We have officially made it through our first week of
classes. They started last week but we
still had our first meeting time for our Advanced Microanatomy class
yesterday. This semester is a little
different than the ones in the past. We
have a Physiology class with the first year dental students and a few other
graduate programs, Microbiology with the second year dental students, and Lab Management
with the clinical laboratory undergraduate students. This is our first semester of classes with
people who are not in our program. We
still have two program specific classes which are Advanced Microanatomy and Surgical
and Autopsy Procedures. This class is
sort of like an advanced Anatomical Techniques.
We discuss the cancer staging protocols, grossing guidelines, and
pathology behind the specimens of the different body systems. The rule for the exams in that class are “anything
is fair game.” I am a little nervous for
that first exam! We already have two
exams next Friday for Physiology and Microbiology so the semester started fast!
We still
have 4 gross room rotations this semester.
I had my first on Monday. They
were not super busy, but I did gross a few new things. The most exciting specimen I had was a breast
reduction. A woman can have a mammoplasty or breast reduction performed where they
remove excess breast tissue and skin if they are causing her problems or for
cosmetic purposes. For these specimens,
we weigh them for billing, measure the amount we have, and section through the
tissue to look for masses. There should
not be any masses, but it is possible to find an undetected breast cancer so it
is important to look. The sections we
submit are representative of the skin and fibrous tissue which is the
structural tissue of the breast. We
submit the fibrous tissue instead of the adipose (fat) because if there were
any lesions, this is where they would be seen.
We are
still studying a lot to stay on top of things but I am hoping this semester will
be a little more relaxing than it was in the summer! Some of our classes have been a review for us
so that has been nice! I will make sure
to blog about what I think of the classes and exams once we are further into
the semester!
And because
I like to show that we have time for work AND play…we went to team trivia
Friday night and we got 3rd place!!
I have to brag and say we were in 1st place the entire game,
BUT we lost in the last question! It was
a lot of fun and we won a gift card so we will have to go back for a chance at
redemption!
