Meet Mr. Murphy

So Ross has been quite the adventure so far. The first week of class is done and wow is there ever a lot of work to do.. My schedule is typically get up at 6:30am, eat a little and then get to class for about 7:15 (after that it just fills up too much and good luck finding a seat..). Class goes from 8 until noon, and then afternoons are variable. Sometimes there will be another lecture or two until 2-3pm, other times you will have them off, and yet other times you will be in the cadaver lab from 1:30 until 5.

Oh the cadaver lab. Some people are totally scared by it, and some can't wait to get in there. I for one was excited, but at the same time worried about how I would react to cutting up a human being. The smell was something awful, but went unnoticed after about 5 minutes. People were funny, some touching everything, and others trying to stand as far away from the bodies as possible, but once dissection started, it was great. I must say that I was reluctant to touch the body at first, but I put myself in the frame of mind that those ribs I saw were just baby-back ribs and all was good from there. I even caught myself leaning on the corpse for support as I reflected the semisplinalis capitis to uncover the occipital triangle. Like straight up leaning, with my bare arm, on what used to be this old man's posterior rib cage and intrinsic back muscles. Cool. There I was, trying to stick my finger as far as it could go between Mr. Murphy's skull and C1 vertebra to make room for us to identify the vertebral artery (I named our cadaver Mr. Murphy for his resemblance to one of my regular clients when I worked as a bartender..) Too cool. Yes I got home smelling like death and preservatives, and the smell of formaldehyde actually permeated through my nitrile gloves and made my hands stink, even after repeated washings, but it was awesome.

For all those going into a similar lab feeling a bit reluctant, don't worry. You get over it fast and it may well be the best part of medical school.