The First Incision

Greetings digital blogging world. I have decided to make my first official post. As many of you are well aware I have recently started medical school. So far it is every bit as demanding as I imagined it. At the same time it is very exciting and I love learning about the various subjects that I am studying. Medical school holds a lot of surprises and many unforeseen events. In fact something very interesting happened to me just the other day, I was called into a room to make my very first incision with a scalpel into a human body. It was quite the experience. First I put on my scrubs and gloves.



Then I walked into the room took the scalpel and examined the body. I don't remember what was going on inside of my head at the time, but for those of you who know how I get squeamish at the site of blood you won't be surprised to hear that it was probably something like this "please don't pass out, please don't pass out, please don't pass out". Then I made my first cut into a human body. It was at that point that I realized that cutting open a cadaver really was not as bad as I thought it would be. I think it may have something to do with the training that I receive as an officer in the US army. We are taught to not let these kinds of things bother us. So we continued to open up the back of the body until we found the spine. I have included a picture for those of you who have never dissected a cadaver before.



After we found the spine we were given a bone saw to cut open the spine so that we could expose the spinal cord inside. Once we made our cuts along the spine we were given a hammer and some chisels to complete the job. We had to chisel our way into the bone ( for those of you who like eating crab and lobster you might want to skip this part) and break it apart piece by piece, it was almost like breaking crab legs or lobster claws to expose the meat. We had to break the bones and chisel it so that we could rip pieces of it off to expose the spinal chord.

If there is one thing to be said of medical school it's that it is not dull. There is always something to be done. I really am enjoying it a lot. I also wanted to thank all of you who are supporting my wife during this time by posting on your blogs or calling here on the phone because it lets her socialize with people who are over the age of three, seeing as how I am gone for 12 hours a day and then I come home and study at night. So all of you bloggers I take back everything that I ever said about it, and keep up the good work.