quitting, and the placenta.

One of my classmates was able to witness the miracle of birth today ("Not as much screaming as I expected" was the general jist). What really freaked her out was not the birth itself, but the afterbirth--that's right, the placenta. "It was just this big...thing," she said, her eyes wide. "This mush. It was this big--" she spread her hands, as if demonstrating the size of a prize catch--"And just purple-y and huge and..." Obviously a terrifying thing.

I discussed this with my roommate, a NICU nurse, who concurred. "They aren't pretty. They never show it in movies, either," she said, her brows furrowed. "It's always just, yay, a pretty baby. No placenta. Sometimes when there's something wrong with the baby or the mother, they send it along to the NICU in a bag," she added. "Usually they're nice about it and put it in a black bag so we don't have to look at it. When the fellows come they're always really excited about it, too, because then they can send it to pathology." She shuddered.

The word itself comes from the Greek for "plate" via the Latin for "cake," both emphasizing the fact that the placenta's pretty flat. I've tried several times to link an image, but screw it. Look it up on Wikipedia; there are several images, some gorier than others.

I am updating in part to fill the time I would ordinarily be spending smoking. Also because I have been relentlessly badgered by a certain person whose name starts with a G and ends with an inder. Oh! So, a random recap of today's events, which may be elaborated in a later post:

Today we had the only dental lecture we will ever get in med school. Saw many images of periodontal disease, thrush, malocclusion and canker sores. Take home message: Brush. Floss. Use fluoride rinse if you have to. Just because you're smoking meth every five minutes doesn't mean you can't maintain a basic oral hygeine regime (although admittedly there are other factors at play in the development of 'meth mouth.' If you've never had the pleasure of seeing manifestations of that malady, please do google it, though not if you are eating, have recently eaten, or are planning on eating again, ever). Other take-home message: don't be afraid to get a dental consult, because as a physician one of the few areas of the body you are NOT required to know jack shit about = teeth (Note how I used the equal sign to avoid making a mistake in subject-verb agreement in the previous sentence. Is? Are? Is 'teeth' the antecedent or is 'one'? Because teeth are, but one is. Sorry. Grammar Gestapo.)

I wore my lucky turtle socks today, a gift from a college roommate, and subsequently discovered I'd gotten an honorable mention in the William Carlos Williams Poetry contest (a poetry competition for medical students). Now I just have to get the registrar to affirm that I am, in fact, a student at Wash-U med--because, according to the woman I spoke to on the phone, there was an 'unfortunate incident' several years ago. Erm. Go lucky turtle socks! My precious...

As far as quitting goes, I have my patch on. I have been chewing gum like crazy. Sugarless gum. The gum that warns you that "excessive consumption may have a laxative effect on susceptible individuals." Apparently I am a susceptible individual. Apparently I have also been consuming excessively. And now I am doing other things excessively as well. So that's fun.

Honestly, I think the patch is giving me a bigger dose of nicotine than I got when I was smoking, because I feel really revved up. For instance, I'm not tired right now at all, and I'm normally positively geriatric when it comes to bedtime (at least since I started taking Seroquel, the only thing that has EVER worked to KO my chronic insomnia...though I know one person in my class is achieving similar feats with codeine cough syrup. Meh. There have to be SOME benefits to being sick; I say ride the gravy train as far as you can if you're unfortunate enough to come down with something nasty). Also. Since the PI I wrote to earlier this month hasn't emailed me back, I am now expanding my horizons and sending out my CV to other PIs (that's 'principal investigators,' or 'people who are kind and generous enough to let me come work in their lab for the summer'). Also. I have been cunningly crafting Valentines all week and will spring them on the unsuspecting in the days to come.

Yesterday I had another MRI, of my ankle this time. Stress fracture. Big fun. Hopefully all will be healed in time for the marathon in April. If not, I may have to do the half instead, and I will be disappointed. Sad face.