impressions

Here are some random and unrelated thoughts from my first block.

1. The hand is enormously complex.  There are tendons, nerves, muscles, vessels running everywhere.  I have a whole new respect for hand surgeons.
2. Always tell a patient what you are about to do and why, especially if it's a woman and whatever you're doing is near her breasts.
1. As a corollary, if you need to elevate a woman's breast in order to listen to her heart, use the BACK of your hand.  If you use the palm, it qualifies as a caress.  That tends to cause lawsuits.
3. Holding the lungs in your hand is cool.
4. Holding the human heart in your hand is even cooler.
5. How did med students learn before google?  Seriously.  I use it nearly as much as my texts.
6. MUCH of med school is self taught.  The profs are there and they provide the material but in the end, it's just you and the material.
7. On the other hand, I'm impressed at how helpful and caring the faculty across the board have been.
8. When you can eat breakfast while watching the video on how to do the gross anatomy dissection for the afternoon, you are pretty much desensitized.  Of course, I ate during the Miracle of Life video during our birthing classes many moons ago so I've been desensitized for awhile now.
9. With the exception of the gunners, the large majority of students are just trying to survive, much less excel.
10. When I take a step back and look at it all, this is soooooo cool.  I love it.