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Oct. 21st, 2006 02:20 pmSo 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.
