commotiocordis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
commotiocordis) wrote2006-10-21 02:20 pm
commotiocordis) wrote2006-10-21 02:20 pm
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So this is from a while ago. Meaning Tuesday the 17th. But I never posted it because my internet has been off. Grr. So here it is.
Mini Med? OMG*dies*amazing! This was the one where we got to play with the laparoscopy stuff and suturing. The guy that presented stuff for surgery at the beginning (like normal, with lecture and slides) had video. And I'm geeking out here in the back row, lamenting the fact that I can't see horridly well as I accidentally left my glasses at school today, just watching this laparoscopic cholecystectomy (there were some other video clips, one of a mesh insertion for a hernia repair, but this was the longest and most complete one) and grinning my ass off because it was so cool.
And then we went down to the suturing, where we played with real needles and sutures and drivers and pickups on this foam+batting (like from a quilt)+plywood thing. Natalie (whom I've known since we were in the elementary gifted program together and who is in my Spanish and English classes) and I went down to the room that we were going to do the suturing in and there was only one med student looking person that was going to teach in there, and she was up at the front, so we wanted to go up there, but that table was full. So we went to the back where there was room, and then more teaching type people came in, and somebody (one of the residents that was teaching) asked 2 people from our table to move to the one next to it so the two were even and she could move from one to the other to teach both tables, but both Natalie and I for some reason felt like we should stay where we were, which ended up majorly paying off. Because you can probably imagine my little internal freakout when who else came to sit next to us to do the teaching than Dr. freaking Cynthia Wichelman, the assistant professor of emergency medicine who was in charge of the whole minimed thing.
She ended up learning Natalie's name because Natalie was having trouble with the stitchage, whichsort of made me jealous (because she is the one who above everyone else I want to learn who I am) but then she was all with the complementage as we were fast and I got the small, tight, lined up stitches with the smaller needle (which was thin and a little less than 2cm long, as opposed to the one that was like 6cm that we started on and most of the other tables stayed using the whole time) thing going on pretty quickly, which made me happy. Though I did have a bit of trouble with the knots at the very beginning, which I realized was because I was trying to hold my right wrist with the needle driver like I would my viola bow (not the fingers but the arm position) and my elbow needed to be in farther so I wasn't completely inverting my wrist for every bite I took. But Dr. Wichelman had me come over and sit right next to her (*yay!yay!yay*) so she could show me what I was doing wrong (as originally Natalie was next to me and there was an open space between her and the doctor) and I got it then right away. And the doctor was muy impressed by how fast our group (Natalie and I plus a father and daughter) got everything.
So then we moved to the research laparoscopy lab in a different building (which you totally can't get in or out of without all kinds of clearance, as it's an animal research place) and got to look at the cameras and general ORish setup (it wasn't like the operating theatre type that I imagined, but apparently looked pretty standard, though smaller, for the hospital's general O.R.s). And we got to play with a fakey setup of the scope and the grabber bits and try to tie knots in this surgical tie thing and move little beads and jacks and stuff around in this boxish thing (that slightly resembled a chest cavity, as I assume it was supposed to).
And the last place (it was sort of rotationy as we had so many people) still in the laparo area was with this nursing student named Laura who's been working (not as a nursing student, but just as post-undergrad stuff; nursing student makes her sound inexperienced and it was very much the opposite) in research a lot, for the last while with the laparo guys, and she explained some stuff about what they actually are doing in that place (lots of pig stuff, one thing being organic mesh for hernia repair versus the synthetic with laparo installation, stuff like that). We didn't have a whole lot of time there, as we were already just about at the time we were supposed to end. So everybody was starting to leave.
And then I started asking aforementioned research lady all these questions. Mostly about education and what she was doing and how the research fit in to her wanting to be a nurse practitioner and undergrad research and stuff. Kept talking. She walked down with me all the way out of the building, into the education building that we started in where we left our stuff (which wasn't a very short way, completely out of one building which took a while as we were way back and up in some corner, and then 3 blocks or so, upstairs again into the lecture room of the edu building), we stopped in there and were talking for quite a bit, got my stuff, started walking back, and she kept putting up with my questions and walked all the way to the car with me. The entire trip to the education building was the totally opposite way she needed to go, as she had left her stuff in the laparo place.
We were talking for like 30 minutes.
I'm in so much love.
