One Month to Go...for Summer Session

We have made it to July 1st and I find that hard to believe.  This summer has flown by, which isn't necessarily a bad thing at all.  The past few weeks haven't been too crazy, just the normal schedule of class and the occasional rotation.  Since my last post, we have had two tests.  One was on the kidney, heart, and bone, and the one this week was on the liver, skin, and endocrine.  There really isn't too much left of the semester with only two tests, a presentation, and a final remaining in Systemic Pathology, and then one test and a final in Clinical Pathology.  Time really does fly when you're having fun :P.  

I did have my second gross rotation this week and I had the chance to see and gross a few specimens that I haven't had before.  One of the specimens was vaginal mesh, which really wasn't too difficult.  The specimen just required a gross description and it was submitted entirely.  I was also given the opportunity to gross my first uterus with the cervix, both fallopian tubes, and an ovary.  It came across my bench because of leiomyomas, which appear as white-whorled nodules of various sizes within the myometrium.  As always, I had to measure, weigh, and describe all the components.  The specimen had been sliced the day before and left in formalin over night, so I had to describe what the cut surfaces, such as the endometrial cavity, myometrium, and so on, looked like before I began taking the appropriate sections.  It was quite the experience and a little nerving at times, but it was nice to get one of the more "complex" specimens I've never done before.  Aside from those new specimens, I did a lot of biopsies from the GI tract, breast cores, and skin specimens.  I get a little stressed out in the gross room at times, but once I start working, I realize I know a lot more than I feel like I do and just have to trust in everything I have learned.  It will take time, but one day, my classmates and I will be "pros" at what we are being taught to do!