Day 1

Well, I'm done with my first day of P.A. school.  How was it?  Let me tell you.

It was great!

We had anatomy lecture for an hour starting at 8.  We learned about the vertebral column (including ribs).

Then, we went to anatomy lab.  THAT was an interesting experience.  I was fortunate enough at BYU to be able to learn anatomy on cadavers as an undergrad.  Many of my classmates (probably most of them) did not.  But the cadavers I learned on were already prosected (skin, fat, and connective tissue already dissected away).  So, there was some disconnect between them as cadavers and them as people.  Today was a whole different story.  Lucy (that's the name I gave our cadaver) died of breast cancer at the age of 76.  We open the bag and there is this whole person lying on the table.  Luckily, for the first day,  we were dissecting the upper back so our cadavers were face down.  I'm not sure how well it would have gone over to see the person's face on the very first day.

A couple of things I learned today...

1. Preserved human skin does not feel like live human skin.  It feels very thick and tough...like leather...but thicker.
2. Scalpels are really, really sharp.  (Don't worry, I didn't cut myself).
3. There is a crap-load of stuff underneath the skin before you ever get to muscle (fat, connective tissue, fascia)...especially on larger individuals.  So, if you ever plan on donating your body to a med school, please shed a few pounds first.
4. The human body is simultaneously awe-inspiring and disgusting.

After lab, we changed clothes, ate lunch, and then went back to class for Medical Communications.  Dr. Rice (program director) gave us an introduction into taking a patient history.  We'll get more on that tomorrow.  The lecture was short today, so we sat around until it was time to go down to the computer testing center to have a small orientation there.  Then, we were done.

I rode my bike to school today and then rode it back home.  Let me tell you, I will NOT be riding my bike home tomorrow.  Going to school is great.  It's fairly cool in the mornings.  In the afternoon though, the heat and humidity are brutal!  The buses here have bike racks on them, so I'll ride the bus home tomorrow.

After I got home, I spent a couple hours consolidating all my schedules, readings, assignments, and tests into a Google Calendar.  That's one sort of frustrating thing about the program.  There are so many different documents in so many different places that it's hard to know where to find everything.  There isn't once central website that everybody uses to post class materials.  So, I had to get everything onto one document so as to not forget when things are due.

From 6:30-9:00, I went to a study group.  Now I'm home.  I still have some stuff to read for tomorrow, but it shouldn't be too bad.

And there you have it.  My first day.  I am going to try and take pictures throughout the semester...but probably not everyday.  I'm not sure how much I'll be posting from here on out.  My goal is once a week unless I did something extra cool on any given day.  I'm kinda liking this blogging thing though, so who knows, maybe I'll post more frequently than that.