She actually was listening, and I could tell that she was paying attention to everything I said (she had the whole very active listening thing going on, facing sideways on the escalator so we could keep talking and pausing talking the two times we went through the revolving doors so she was sure that both of us were able to hear what the other was saying) and she thought my questions were good and she asked stuff back about what I was doing/want to do and I'm pretty sure she enjoyed talking to me and she went quite a bit out of her way to continue the conversation past when everybody else had left, going all the way out to my freaking car where we stood for a bit so we could finish talking (though the car was on her way back to the lapro building). I don't think that I have ever had someone (especially someone older than me who'd been working already that day and undoubtedly wanted to get home and do other things) listen so well and be so receptive to and encouraging of my incessant questioning. I was so impressed. So talking to her definitely made the whole thing even better (though suturing and laparoscopy was already OMGcool).
So I think I've sort of got one of my crazy admiration-infatuation things going on now. Though I'm pretty sure (though more than one part of me really, really hopes not) that I'm probably not ever going to see her again. (Do you ever think about that? Like, you've met this person and had a conversation and you enjoyed it and each other and it's such a shame that you'll probably not meet again because you think that you could be good friends. I sort of wish that I was older and could have asked for her phone number or something, just so maybe we could talk again. Because I really very much enjoyed her company.) Laura is really pretty and really, really nice and smart and works in medicine, all of which are pretty much my major (for lack of a better word) turn-ons. And I sort of got that flutter; not the 'OMG do me now!' flutter but the 'You're so cool and you're actually interested in me' flutter (nobody probably has any idea what I'm talking about) when we were talking, particularly when she touched my arm (I totally cannot remember why she touched my arm or what specifically we were talking about at the time because my memory sucks and I sort of think that then was really when I was thinking about how lucky I am that I had that rotation last and that she was there and that I actually had the nerve to go ask her something, but I can completely imagine exactly how she looked when she did it). Which sounds really sexual, the remembering what she looked like when she did it more than the point she was making, but this is how all my minicrush type things go. Though there's an element of that, the majority of it is "I want to learn everything you know." They're more intellectual crushes than anything.
But I had a couple of questions about the actual pig procedure things that I didn't ask her when we were talking because we were talking more about the educational stuff and research in general than the specific stuff they were doing right then. (And when I came home, I know I mentioned both questions to my mother, and after I got to telling her the second one she was like "You really ought to email her and ask" and I was like "Definitely", but I couldn't remember the first question already. My short term memory has a capacity of nothing.) I'd like to ask her about them. But I can't find an email for her (though I know the students get emails) as for the studies she's listed online as working on or as the contact person for, the email given is the one of the physician supervisor. So I can't find one that will go specifically to Laura. Which makes me sad. I figure I'll try and just guess (first initial + last name @ school abbreviation.edu tends to be how they go, so hopefully LTodt @ wustl.edu will work), as it's better than nothing and I'm actually pretty interested. I just really hope that I can come up with the other question. Because this is bugging me. I thought I almost had it again a second ago, but nope.
(Just so I don't forget, I wanted to ask about how they strip the cells from the pig skin to implant it as an alternative to the synthetic mesh they use to repair hernias and whether this is used for humans [though the skin thing as hernia/AAA repair is experimental still, hence the pigs] and how much it cuts down on rejection and whether they need less anti-rejection meds.)
So anyway. Was going to post this tonight (meaning Tuesday night, though by the time I've just finished, it's1am 1:40am Wednesday) but dad decided to turn off the internet again. I love how he does this because he doesn't want me to be up all night. He doesn't realize that I've got enough stuff writing/vidding/episode watching wise that I don't need the internet to stay up all night. (Not that I'm going to, as this is the 3rd night in a row that I've been up too late. It's already later than I wanted to be up, but I had to get all this down so I didn't forget. Not that I particularly think I would, but still.)
I figure this is long enough for one post. (If only my fics and in-class history and English essay-tests were this long.) It's unlikely that anybody will read all the way through this (though I find I'm actually more apt to read long posts because they catch my eye scrolling down my friends page and it makes me think that the person actually has something to talk about), and I'm probably just ticking everybody off because they've got 6 pages of my text to scroll past now. So I'm going to leave out how the assholes at school didn't read my ally week announcement. Remind me about that. That's going to get ranted on.
Mini Med? OMG*dies*amazing! This was the one where we got to play with the laparoscopy stuff and suturing. The guy that presented stuff for surgery at the beginning (like normal, with lecture and slides) had video. And I'm geeking out here in the back row, lamenting the fact that I can't see horridly well as I accidentally left my glasses at school today, just watching this laparoscopic cholecystectomy (there were some other video clips, one of a mesh insertion for a hernia repair, but this was the longest and most complete one) and grinning my ass off because it was so cool.
