. What an interesting activity to engage in. I think I understand the illicit connotation attached to such activity in previous times. It truly is utilitarian.

On a less barbaric note, our first test was today. Embryology. I passed. That is good. Actually everyone passed.

And our air conditioning works at our apartment!

Don't even know what to complain about.....