Radiographic Anatomy

Here's what I did in lecture today: an artistic representation of a transverse section of the heart screaming, "Help, I'm trapped in the mediastinum!"

Radiology is not hard per se -- all you do is look at films all day -- but they are kind of throwing us into things without any real context. When Dr. R. pointed to haze and said "This is clearly the aortic arch," we all sort of giggled nervously. Even histo's clearer than this.

Other than difficulty with the chest X-rays and CT scans, life and classes are going well. I just got back from a weekend in the Catskills, chaperoning low-income city kids for an enrichment program run out of the children's hospital here. They learned team-building and I re-learned how much I enjoy working with kids and helping them understand the world around them. Around the campfire, I told them all about the stars -- they'd never seen stars before -- and Cassopeia and Orion and slaves running north with only the Big Dipper to guide them. They were fascinated, and I got an incredible rush from telling them something new and exciting. I think I'm going to get more involved with the program as the school year goes on.