Saturday, August 29, 2009

Anatomy Ruins Porn

Ignore the title for a moment, I'll get back to that in a bit.
-----
On Thursday I had my medical interviewing course, where we learn to take patient histories from and how to interact with a standardized patient (SP). There are 6 of us and a facilitator and each session 2 people are chosen to go interview the SP. Imagine my reaction when another girl and I were chosen to go this first session. o_O

Actually I think I did very well. The SP was supposed to present with a case of severe lower back pain. We had to take down the details of the pain (onset, location, kind, severity, etc) in addition to other info. The other girl went into the interview with a list of questions to ask and she was really nervous. I just went in with a more or less blank piece of paper to take notes on (because honestly, when in real life would you have a list of questions to ask every patient?). The SP said he felt more engaged with me, w00t! I followed the patient wherever one of us steered the interview and I tried to make it feel more "organic" rather than having him answering a list of my questions in a particular order. Apparently not everyone approves of this methodology, oh well. One person commented how I seemed a tad disorganized, BUT I did hit every major question - just not in any particular order. I was following the patient and "guiding" him towards the requisite questions. But overall I think people were impressed with us, considering it was our first time.

The other girl who went (she went first) kept telling me what a pro I was at this (am I? I was just doing what "felt right") . Later in anatomy lecture, one girl in my group sat next to me and told me again how impressed she was. She said that observing me with the SP she felt as if she were observing a real doctor-patient conversation, and that it seemed to come naturally for me. I had to lol inside a little at that. I don't think I have "natural talent" or whatever, but rather I developed my "style" of interaction from my teaching experience (I knew it'd be useful for something other than teaching!). Hmm, I guess I must be on the right track then. Go me! ^_^
-----
On Friday I had a much-dreaded anatomy lecture and the accompanying lab. We were doing the hands. Ugh, there are like 1000 tendons, bones, and muscles in the hand! I think there's more to know about the hand and forearm than the upper arm, chest, and back combined!! T.T Then we had to dissect the hands. All 3 girls in my group would not even touch the hands, so it was just me and this other guy dissecting - one hand each. Omg, it's soooo hard to dissect the hands. A hand surgeon I will never be.

And this is for Dave83201: there is this really cute girl in my group. She's actually the oldest out of the 5 of us, haha. She has long wavy brunette hair, a really nice tan, and quite a bubbly personality. She's pretty short, but nicely formed. :P Good things come in small packages I guess.

She has the most "unique" scrubs of the 5 of us. Whereas we all wear the standard and boring blue scrubs, she has this bright orange scrub top with gray bottoms. She doesn't usually do much cutting (a surgeon she will not be), though she's pretty good at cleaning away fascia and fat. We make fun of the way she says the anatomic structures because she does this thing with her hands to help her memorize things. It's pretty cute. She's pretty cute.
-----
Today I was invited - along with 3 other M1's - to a cardiothoracic surgeon's home for lunch. Perhaps a bit of back story is necessary here. Every M1 is given an "informal" and "formal" mentor. The informal mentor can be anyone from any specialty whereas the formal mentor has to be from primary care. My informal mentor is a cardiothoracic surgeon. The other guys were invited to his house because their informal mentor didn't show up at the meet and greet event, and they sat at our table. So my cardiothoracic guy "adopted" them, lol.

He's apparently one of the best cardiothoracic surgeons at the VA in town. He has a really nice house and his wife cooked really delicious Iranian food (they're originally from Iran). I don't think I've ever really had Iranian food, but I LOVE ethnic foods, so this was a real treat. ^_^

I was really surprised he had the time for us, being a top cardiothoracic surgeon and all. I was equally surprised how nice and down-to-earth he was. We kind of sat/stood around watching and talking about soccer a bit, as a game was on. He offered all of us an opportunity to shadow him in the OR which, even if you don't want to be a surgeon, is not an offer one can turn down. So that's definitely an opportunity I'm sure all of us will take.
-----
Still reading? Okay, back to the title, lol.

So yeah, anatomy kind of ruins porn. It really does. It's weird when you're watching porn and then your attention suddenly shifts to identifying whatever superficial muscles and veins you can find. Oh that guy has a really nice latissimus dorsi! Wow, look at his serratus anterior! Hey he has a nicely defined trapezius, and really huge pectoralis major! Look at the cephalic vein bulging on that one!! -_-

No, just no. Ugh. I can only imagine what'd happen when we reach the later units of anatomy as it moves lower down on the body. Fuck.

17 comments:

Steevo said...

...bulging veins, huh? i'll hafta look that one up later.

sounds like u r as happy as a pig in shit! LOL

That heart guy has time for u cuz older professionals LOVE to share their passion w/ the next generation.

I often have student teachers in my room. It's fun!

going out tonight?

s

Jeremy said...

I lol'd @ your description about how anatomy ruins porn :P

Good luck with that anatomy thing though, I don't think I'd like that kind of memorization... then again, I did take ochem >_>

cvn70 said...

AEK

hey your Mentor sounds wonderful and take advantage of every oppurtunnity he offers

Im no surprised he is down to earth most good people are

and im glad i dont have your problems with watching porn lol

take care and be safe

bob

Anonymous said...

