The Weird & the Wonderful

As my second semester or "foundation" here at McMaster comes to a close, I'm finally getting a good handle on my stress. I've returned to eating and sleeping well and doing other things besides working. For one, I bought an XBOX 360 and have now converted my bedroom into a gaming centre slash personal gym. After a hard day's work, I enjoy an hour or two of playing video games or pumping iron (not that it's had any effect on my measly muscles).

I've also taken up an elective in the anatomy lab, and now spend an hour with an anatomist every Wednesday afternoon. It's led to some weird and wonderful experiences.

"Raman, can you hold this for a sec?" the anatomist asked me last week, handing over a human brain. It was heavier than I expected and nearly slipped out of my gloved fingers. Eeek! Although at first I was paranoid that I'd drop it, I was also awed by the fact that I was holding a real brain.

The anatomist disappeared into a backroom and came back with a big plastic box. She cracked the lid and peeked in. "Ah perfect," she commented. Uh, what the heck was in there? She then popped off the lid and pulled out a whole human head, its features all squished together. Oh great! At that moment, I was second guessing my decision to take on this elective.

Oblivious to my discomfort, the anatomist launched into a lecture about the pituitary gland. Meanwhile I was wondering what to do with the brain; had she forgotten that I was still holding it? One of her colleagues passed by with a big smile. "Great weather out there, eh?" he said happily. The anatomist returned the smiled and nodded. Wait, here she was holding a human head, and all her colleague wanted to talk about was the weather? Only in the anatomy lab.

Getting to hold that brain was just one of the weird and wonderful things I've done in med school since returning from the Christmas break. Last week, my clinical skills supervisor brought out a life-like replica of a pair of human buttocks to practice rectal exams. "Just come from the side and slip your finger in," she explained, demonstrating the technique. Apparently I had quite the expression on my face, because she looked straight at me and said, “Hey, I didn’t make you choose this profession.” I was just relieved that I could learn the rectal exam on a model, and not on a real person ... but that too will come in time.

I've also been introduced to the unpleasant concept of “Fetor Hepaticus.” The doctors suspected that one of my patients had chronic liver disease. To help confirm the diagnosis, my supervisor asked me to smell the patient's breath. When the liver is dysfunctional, the breath takes on a characteristic "rotten and sweet" smell - "Fetor Hepaticus" literally translates to “breath of the dead.” In this case, my nose would literally become a diagnostic tool. Leaning in toward the patient, I took a good whiff ... Yep, diagnosis confirmed.

Like any job, medicine comes with certain downsides. Yes, those downsides may be smellier and stickier than what you’d encounter as say, a lawyer, but the upsides (like getting to hold that brain) are pretty awesome too.