And then we went down to the suturing, where we played with real needles and sutures and drivers and pickups on this foam+batting (like from a quilt)+plywood thing. Natalie (whom I've known since we were in the elementary gifted program together and who is in my Spanish and English classes) and I went down to the room that we were going to do the suturing in and there was only one med student looking person that was going to teach in there, and she was up at the front, so we wanted to go up there, but that table was full. So we went to the back where there was room, and then more teaching type people came in, and somebody (one of the residents that was teaching) asked 2 people from our table to move to the one next to it so the two were even and she could move from one to the other to teach both tables, but both Natalie and I for some reason felt like we should stay where we were, which ended up majorly paying off. Because you can probably imagine my little internal freakout when who else came to sit next to us to do the teaching than Dr. freaking Cynthia Wichelman, the assistant professor of emergency medicine who was in charge of the whole minimed thing.
She ended up learning Natalie's name because Natalie was having trouble with the stitchage, which
So then we moved to the research laparoscopy lab in a different building (which you totally can't get in or out of without all kinds of clearance, as it's an animal research place) and got to look at the cameras and general ORish setup (it wasn't like the operating theatre type that I imagined, but apparently looked pretty standard, though smaller, for the hospital's general O.R.s). And we got to play with a fakey setup of the scope and the grabber bits and try to tie knots in this surgical tie thing and move little beads and jacks and stuff around in this boxish thing (that slightly resembled a chest cavity, as I assume it was supposed to).
And the last place (it was sort of rotationy as we had so many people) still in the laparo area was with this nursing student named Laura who's been working (not as a nursing student, but just as post-undergrad stuff; nursing student makes her sound inexperienced and it was very much the opposite) in research a lot, for the last while with the laparo guys, and she explained some stuff about what they actually are doing in that place (lots of pig stuff, one thing being organic mesh for hernia repair versus the synthetic with laparo installation, stuff like that). We didn't have a whole lot of time there, as we were already just about at the time we were supposed to end. So everybody was starting to leave.
And then I started asking aforementioned research lady all these questions. Mostly about education and what she was doing and how the research fit in to her wanting to be a nurse practitioner and undergrad research and stuff. Kept talking. She walked down with me all the way out of the building, into the education building that we started in where we left our stuff (which wasn't a very short way, completely out of one building which took a while as we were way back and up in some corner, and then 3 blocks or so, upstairs again into the lecture room of the edu building), we stopped in there and were talking for quite a bit, got my stuff, started walking back, and she kept putting up with my questions and walked all the way to the car with me. The entire trip to the education building was the totally opposite way she needed to go, as she had left her stuff in the laparo place.
We were talking for like 30 minutes.
I'm in so much love.
She actually was listening, and I could tell that she was paying attention to everything I said (she had the whole very active listening thing going on, facing sideways on the escalator so we could keep talking and pausing talking the two times we went through the revolving doors so she was sure that both of us were able to hear what the other was saying) and she thought my questions were good and she asked stuff back about what I was doing/want to do and I'm pretty sure she enjoyed talking to me and she went quite a bit out of her way to continue the conversation past when everybody else had left, going all the way out to my freaking car where we stood for a bit so we could finish talking (though the car was on her way back to the lapro building). I don't think that I have ever had someone (especially someone older than me who'd been working already that day and undoubtedly wanted to get home and do other things) listen so well and be so receptive to and encouraging of my incessant questioning. I was so impressed. So talking to her definitely made the whole thing even better (though suturing and laparoscopy was already OMGcool).
So I think I've sort of got one of my crazy admiration-infatuation things going on now. Though I'm pretty sure (though more than one part of me really, really hopes not) that I'm probably not ever going to see her again. (Do you ever think about that? Like, you've met this person and had a conversation and you enjoyed it and each other and it's such a shame that you'll probably not meet again because you think that you could be good friends. I sort of wish that I was older and could have asked for her phone number or something, just so maybe we could talk again. Because I really very much enjoyed her company.) Laura is really pretty and really, really nice and smart and works in medicine, all of which are pretty much my major (for lack of a better word) turn-ons. And I sort of got that flutter; not the 'OMG do me now!' flutter but the 'You're so cool and you're actually interested in me' flutter (nobody probably has any idea what I'm talking about) when we were talking, particularly when she touched my arm (I totally cannot remember why she touched my arm or what specifically we were talking about at the time because my memory sucks and I sort of think that then was really when I was thinking about how lucky I am that I had that rotation last and that she was there and that I actually had the nerve to go ask her something, but I can completely imagine exactly how she looked when she did it). Which sounds really sexual, the remembering what she looked like when she did it more than the point she was making, but this is how all my minicrush type things go. Though there's an element of that, the majority of it is "I want to learn everything you know." They're more intellectual crushes than anything.
