Hello all, hope everything is going well.

This month for M1s has been a change of scenery. It has also been more smelly. We finished our cardiology/respiratory sequence at the end of October and began the musculoskeletal system last week, so we are in the anatomy labs all the time (aka 3 days a week until Thanksgiving). For students, this means we're spending a lot more time at school since dissections take a couple hours, and our hands will smell bad for a couple more hours after that. Whether I prefer anatomy to lectures or not, it definitely has required that I change my study habits. Looking at lecture slides and understanding them is a lot different than memorizing the locations and functions of the nerves and arteries in the hand. This sequence is forcing us all to adjust to this difference while still maintaining passing grades on our quizzes. It's a challenge, but it's mixing things up a little, so I won't complain for now.

But maybe I should give a little info on anatomy at U of M. The students get to dissect cadavers so that we can reinforce what we're learning on paper by actually finding the structures ourselves on real bodies. This requires a lot of time dissecting, though. U-M Med School balances this out by not making us all dissect everyday. Each body has six students, divided into two teams of three. So I only have to dissect every other dissection day. When I'm not dissecting, I go into the lab when the other lab team is done, and they show me the structures they found for the day. Then the classmates on my team go over clinical cases that help make the anatomy we're learning more relevant. It's a pretty cool system, and I really appreciate the fact that I don't have to go in every dissection, especially since it's tough to work on a body part with 5 other people.

So... anatomy will be ruling my life for the month of November. Last week, the "brachial plexus" was destroying lives left and right in the medical school computer lab. Prepare to have your mind blown:

I'm sorry/ you're welcome.

Take care!

-Shaza