Good things come in small packages...hehehehehehehe... :)

naturgesetz said...

Just read this and the previous post. Interesting stuff. I had somehow imagined med school as being devoid of feeling. It's good to see people being human through your descriptions.

Mr. Urs said...

This is really annoying, but I think it's better (in this case) to be able to keep studying while being aroused than to get aroused while studying.

Pilgrim said...

While the most part of this post was just interesting, the last part is hilarious! :-D Propz Pilgrim

Anonymous said...

Yep. The hemisection of the penis is always a lot of fun. The girls didn't have half as much trouble with cutting the vagina in half. So, yeah, it's going to deflate you for a spell. Except I guarantee that a hot, wet, deep kiss has an amazing ability to counter that deflationary effect. Almost instantly.

Dave83201 said...

Yeah, first porn is ruined, then oral sex entirely with descriptions like those. Does one really want to knowingly put another person's cephalic vein in their mouth?

Thanks!

Dave

Anonymous said...

Actually, it's the penile vein going to the pudendal, but let's not let facts get in the way of the discussion, shall we?

Aek said...

Steevo: "[A]s happy as a pig in shit"? I'm not sure about that, lol.

Jeremy: Thanks, there's a lot to memorize and I shouldn't be procrastinating right now. >.>

Pilgrim: Haha, thanks. :P

Anonymous: Hemisection of the penis? Don't want to think about it. >.<

Dave83201: Actually, the cephalic vein goes down in front of your shoulders and down over the bicep. It's that major vein that you see bulging on top of your arm, particularly when you flex (the vein running down under your arm is the basilic vein, the one they draw blood from usually is the cubital median, though sometimes the cephalic instead). So you see, it's very difficult to stuff an intact cephalic vein into a person's mouth. XD

Anonymous: Was this second comment a response to Dave83201? ;-) Because I haven't reached that part in anatomy yet and despite how well I know the surface anatomy, things underneath I have no clue about . . . yet.

tommy said...

If you want to get to the most important testable facts of Anatomy read Board Review Series Gross Anatomy by Chung. Also, go ahead and get a copy of First Aid for the Boards.

If I were you, I wouldn't bother with shadowing the CT surgeon just yet. As an M1, they probably won't let you scrub in, which means you will have to stand away from the table. One reason is that you probably don't have any malpractice insurance until you are an M3. Also, the CT surgeries can be long, tedious, and boring unless you get to participate, which is usually reserved for the CT fellow.

My advice is not to get involved with too many things outside of the books until you pass Step 1. A good strategy is to only attend required lectures and meetings, instead spend time reading course material (syllabus and slides), use texts as reference, then make time early in the semester to read a review book for the course. If your school uses NBME shelf exams (old Step 1 questions) as finals, then you got to hit the review books early, not enough time at the end of the semester.

Over the summer you will be tempted with internships or research, but consider picking up a copy of Rapid Review Series Pathology by Goljan and work the Robins Review of Pathology question book (1100 questions). If you can find the Goljan audio lectures, about 40 hours, it would be good, they follow his book nicely. Just remember until you pass Step 1 you have got nothing, and if you want choices with respect to residencies, you need a good score on Step 1. Also, the NBME website sells two Step 1 simulation exams for about $50 each. They are half as long as the regular exam, but student scores on these practice exams strongly correlate to their scores on Step 1. So, during your Step 1 prep take the practice tests when you think your prepared, but allow enough extra study time in case you don't score well. In other words, don't take the practice exam 1 week before the real thing, because you won't have enough time to correct deficiencies.

Anonymous said...

Actually, you can not malpractice until you have your MD degree. M1/M3, doesn't matter. You're a student, you can not malpractice, because you can not practice in the first place. As for not scrubbing in, I wouldn't expect to scrub in until I were a fellow--they don't need med students to hold retractors in cardio--the retractors can be set by the surgeon and stay there. If the surgeon is a good teacher, observing him/her in the OR can be a treat--but only then. If they're not into giving a good lesson while operating, it's going to be quite a bore.

One other thing--try to get someone to show you a picture from the OR of an abdominal exploration--it's the best way to see peritoneum. You'll never see it on the cadaver. Never.

--AD

charlie said...

Oh my god... I can't imagine how you will feel about porn after having dissected testicles and penises... :S

Good luck about that!

tommy said...

As M3's we were charged malpractice insurance premiums when we paid tuition. As M4's we had options for doing rotations at other universities, and always had to show proof of insurance. Sometimes the other universities required more coverage than my university, so we would have to pay additional premiums.

The same type of retractors are used on the abdomen, now. Only once held a retractor on my surgical rotation, when converting a lap chole to an open procedure. You can see some good lap procedures on Youtube.

Anonymous said...

For a scopic procedure, why bother scrubbing in. All the action's on the screen. Maybe they've changed insurance requirements, but we never had to worry until PGY-1. I'll stand by the comment on the peritoneum. There's nothing to see in the cadaver on that count.

Aek said...

tommy, Anonymous: Thanks for the advice! It's interesting (and good) to know that other med people are reading this blog, lol. It's always fascinating to hear what other people have to say and what their advice is, cuz it's pretty different from person to person.

Charlie: It's going to be a while before I get to dissect testicles and penises (thank God).