But I had a couple of questions about the actual pig procedure things that I didn't ask her when we were talking because we were talking more about the educational stuff and research in general than the specific stuff they were doing right then. (And when I came home, I know I mentioned both questions to my mother, and after I got to telling her the second one she was like "You really ought to email her and ask" and I was like "Definitely", but I couldn't remember the first question already. My short term memory has a capacity of nothing.) I'd like to ask her about them. But I can't find an email for her (though I know the students get emails) as for the studies she's listed online as working on or as the contact person for, the email given is the one of the physician supervisor. So I can't find one that will go specifically to Laura. Which makes me sad. I figure I'll try and just guess (first initial + last name @ school abbreviation.edu tends to be how they go, so hopefully LTodt @ wustl.edu will work), as it's better than nothing and I'm actually pretty interested. I just really hope that I can come up with the other question. Because this is bugging me. I thought I almost had it again a second ago, but nope.
(Just so I don't forget, I wanted to ask about how they strip the cells from the pig skin to implant it as an alternative to the synthetic mesh they use to repair hernias and whether this is used for humans [though the skin thing as hernia/AAA repair is experimental still, hence the pigs] and how much it cuts down on rejection and whether they need less anti-rejection meds.)
So anyway. Was going to post this tonight (meaning Tuesday night, though by the time I've just finished, it's
I figure this is long enough for one post. (If only my fics and in-class history and English essay-tests were this long.) It's unlikely that anybody will read all the way through this (though I find I'm actually more apt to read long posts because they catch my eye scrolling down my friends page and it makes me think that the person actually has something to talk about), and I'm probably just ticking everybody off because they've got 6 pages of my text to scroll past now. So I'm going to leave out how the assholes at school didn't read my ally week announcement. Remind me about that. That's going to get ranted on.
no subject
I get those. And I get all "What? Is this a crush?" and then I get all terrified because nine times out of ten the object of said admiration-infatuations is female, and I'm all "What? Me? Gay?". Well, this was a little while ago. Now I'm all fine with it.
not the 'OMG do me now!' flutter but the 'You're so cool and you're actually interested in me' flutter
I know what you're talking about! It's like, a pang, for me. *giggles* and I do so LOVE the 'OMG do me now!' flutterpang. That's fun. Until you realise they are NOT going to actually do you, then it's all sad/frustrating. *nods*
Do you ever think about that? Like, you've met this person and had a conversation and you enjoyed it and each other and it's such a shame that you'll probably not meet again because you think that you could be good friends
Yep.
And she touched your arm! If it were me my brain would warp the situation/memory so it ended up being a suggestive touch, and I'd totally be having the 'OMG do me now!' flutterpangs.
no subject
Yup. Me too.
I do so LOVE the 'OMG do me now!' flutterpang.
That's a fun one. I hadn't had the flutterpangs for anybody real (I get OMGCUDDYflutterpangs all the time, XD) in a long time, so it was nice to see that I still can sort of feel for a real person.
And she touched your arm! If it were me my brain would warp the situation/memory so it ended up being a suggestive touch, and I'd totally be having the 'OMG do me now!' flutterpangs.
Yeah, there was quite a bit of that too. Because I was all like "Is she flirting with me? Because that would be fucking amazing!"
no subject
Yeah that is nice. Especially when I'm all "Waaaah, I'm socially retarded!" Except, not as whiny as that implies.
Seriously, though, it is awesome when you get the flutterpangs for a real person. I get some wicked bad flutterpangs that are like "ow!" (in a good way) sometimes. For
a real personreal people. Although, the OMGCUDDY or OMGCAMERON flutterpangs are also fun."Is she flirting with me? Because that would be fucking amazing!"
*giggles*
I thought a girl at work was flirting with me the other day. The one who recommended She Is to me. Then I was like "Get over yourself." So yeah. That's my story.
no subject
Ooh! Cool.
Then I was like "Get over yourself."
Yeah, that's always a good thing to do. Because you're like "Ooh, she's flirting with me! I am so cool!" and then you realize "Oh, no. She wasn't. I'm not that cool."
So yeah. That's my story.
*gigglesnort* LOL! *dies*
Hee, lovely. I laughed when I read the "that's my story" bit and now my history teacher's looking over here all "Okay, what are you doing?" I told him that I found a political cartoon reinactment of Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia's hat law (look it up, the law is hilarious) and his body then being fed to caiman. I hope I do find a cartoon of that at some point. That would really be great. I would laugh.
no subject
Yep. And then you're like "*sad*".
