<p>Well, DS has flown the coop once again. We got up early this morning and he took Amtrak to NYC. He should get there mid afternoon. He shipped everything yesterday and carried two suitcases today. He is staying at a cheap hotel tonight and tomorrow he can move into his dorm room. </p>
<p>They have brand new apartment style housing for the med students this year. It should be nice to live there. One block from the hospital and med school too. </p>
<p>His roommate moves in on Saturday. A new classmate (that he actually met at different med school interview) moves in Saturday too and they have plans already. All the fun orientation stuff starts on Monday. </p>
<p>somemom- glad she is having fun now! I am sure two weeks from now this will be a very distant memory.</p>
<p>Curm- Cleveland is a fine place to stay for a day or two! I am going to be in Cleveland myself this weekend.</p>
<p>I, for one, don’t make cadaver jokes. I don’t watch the surgery channel. Heck, I have to turn my head before I turn my stomach watching CSI. So , nope. No jokes here.</p>
<p>My W and D on the other hand, if the situation called for it, could probably cut me open with a kitchen knife while eating a ham sandwich.</p>
<p>Yikes somemom! If I may ask, the four students disected the cadaver? I guess I didn’t realize things got so graphic and deep that quickly in med school!</p>
<p>I think they were only introduced to their person, not actually cutting; I am going on text messages.</p>
<p>Yeah, Curm, Dad was told not to name it Bernie, not to mail sunglasses, not to volunteer his parents as substitutes, and just generally to behave himself and not disrespect the cadaver. HE tried to explain he was disrespecting the live people not the cadaver!</p>
<p>Ironically my Dad died earlier this year and we completed the paperwork for him to donate his body to this same school (in our own sick way, we suggested DD offer the dean a 2 for 1, take me, I bring Grandpa :eek: yikes, we are sick, but we keep our sense of humour and my Dad kept his until the very last minute!) but once he got jaundiced, he was no longer acceptable. When I completed the paperwork I spent some time talking with the people (I think before she was even accepted) determining how to ensure he would be at a different site!!! She said that was really on her mind today and thinking about how generous the people are who donated their bodies.</p>
<p>Hey, at my school, we started cutting the first day of class! We had one or two people that DFO-ed that first day haha. And yeah, 4-5 students per cadaver is pretty standard. You usually can’t have more than 2 people working on each side of the cadaver at any given time.</p>
<p>Well, she has arrived. Ellie Mae has landed in New Haven. Tired and grouchy…but she’s there. Apartment is extremely clean (yeah!) and well maintained (yeah!). And, somehow, even smaller than she expected. Maybe a size 9 shoebox rather than one of dad’s 12’s. (Get the tape measure out of your toolbox, dear. We are paying for #$% feet and I want every one of them. ;))</p>
<p>Her Xterra is still loaded but scrawny cat (and scrawny cat accessories), laptop, and her clothes are inside. She couldn’t park in the garage with the roof-top bag. lol. (Where is youtube when you need it?) She and the “seemingly un-random boy” are chilling with a DVD and absolutely zero furniture. </p>
<p>The Clampetts move back east. But she made it. Dad can relax.</p>
<p>Regarding furniture: Since she has Xterra, it will be much easier for her apartment to be furnished. For mattress, I would try “Sleepy’s” near North Haven (Universal Drive? Also a Target there.) I guess you may have ordered it online from some store so she only needs to pick it up. Ikea is a favorite place for students to hunt for some lower-cost items which they will not feel bad when they need to throw them away a few years later.</p>
<p>It is good to move in on weekend, as the traffic/parking near the downdown area is less troublesome.</p>
<p>DD began last week with a couple of days of orientation and classes began mid-week. We heard a brief report that day, following is the first comment since the first day of class:</p>
<p>…its like finals week, every week. I have to retrain my brain to survive off of 5 hours of sleep and ramen noodles.</p>
<p>There’s still a fair amount of book learnin’ come third year because most medical schools have what are called “shelf exams”, which test knowledge generally acquired from books from the various rotations. </p>
<p>I personally found that the real life learnin’ wasn’t as effective if I hadn’t read before or didn’t read after.</p>
<p>This was seriously the single nastiest surprise of all of medical school. I was really seriously frustrated that we’re still expected to do book learning in the abstract.</p>
<p>Reading about specific conditions to help treat patients, I don’t mind. But shelf exams really frustrated me.</p>
<p>I actually didn’t mind shelf exams, but that might’ve been because I usually did really well on them.</p>
<p>Regardless, the shelf exams were a big motivator for me in terms of studying the important topics for the whole rotation. For example, if I hadn’t had a shelf on my neuro rotation, I’m pretty sure I would’ve only learned how to work up AMS, diagnose seizures, and perform the neuro exam. (Can you tell I was on the consult service?) I’m not sure I would’ve tried as hard as I did to finally learn the tracts and arterial blood supply for the various parts of the brain, since I never saw stroke patients.</p>
