Word of the Day: Orthopnea

First day of school, first day of being a second year. We started off with a bang this morning, taking Anesthesiology at 8:30am (or, as Mom put it, "a class about making things sleep at 8:30am on a Monday morning". Touche, Mom.). My instructor for much of this term is the head of the program, and so far he's a fantastic teacher. We opened with a quote that read: "Anesthesiology: The art of lovingly, carefully, and reversibly poisoning your patient…into a controlled coma". I think that sets the tone pretty nicely. From there we moved into radiology (physics, ew) and then finished class early for the day.

As each term passes, I've found it increasingly difficult to tell stories about what I'm actually doing in class, and I think a lot of it is just increasing difficulty and knowledge level. Some of the things that happen may be funny or interesting, but they require so much explanation that I just don't bother. For example, my joke to Alona today in radiology about increased kVp causing decreased botulism effect...well...actually, bad example, that might not be funny to anyone but us.

Another reason for this might just be the proliferation of inside jokes in my class. In winter term, Dr. Henson was asked a question regarding accidentally puncturing the carotid artery when attempting venipuncture on the jugular (in retrospect, this would be very difficult to do by mistake, but whatever). She told us that you would get an immediate and dramatic fountain of spurting blood, and the correct response (especially if the owner was watching) was to place your thumb over it, smile confidentally and cheerfully say "Well. That was unexpected." This became the new catchphrase for much of the class, and when I found myself holding off the traumatically severed artery of an injured dog during my clinical rotation I was ecstatic. Well, it was unexpected.

In other news, I have no class on Tuesdays this term, and so I have plans tomorrow to go mushroom hunting with BP and the Kitty-Bunny. Hoping for lots of chanterelles!