That might be the saturation point...

I think I might have hit the point in studying where I feel comfortable, where all of the words are starting to look more and more familiar. I woke up this morning to consider what I felt like I needed to study and...there just wasn't anything pressing. I'll keep reviewing here and there, but there isn't the feeling of compulsion to keep reading/making notes/reviewing.

And what did we learn, boys and girls?

We learned that if we blog about getting legs and how gross they can be, you tempt the universe to send you more legs. What the heck? Between end of last week and the start of this week I had more legs than all of last month.

But! We've had students coming in from a local career center touring the various things we do in the laboratory and since they've been coming in I haven't had any legs! The only plus side to them is that they make a very interesting visual aid (and potentially fun Halloween decorations if you were so inclined and wanted to scar some children for life....) for when you have people coming in to see what you do. People know what a normal leg looks like, but very few people without a medical background know what a gallbladder looks like. I do like showing them gallbladders though, because there is the potential for stones.

A lot of the students are interested in nursing and labor/delivery or pediatrics. So at least I can bring out a placenta and show them the membranes and where the baby would go, etc. It helps to have something relevant to their interests.

She's got legs...

Oh legs. I don't know anyone that likes legs. On my best day, with a not particularly bad leg, I don't mind them. On the wrong day, I dread seeing one come in the door.

Why? Well, they are unwieldy and just won't stay where they're put. Sometimes all the vascular margins aren't clipped so if you grab it blood shoots out the resection margin because of the pressure you've applied. And they're fresh. They're fresh and bloody. They are the single largest exposure I have to unfixed, biohazard-y tissue (which I'm not particularly concerned about, but at the same time puddles of blood aren't exactly my favorite).

And the smells. Oh the smells! Gangrene is a popular reason to have your leg amputated, plus non-healing wounds, ischemia. These are not nice legs, these are legs that have allowed toes to rot off and nails to get hoof-like. Legs with popliteal arteries that are thrombosed and wide enough to stick three fingers in. Sloughing skin and muscle turned gray, green, and purple with rot.

The legs get wrapped up, in layers and layers. The more layers, the worse it smells generally, more layers to try to contain the stench. The last layer is the worst, it is a sort of adhesive plastic that sticks to the skin. Sometimes it comes off easily, and sometimes removing it brings part of the foot with it. 

At the end, it all gets re-wrapped, put back into a biohazard bag, thrown into a rigid biohazard box, and then put into the morgue fridge. The temperature keeps it from rotting too much more, but you still hope that you never have to go back to it. Time is not kind to detached legs.

Trying doesn't quite count...

Life gets in the way of things... like studying and signing up for the certification exam. So I'm finally getting to the point where I feel that I've studied enough that I can set up a date to take the exam (maybe that or I'm getting to the point where I'm tired of studying and figure I might as well get it over with). I started off by filling out a printed version of the application so I could just send a check (can I mention that writing the ASCP a $500+ check hurts?) but there was a number I'd have to email my course director to get and didn't want to be a bother. So I figured I'd just do the online application and skip that bit, except four minutes after I started filling out the online application the website went down for maintenance. Rats, foiled again!

So I'm going to stay up and try again in a few hours. I don't get any bonus points for just trying to sign up, I have to actually do it and having now finally gotten around to doing it (and having located my sealed transcripts) I'd really like to be done with it.

I have to do the online application and then mail in my sealed transcripts, and then I wait to hear back from them with my three month window for when I can actually take the exam. So even this doesn't mean that I'll know my date immediately....

But, still... it is a step in the right direction. I'm tired of having it hanging over my head.

Strangely busy!

I've been awful about updating, I know. Apologizes.

This past week has been busy, more colons, more breasts and lumps, random kidney, and more hysterectomies! I am starting to wonder if anyone over the age of 45 has their uterus anymore. I was chatting with one of my classmates the other day and we were in agreement about that! It seems that hysterectomies abound everywhere. Some days I'm baffled that as many of my autopsy cases has a uterus as did.

In the same conversation with the same classmate we both discussed how we should really sign up for the certification exam... And we should. I should. I just haven't. I feel like if I just keep studying eventually I'll feel like I'm ready, but I know it isn't true. I should just sign up and get it over with.

Meanwhile, I've been going to the library in the morning to study before work. It is easier when I'm not at home... when I'm here I just keep seeing things that I need to be doing so I study for a bit then load the dishes, study for a bit, start prepping dinner, etc. Life would be much easier if magic elves would just take care of all of that stuff while I'm sleeping, but sadly, childhood fairy tales lied to me and that sort of thing just doesn't happen. So... I just try to do it at night after I get home from work, provided I don't get home after 7:30. I hate late nights, sincerely.