First Day of Med School

After a whirlwind three-day orientation, we had our first full day of classes today!

In short, during orientation we:

1) were introduced to our new profession ("you are all in, all the time")

2) did all our administrative stuff

3) met each other (all 137? of us went on stage in front of the rest of our class to introduce ourselves and we have an amazing group of people!)

Our class (some people are cut off):

Every night, there has been a social event of some sort as well. On Tuesday there was an ice cream social for Mare Island residents and yesterday there was a big sib/little sib barbecue, which was a nice way to meet some of the 2nd years.

As for the first day of *osteopathic* medical school, today was awesome. Class was awesome.

My first class was 8am: osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) lab. This was by far my favorite thing ever and I am so sad that we only have this lab once a week. We got into our partners and traded off being the patient on the table and the doc doing the palpation. We felt around for the tendons, muscle groups in the arm and lower legs, and some random things in the head (inion, mastoid and transverse processes, etc.). We also had to take off our shirts (sports bras on, don't worry) so we could feel for things in the back. First we had to feel for heat with our hands without touching the skin and see which areas in the back had more heat (but it was hard to tell if the palmar or dorsal side of our hand was more sensitive to heat). We tried dragging our fingers down the sides of the vertebrae to see where the skin dragged, at varying speeds. If you do it at a harder pressure, the skin should blanche first and if it stays red, it means the muscles are more aggravated. The areas that are red also tend to be warmer and have more skin drag. There is something called thermal diagnosis that is a much more intensive version of this but the point is that you can tell what's going on inside by looking at the skin. You see why I love this?

OMM lab:

Next up was anatomy lecture at 10am. Our professor had really good ways of describing things and related things in anatomy to how a doctor would think about it with a patient. He also explained the latin roots of words. Examples: The sagittal plane was named after the arrow-shaped fontanelle in a baby's skull (sagitarrius, the archer uses arrows) which faces the same direction. Also, if you want to remember which direction flexion is (vs. extension), every joint flexes when you curl into the fetal position.

We had one hour off for lunch (12-1) and then we split back into our groups. Anatomy lecture was the only time today where our whole class was together but for the rest of it, our class is split into three groups. Because we all do everything together, it feels like summer camp. I mean, you usually pick your courses in undergrad (or grad) and go to each of those classes on your own. There isn't a schedule that is followed by everyone. But in medical school, everyone is in the same classes and everyone is always together. It's actually really nice. I think we will be able to pick some electives later but those will only happen for a few hours on Friday afternoons.

So my next class was osteopathic doctoring where we talked about ethics and professionalism in the doctor patient relationship. We discussed cases and how to handle them. Is it appropriate to cry with a patient? What do you do when a 75 year old lady comes in for the first time and demands valium or she will fire you? Students had a lot of really interesting viewpoints and things to say. There is obviously no clear cut answer, but it's great to think about these things.

The last class of the day was at 3: ANATOMY LAB. Touro has one of the best labs in the country because it has to stay clean according to Jewish tradition, meaning there is really good ventilation to prevent living air from mixing with dead air. We broke into groups of five to each cadaver. We learned the lab rules (did you know formaldehyde can bind to petroleum based products like gum or lip balm?) and learned how to put on a scalpel blade. Before dissecting, we spent a moment of silence to thank our cadavers for donating their bodies to science and letting us learn with them. I was a little hesitant about cutting because I didn't want anything to go wrong, but the professors came around and dove right in, pulling skin/adipose tissue, cutting the fascia/connective tissue between the adipose and the muscle. We got to see the trapezius, the rhomboid major and minor, the latissimus dorsi, the serratus anterior, and the obliques.

It feels like two days have passed already, but we are learning a lottttt. I am way behind in studying now. Gotta go! :)