Day 2 Cadaver Lab

Who would have thought that I'd be kind of excited at doing a cadaver lab? Well, I guess most of my PA friends would think this...and therefore, know that, yup, this was exciting.

One of the worst parts about learning about medicine is that we often do things on patients for the first time. They might not know this, but I'd expect that they usually experience more pain because of someone doing something for the first time on them. I have been on the receiving end of a "first time" and I can tell you this much. No fun. Not one bit.


So, if someone says..."hey, try this Chest tube, this IJ, this SC, this intubation, this retro-intubation, this IO access, this cut-down, this femoral cut down, this femoral access, this thoracostomy this decompression, this cricothyrotomy" and it's not going to hurt any patient? I am ALL about it.


We are all listening carefully!

 There were 3 bodies which meant 5 to a body. Quite generous. I learned that there are 2 sorts of bodies- fixed and unfixed. We were working on unfixed bodies. This means a lot of great things like organs are pretty much exactly as you'd expect, and there is no real "rigor" that has set in.

                                            

And we did every one of those things above mentioned things today. Packed a few noses, did a few digital blocks, a few arthrocentesis and thoracentesis. They then did a demo of cracking a chest, and we were able to feel the aorta, as well as the heart and other organs. While this is not done often anymore (nope, not Greys Anatomy in real life!) it remains something that might be done as a "you have no other choice" thing.

Okay, so certain things are tough to do when there is no blood flow, but it is, after all, about proper technique and they made sure we were doing it right.

I know it's not 'tea life' but it's a lot closer than I have gotten. This learning is FUN. A lot of fun.

Afterwards, we had a dinner in the conference room, the stinky, smelly bunch of us.

The food here has been great! They correctly assumed that we would not like an "out" dinner but would prefer an take out kind of dinner. Perfect!

Doesn't Jamie look GREAT in this yellow hat?

I then went to everyones favorite store with a new found friend and got yet even more poison ivy stuff.