Old school memories: Work in MedSchool

As the days in medical school progressed into weeks and months we slowly realized the difference in the learning process between med school and college. The undergrad learning experience was mostly comparative - meaning that we studied other animals and then compared them to the human organs and systems. In medical school we had to study the exact Homo sapiens - nothing else. So when the lesson is about blood, we had to extract our own blood. If the lesson was about the heart, we had to take the parameters of the our own hearts, and that would apply to all the systems of the body.

Timid is the word that can be used to describe some if not most freshman in medical school. I'm saying that in the sense of acquiring specimen for our studies. However, it is not difficult to understand that most, if not all of us were untrained in collecting specimen, which means that if blood was needed no one would dare trust an untrained guy to extract his blood and therefore there were few or no volunteers. When it came to the study of the semen, boys were also shy to go to the toilet to jack off and come back sweating with the specimen in a beaker. EKG was the same thing, because the 'patient' had to take off his shirt and with all the classmates around it was quite unsettling.

I would admit that I was a bit impatient with this attitude. Group-mates were pleading with each other for a volunteer and a lot of time was wasted in the process. This was when I decided in my mind to stand up and allow myself to be the 'guinea pig' for all the procedures that were required. The hillbilly in me that was accustomed to getting cut and bruised on a regular basis considered pain as something that was part of growing up and so I announced to my group-mates that they could consider me as the 'official' donor for all specimen needed - including OGTT, which was the worst and NGT insertion which was a breeze. But there was a hitch, which would depend on what test or procedure was needed. It could be a free lunch or dinner, assistance in visual stimulation for the spermatozoa, helping me out in research, etc. and my group-mates were more than pleased to agree to my terms. I didn't regret my decision, because at the end of the year it was just like I had an executive checkup with all the results showing that I was healthy.

One area that medical students hate is the anatomy laboratory. No normal person would want to stand by the side of a stinking cadaver for a long time and cutting it up piece by piece to visualize and identify the different parts of the body. There were about 12 cadavers in the laboratory that we had to study for the whole year. Most often the designated laboratory period is insufficient that we needed to come back after classes to spend more time with the cadavers. Sometimes we had to bring our snacks to save time and in some occasions a bottle of whiskey or rum helped us cope with the odor.

School work in medical school was really demanding, and the road to becoming a doctor was not an easy one.