Like this:

(from www.motmplus.com)

It’s time for a change. Clearly, writing on Saturdays (my only day off from studying) isn’t working. It’s time to transition to daily writing. It’ll take less time, give me my Saturdays completely off, allow for more reflection and up the number of posts on the blog. Everyone wins!

***

It’s the day after Thanksgiving break. It’s hard to get up. Thankfully, I spent part of yesterday studying, and so I feel a desire to get back and learn more.

I get to UVM around 7:30 and spend some time reviewing the Red Book (our anatomy book) and our Dissector before class at 9.

***

9 AM begins Block 3 of HSF. As I walk in, I find the customary packet of printed lecture outlines for each lecture in these next few weeks. I grab it and take a seat.

Betsy (i.e. Dr. Ezerman) welcomes us back and reminds us to do evaluations so we can see our grades. She reminds us that Block 1 was “Motors, wires and chassis”, i.e. lots of muscles and what innervates them, while Block 2 was ”Plumbing and climate control”, i.e. respiration, cardiology, the endocrine system and homeostasis.

Block 3, she informs us, is about the gastrointestinal system, i.e. “Eat, drink and be merry!”

She then introduces Dr. Haeberle and his “barf cart” to simulate the digestive system. For some reason, it looks to me like the bottom part of a concession stand cart with a bunch of scientific apparati on it.

He’s a bit of a character. To demonstrate that chewing produces a cohesive bolus (a ball of food that won’t stick to your esophagus), he ground up some food, rolled a bit of it into a ball and threw it into the audience. It did stick together after landing.

He also utters this phrase during the lecture: “Au contraire, my gastrointestinal neophyte.”

Dr. Mawe then comes to give two lectures about the impact of a meal on the gastrointestinal system. Pretty straightforward. But you gotta love a guy who shows us pictures from his colonoscopy as part of his lecture. (Not to mention an image from when his son swallowed a quarter.)

***

Lunchtime comes. This time, I take it with the Reproductive Rights interest group, who are having a seminar with free pizza. Cate Nicholas, who heads the Doctoring Skills part of HSF along with Dr. Rubin, talks with us about how she worked as an abortion care provider for several years and discusses her experience and thoughts.

Even though it was somewhat lighthearted in discussion, it still is sober to discuss. It has to be. What I walk away with is the fact that the abortion issue is much more complicated than most people on either political side realize.

***

From 1-4, I have Histology. Thankfully, most of this is redundant with what we talked about in the lecture today.

The two course TAs come in to lead this session. We love it when TAs lead because they’re concise, they hit everything we need to know for the exam and they’re super-helpful with helping us identify structures.

Watch this name: Isabella Martin. My understanding is that she’s going into pathology. If so, she will not only be an excellent pathologist, but she will also be an effective and enthusiastic teacher.

***

Afterward, I go to a classroom and spend some time teaching myself information from the RedBook. Then I go home, have dinner with my housemates, and prepare for lab tomorrow, do some Imaging and review Histology / today’s lecture notes.

 As I review the lecture outlines, I find this paraphrased phrase: “I was going to put an exclamation point here, but didn’t upon remembering the Seinfeld episode that mentioned that topic.”

I rethink whether Dr. Mawe is antic-free.

Josh Pothen (UVM’s Meager Med Student)

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