I laughed when I read the "that's my story" bit
Lol. I'm laughing because you're laughing, and then I read your excuse and laughed harder because I didn't understand hardly any of it!
...*looks up hat law*
no subject
Yay, unintelligible random history fact talking. Francia is great. I talked about him for a bit in my last history quiz. I was so afraid that this quiz was going to ruin my A in the class because I had been preparing for/knew what I was talking about in regards to, let's call it question A. And then I got told that question A wasn't on there by somebody that had already taken the test. So I studied question B. Of course, what is on the test but a question combining both A and B. But I don't remember anything about question A, because I did the book reading where I learned the answer to question A back when the teacher assigned the reading, which was like 2 weeks before the test. So I write the answer to question A vaguely and cover it all pretty much just in my opening paragraph, and then go on to question B, which was to talk about how the caudillos ruled. For that, I just compared and contrasted two caudillos. And I wrote like a page and a half just on Francia there, and he liked that and how many random specific facts I had in there, so I got 100% on the essay quiz thing. Which was crazy. Because I had tons of specific facts over Francia and quite a few for the other caudillo I talked about, but there were like 3 sentences about how the Caudillos as a group phenomenon type thing came to power (question A).
But yes. If you cannot find the hat law (and the caiman thing) you should tell me. Because then I will tell you all about Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia because he makes me laugh.
no subject
You can just tell me anyway =)
'Cause I'm lazy and it will probably be more amusing/easy for me to understand if you tell me. *nods*.
no subject
This guy did some good stuff. Fixed up Paraguay's agriculture system, stuff like that.
But he made this law, toward the end of his rule (which was toward the end of his life, which may be the reason) that all citizens must wear a hat so that they could doff aforementioned hat in his presence. Were they not to wear a hat, they must carry a brim (I have no idea how that worked, but I'm imagining all these farmers with paper semi-circles in their back pockets) so they could hold it to their head and then take it away like they were taking off hats. Failure to comply was immediate arrest.
And though the majority liked him, supposedly, during his reign, after his death, all his furnature was burned and his body fed to caiman. Which I don't know if you have over there (I don't think we do) but they're like alligators.
Though all the caudillos in all the latin american countries that I've looked at supposedly had majority support during their rule, all of them were hated after their deaths. Go figure.
So. He's fun. Just like the revolutionary Bernardo O'Higgins. Guess where he's from. Guess.
Chile. Yeah. He has a great name. But we add Jose to the front, because like 90% of everybody mentioned in our killer Latin America book of doom is named Jose. And Jose Bernardo O'Higgins is funny.
And Alexandria is not doing her Chemistry work again. Bad. Bad. *falls asleep on computer desk*
no subject
*snort* my spaghetti nearly came out my nose! What an idiot. This Francia guy, I mean. And me, I suppose.
Which I don't know if you have over there
I didn't even know what they were until you told me. So no, I don't think we have them here. We don't even have alligators. We have crocodiles *nods*.
So. He's fun.
It was pretty amusing! I especially liked the whole 'brim' thing. My first mental picture was of a whole load of people walking around with a brim on their heads. Which was funny to me, for two reasons. One, because it is incredibly stupid to walk around in a brim rather than a hat, and two, because in my mind the brims looked like those neon frisbee-type things.
And Alexandria is not doing her Chemistry work again. Bad. Bad.
*giggles*
*falls asleep on computer desk*
*fetches bucket of cold water*
no subject
I thought he was pretty darn smart. I mean, that's my lifetime goal. To get a law passed that says that everyone must wear a hat/brim so they can doff it in my presence. Talk about your self-esteem booster.
We don't even have alligators. We have crocodiles
I've got no idea what there is here. (Except I'm pretty sure no caiman.) I know there's a lot of something in Florida. But here in the middle of the US, we don't have any of those cool biting type crocodilian animals.
One, because it is incredibly stupid to walk around in a brim rather than a hat, and two, because in my mind the brims looked like those neon frisbee-type things.
Indeed and me too! I mean, what else could a brim look like?
no subject
Well, when you put it THAT way...
we don't have any of those cool biting type crocodilian animals.
I don't think there are any around where I am. But in the rivers and things there are probably crocodiles. I like to see the really big one they have at the zoo. He's awesome.
what else could a brim look like?
Hee, I know!
no subject
I doubt there are any in the Mississippi river (which goes through the city I'm a suburb of). Because that's a nasty dirty river. I wouldn't want to live in there. But maybe further south, as the river pretty much cuts the US in half from top to bottom and they have those biting type things down south, I believe.
I like to see the really big one they have at the zoo.
I think they're kinda cute. I don't know why. Especially when they're little and you can hold them.