It's been a long time since my last post, and in my defense, I have been quite busy. We had our first round of tests, and everything aside from personal hygiene found its way to the back burner. I have so much gratitude for my roommate for doing most of the dishes. I'll try to make it up. Here I am though; it's Sunday night. This weekend has been a well-deserved break, or so I tell myself. I spent most of it doing little of anything productive. I took time out for friendship and some much needed rest. The first round of tests went well, and they're serving as a good confidence-booster going forward. I was happy to see that my study habits paid off, at least so far. The amount of material I feel I've learned already is unbelievable. It is truly like the rather cliche simile I heard: med school is just like putting your mouth up to a fire hydrant and cranking it open. I'm trying to catch as much as I can.
Other than that, I don't have to much to add. I like my classmates more by the day; each person seems to have a very interesting story as to how they came to this profession.
Oh, I suppose there is one more thing. On Tuesday, I'll be dissecting a face. I'm not sure yet how this will go; I find myself fascinated and terrified all at once. I'm sure, though, that it'll probably bring about some discussion of my own mortality.

I was telling Arlo yesterday that for the first time in my life I am really amazed at my own ignorance, and believe me, I understand how terribly arrogant that sounds. Before you pass judgment, dear reader, I hope you consider this: imagine, if you will, that for the last twenty two years you have been inhabiting a vehicle that you thought you understood only to realize, or learn, one day that you know absolutely nothing about it. Such is my realization in anatomy; at least in biochemistry I had a vague idea that there were general biochemical processes going on that allowed for the proper functioning of my body. Anatomy, my anatomy, has proven to be something that has been completely shocking.
Today, we exposed the brachial plexus, a collection of nerve cords just above the axilla (armpit). These nerves, these three small cords, are responsible for much of the sensory innervation of the arm and hand, and yet there they lay, simply under some skin and muscle, fragile, as I've discovered much of the body is.
So much to learn, and right now, each day, though difficult, gets better and better.

I was unsure of what I was going to write today until I was talking to my friends James and Jess. She recently began a nursing position at a hospital, and she told me of her first experience with medical students-scared, uncertain, confused, over-eager...
I know I'm all of those things right now and I'm not even in a clinical setting yet. However, there's nothing I would rather be doing, and even the studying seems like a light burden. I have my stethoscope sitting on my dresser, lying as a constant reminder to, in my rather elitist belief, the profession that I'm pursuing.


On a different note, so far, though it's only a week in, I must say how much I enjoy the company of my classmates. Since our class is so small, I'm excited to get to know all or nearly all of them, and I'm excited to make some deep friendships, for I firmly believe it's going to take these friendships, made in the metaphorical trenches of Lee Med and the wooden booths of Carey's, to get through these next four years.

1 week done, and 2 weeks from tomorrow the first round of testing begins.

While I promised that this blog would only have weekly updates, I found myself strangely inspired, and stranger still, with a fair amount of free time tonight. As I write this, I feel like for the first time since I'm starting medical school I am realizing that this is my life. This is no projection; there are no second chances, and this is certainly no movie. This is me, making the decisions I make, studying what I study, and, in anatomy lab, cutting what I cut. I'm learning more than I can possibly imagine, and the realization hit me during the medical sales pitch today and when I threw my stethoscope around my neck when I got home after Bob's Burgers that in four years when I graduate, I'm going to be a doctor. No longer am I merely preparing for medical school, volunteering because it looks good on my resume or studying to increase my chances of getting in.

I'm in, and now everything is about making me the best doctor I can possibly be.
Wow.

Updates are going to be coming weekly, not daily.
Sorry folks...

And so it came, with all the fear and excitement that I expected- my first day of medical school classes. It started out simply enough; a five minute bike ride took me to the gym, and twenty minutes and two and a half miles later I was back on the bike, ready at least physically for what the day had in store for me.

Biochemistry was simply review today: water reactions and basic amino acid information; however, there is much I need to re-learn, and I'm kicking myself for not keeping my flashcards from Dave's class, though I believe that I took much more.

This afternoon possessed what I've been so concerned with for so long- anatomy lab, and today we began our dissection. I have never done, as I've said before, a cadaver dissection; the last dissection I performed was on a pig in Ms. Jeske's class in seventh grade. Today was completely different. While I was nervous, anticipating my first incision, I breathed deeply, inserted my scalpel, and sliced, and to my surprise, I was still standing at the end of the first cut. For the rest of the lab, nearly two hours, I was rarely without a scalpel, and I only gave it up begrudgingly. Perhaps surgery's the thing for, though it's far too early to tell.

It was fascinating. A complete unraveling, a complete removal of the veil of normalcy that shrouds the inner goings-on of the human experience, an exposure of the human, the all too human, and it was beautiful, in its own way, of course.