Disrepect

There are a couple of things I need to get off my chest.

First of all, related to the recent Joe Wilson outburst during the President's address to Congress... IT WAS WRONG. I'm sorry, I don't care whether or not you support the president or if you support the health care bill, you just DO NOT disrespect the president like that! Who the FUCK do you think you are? And now people are praising him and glorifying him? Why, why, why would people do that? The outburst is even more ridiculous when you consider the fact that ALL the various versions of the proposed health care bill actually specifically exclude illegal immigrants. So it was Joe Wilson that was lying in the first place.

Actually, what gets me about the whole dynamic about the health care debate is that it seems as though every day I hear about something that is FLAGRANTLY untrue about the health care bill. Like the whole "death panel" thing that is untrue. And now the illegal immigrant thing that is untrue. And there was that commercial about how women with breast cancer were gonna die more, which is UNTRUE. It's 100% scare tactics and it really. really. bothers me. It kinda makes me think that there are some people in our country who don't want health care reform from Obama - no matter what is proposed.

Second of all, I hate this particular group of kids in my class who seem to think it's ok to talk through all the lectures and to leave before the professor is done speaking. Now, I understand if you need to be somewhere and the professor has gone over by like, 15 minutes, but you do NOT need to leave the MINUTE the class is supposed to be finished. Where do you need to go that's soooo important? And you can't sit there and complain that you don't understand him if you can't sit there and listen! It's all so disrespectful. These are professors who spend their lives studying the material that they're presenting. They are smart and extremely knowledgeable. I just want to turn around and scream in their faces, "Shut the FUCK up or fucking leave, you pricks."

Reasons Why I Hate Anatomy

I wanted to write a post about this for at least a week now because the reasons why I hate anatomy aren't really for the obvious reasons. The amount of material isn't really terribly bad (yet) and honestly, the smell is not uber-unbearable. This is because we no longer use a purely formaldehyde-based preservative and use instead, an ethyl alcohol one. Also, my group's body (we named him Henry, after Lord Henry) has very little fat and is therefore not entirely gross to handle.

Anyway, here is my list:

1. I hate when they tell us things that are related to what we're studying but don't actually tell us what those related things do. Or where they are. Or what they're for. Except in relation to the thing we're studying. This happens quite a lot. Sometimes, they'll even say, "oh, you'll learn about this structure a little later, so don't worry about it." Except we're responsible for that structure NOW --not later!

2. Related to #1, I hate it when they tell us we're not responsible for something.... except we are. This is an impossible standard because we're not required to learn EVERY artery, vein, and muscle in the body - it's just too much and not very relevant to becoming a physician. So they tell us the important ones and sometimes say we don't have to know certain things. Except we do have to know them. Except when we don't. See what I'm getting at?

3. I hate it when they keep referring to an idea and say, "Oh but you'll get this lecture in a couple of weeks from Dr. X so don't worry about it now." I hate it because, invariably, they will talk about this idea again. And again. And again. And I still have not had that lecture telling me what exactly it is. Can't I just have that other lecture first? PLEASE?

4. I hate it how there are many ways to say the same thing in anatomy... BUT THEY NEVER TELL US THAT THEY'RE REFERRING TO THE SAME THING. I was going around for the longest time worrying about the difference between the "accessory nerve" and "cranial nerve #XI" except... they're the same thing. Somehow, I'm just supposed to know.. or figure it out that they're referring to the same thing. WTF. Such a waste of time on my part to figure it out when they could just tell me.

So my theme here is, I believe anatomy is exceedingly poorly structured. Let me reiterate, exceedingly poorly structured. I guess there is no helping it since everything is interconnected in the human body and you must always be faced with more than the scope of what you're studying in the immediate term. I suppose there is no such thing as an "isolated" body part. But then, maybe that's just why I Hate Anatomy. Because everything is always supremely confusing.

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What's I'm studying now: serratus anterior

The All Boy's Club

Generally known as, "surgery," the All Boy's Club of medicine has always been particularly rough for females. I kinda sorta knew this going into school, but as a feminist and a medical student, I can now see how ingrained this model still is.

I would say that medicine, in general, is still an All Boy's Club. I guess it's not that surprising considering that in advanced science programs around our nation, men take up the vast majority of academic positions. The same is true for medicine. Now, I know it's been said that medical schools are accepting more women, etc etc, but this does not mean that it's not an All Boy's Club anymore.

Let me give some unique examples here at Tulane.

First, our anatomy class is taught entirely by ex-surgeons. They are all elderly white males, with one exception. In lab, my lab instructor (one of these elderly white male ex-surgeons) has twice told me to get a man to do a task I was trying to accomplish. The very first day of anatomy lab, while I was attempting to open our tank (the tanks hold our cadavers and the body rests at the bottom of the tank. In order to raise the body up, you must push down hard on these lever-like things), he told me to get a strong man to do it. Another time, I was trying to get the lamp set up and the outlet was up high, hanging from the ceiling, and my instructor told me to get a tall man to do it. These are both tasks that any normal, grown woman can and should be able to do. What, does he think the labs were designed specificially for men?

My friend told me a story from her year in anatomy and said that there was this one girl who performed really well on a test and the professor (one of these elderly white males) said, "And (so-and-so) did really well. She's really pretty too. I wonder how that happened." As if women can't be both beautiful and smart.

Another friend of mine told me this story from a surgical rotation his friend was on. His attending said, "There are two types of women who are surgeons: those who shouldn't be surgeons, and those who shouldn't be women."

What is most upsetting to me is not just the explicit undercurrent of sexism, but that many people in my class don't realize it's there. I was observing to my friend today that nearly all of our anatomy professors and guest lecturers have been male and she said that she had not yet noticed. And then she asked me why it mattered. I stared at her for about 10 seconds before I could respond properly.

I'm not sure if I should actually go into all the reasons why I think it matters that we have a sexually and ethnically diverse population of doctors and professors right now. I feel as if there should be an intuitive answer? Could probably save it for another blog. I just wanted to comment here on what I've observed so far at medical school and to confirm that yes, from my perspective, it is still an All Boy's Club.

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What I'm studying: Inferior and Superior coastal facets