three things...

this afternoon, i performed a colonoscopy on a fresh cadaver a fancy sigmoid colonoscopes (though I guess they're largely getting replaced with new fangled ones that can actually access all of the colon, not just the descending colon--this is the large intestine, if you weren't aware)... anyway, thing looks like a remote control for a toy car that has an actual small wheel for the steering (except that it's far more complicated) with a long, narrow flexible arm that you basically guide up "where the sun don't shine" to look for abnormalities (polyps) to biopsy and obliterate... an uncomfortable procedure for everyone involved...

secondly, we just started taking immunology (nothing interesting there), but it's mixed with grad students, and, for the first time, they're broadcasting the class to the mayo campuses in jacksonville, fl and scottsdale, az... those people can watch our lecturer and her slides in real time via a video feed, and, to my great amusement, we actually see a broadcast of the audiences in those two lecture halls on separate tvs...

the sum total of people taking this course in these distant locales:

one...

and we can see her... sitting there in a lecture hall for maybe a hundred people...

I can't wait to watch her walk in late one day on "live tv"... i probably won't be able to contain my amusement...

and finally, yesterday, we went to observe an upper endoscopy, which is exaclty like what was described in the first paragraph of this post, but swallowed, down into the gut, and into the small intestine... anyway, what struck me about this whole experence is how strange, akward, unnerving, etc. for patients to have medical students around during these things... there were the three of us greenhorns all gawking at the screen, wildly curious about the procedure, what that is, how this works, what that might mean, all while the patient has this thing jammed down their throat... it's a pretty invasive procedure, and i just think that med students, in our excitement, often lose sight of the patient and the privileged access they allow...

i used to read those dedications by author/physicians where they say something like "to all of my patients," and I would be particular suspect of the sentiment, as if it were just something to say... now i'm not so sure i should be... anyway, just something to think about...

cheers,