Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Human Gift Registry

           Last week we started our summer semester!   We have two classes, Systemic Pathology and Clinical Pathology.  We have Systemic Pathology every day.  We are learning about disease processes in different organs and systems. It is a lot of reading and studying, but so far so good!  We have questions to answer while we are reading and we receive homework grades for them and we have quizzes almost every day. Our first exam is on Friday and it is on the lung, pancreas, eye, and the gastrointestinal system.  Clinical Pathology is every Tuesday and we are learning about the other side of Pathology that relies heavily on laboratory tests and why the tests are performed and what they are testing for.  We have quizzes every week on the information we went over the week before.
            If you have read the blog before then you will remember me talking about our cadaver lab experience last semester.  I do not know if you ever wondered how the university acquires the cadavers, but there is something called the Human Gift Registry where people sign up while they are living to donate their body to science when they pass away.  At WVU, our program, dentistry, medicine, and physical therapy utilize cadavers for our learning experiences.  This Saturday, the university held a memorial service for the family members of the participants of the Human Gift Registry.  If their family member had passed, they were invited to participate in the service.  Students volunteered to help, perform musical numbers,  and speech to thank the families for their contribution.  Myself and most of my class attended and volunteered.  It was a nice and touching service and I think it is awesome that WVU hosts this event each year.  It really is such a great gift to donate their body to science.  The human body is so intricate and complex and it would be impossible to learn about it without the lab experience.


Friday, May 5, 2017

One Semester Down and Five More to Go


          We have finished our first semester!! Monday morning, we took our histology final and now we are in the middle of our two-week break!  Our classes begin again on May 15th.  I think everyone did well this semester once we got used to the exams and course load.  I feel like we just had orientation a few weeks ago and here we are at the end of the semester!  I am spending most of the break here in Morgantown, but I am visiting family in Charleston for a few days. I have been enjoying getting caught up on laundry and cleaning because with finals I will admit I let things go.   At the end of the semester we are off for another three weeks and I am hoping to go to the beach and get a real vacation but I always appreciate time off. This summer we only have two classes, but one class is every day and its 8 credits. We will not be in class as often but it will be a lot of studying and reading. I think this summer will be a little easier, but it will still be a lot of work.  I do not know much about the classes yet so I will blog about our classes once we get a couple of weeks under our belt.  For now, I am going to get back to my busy schedule of watching Netflix...