March 4, 2001
Hello all,
This past week I turned in my brain at the neuro lab. I don't think it will be much of a loss though. It didn't help me all that much on my exam.
Our optional pig laboratory in physiology was also this past week. I thought it was a good learning experience, but of course there are those who feel that they did not come to medical school to cut, prod, and kill anesthetized pigs. I have heard a classmate has already sent a letter of complaint to the administration. It strikes me as somewhat ironic that the same individual is willing to have an unanesthetized pig slaughtered, butchered, fried, and then chewed up. I also think it is much better to have medical students practice on a sleeping pig than on a human. You will see why in a minute. After we finished watching the hearts reaction to medications, blood flow and electricity, I had the opportunity to do a cholecystectomy (remove it's gallbladder). Our lab instructor was a PhD student so he knew all about the lab, but nothing about surgery. That meant I was all on my own for the surgery. I felt quite confident as I started out since I have seen more than 100 of these done laparoscopically. However, I quickly learned why surgery is one of the longest residencies. Fortunately the pig survived my bumbling although I did puncture the gallbladder and made a large divot in the liver. I have heard since that it is much more difficult to take a gallbladder out of a pig than out of a human, but that is a small consolation. I know that some of you have different views on vivisection than I do, please write me and let me know your thoughts.
Our parents came out this weekend (the Bidwells). It was nice to see them and have some guests to entertain. We celebrated Nola's birthday a few days early which is always a good thing for a busy husband in medical school. We need all the reminders we can get.
Our Breathe Free program is just a little over a week away from starting. So far we only have 3 or 4 confirmations. But we have had several others say they might be interested and we have brochures and articles out all over the Memphis area. Right now we have no idea how many attendees we will get. Please keep this in your thoughts and prayers.
One of my fellow students thought it would be nice to have a class t-shirt so she announced a contest and I have worked on an idea for her this week as well. I wanted something that would reflect the current state of medicine and I figured the sequencing of the human genome is going to be seen as one of the milestones in medicine. If you want to see my idea click here:
www.utmem.edu/breathe_free/class_tshirt.html
I hope some other people send in suggestions too. I don't want to have a yes or no vote on my design. That could get embarrasing.
Have a great week,
Brenton Reading
