Rotations, Autopsies, and a bit of a social life.

January has been such a fantastic month so far! Rotations continue to be great, and I'm looking forward to another day of surgical grossing at Duke North. I am getting used to their format for dictations but more practice is always welcome!

Last week we finally got to see some autopsies, including one where we got to see a second year student do the evisceration. That is what I'll be doing this time next year, so exciting! We also got to see the autopsy technicians (dieners) do some evisceration and it is impressive how quickly they get everything done.

I mentioned before that Duke does a modified Letulle autopsy, removing the colon and then doing the rest of the organs en masse. I am used to Virchow autopsies, which is all done one organ at a time and doesn't require the prosector to visualize body placement/orientation. The en bloc method makes it much easier to examine the entire organ system at once and minimizes the time the body is open and exposed. I like being able to see the different styles.

Grave Digger at Monster Jam! Photo credit to April :)

In other news, we had a three day weekend for MLK and it was so relaxing! My class (and my husband!) went to Greensboro for Monster Jam! And since we were there, I finally got to take advantage of a friend's generosity and treated everyone to sushi courtesy of him. It was a really fun time.

Sunday I went to visit my favorite med students and one of my classmates and I took over their apartment and everyone made Filipino food together. Then we took a break where I went home and cooked American food for my family, and then I went to the movies with a couple friends (War Horse, which was okay but not as good as the company).

Yesterday was my dad's birthday, so the kids and I got him a card, some money, made his favorite dinner and baked a cake while I studied off and on for my autopsy procedure quiz and ignored the giant pile of laundry I didn't fold this weekend (I will do it tonight... probably).