SDKJ Chronicles

I get asked a lot of questions about school and the goings on there. That gives me lots of opportunities to talk about what students do as they train to be doctors. Even if I don't get asked questions, I am usually more than happy to tell my stories anyway. Why? Because if I kept them all in, I would explode.

What kind of stories are these? Stories about my classmates, stories about my curriculum, anatomy lab fun, shadowing doctor fun, etc. So, we are starting a new segment on the blog called Student Doctor Kevin Jensen (SDKJ) Chronicles. These stories will be engrossing or grossing to those not in the medical field, and boring and insignificant to those in the medical field, but it should be fun anyways. Since the first year is almost over, we are going to have to do some retroactive posts, but I don't think y'all will mind too much. And if you do, tough. I don't really care. How's that for future doctor compassion!

First up, I will talk generally about the anatomy lab experience. Many of you have never been in an anatomy lab. Let's just say it's an experience. Our lab is one really long, skinny room with "tanks" (metal coffin looking bins with the bodies in them) on both sides and an aisle down the middle. Each tank has an iMac on the wall next to it as a reference and guide for the dissection and identification of body parts. There are about 40 tanks in the room, 20 in a row on each side.

Here is a picture of a really rinky dink lab (not ours) but it gives you an idea of what the tanks look like and what the bodies look like under the shrouds inside the tanks.


On each tank is a small notecard with a brief description of the person(of course, leaving out the name) that includes age of death, cause of death, gender. There were 5 of us assigned to each tank which contained one body.

For about 2/3 of the first year, we were in the lab at least once a week dissecting some part of the body. It was very systematic, because once you cut a part of the body, it will never be intact again, so we kind of had to work from the outside in and work on one region at a time. Then, we would move on to the next section. We will get into specifics later, for those of you interested, but I just wanted to give a flavor.

FAQ Answered...
1) No, I never saw anyone vomit
2) Yes, we got grossed out by some stuff we found - those stories will come later
3) Some people wore masks because of the horrible smell, but I did not
4) Yes, you smell like the lab for most of the semester
5) Yes, it is a mess inside the body
6) Yes, dissecting the body and learning more about it made me want to be healthier
7) Yes, I really truly enjoyed being in there
8) Yes, I do miss it now that we are done

If you have any questions, please put them in the comments and I will answer them. More to come on SDKJ Chronicles.