This Week in Med School

To my delight, the first exam in the cardiovascular module was not that horrible. Most of the questions are straightforward and there was no need to overanalyze stuffs. Even better, the bane of preclinical students, anatomical pathology, did not trample us with fancy-schmancy morphology; in fact, there were specific hints in all of the questions. Identifying the diseases was more like identifying Paris by looking at the Eiffel Tower. There were a few hurdles, especially in cardiac physiology, but overall, the exam was manageable. Now I can get back to life – for a while before anatomy ‘fever’ sets in.

 

Last Saturday, I attended a minor surgery and circumcision training. This is my first time going to such event and as expected, I was very excited. Well, my mom was enthusiastic too; somehow, the thought of me tinkering with some kid's penis is entertaining to her.

 

In the minor surgery session, I was taught to do 3 types of basic sutures. I won’t get technical in this post, but you can look them up here, here, and here. We trained to suture sponges, but we used real surgical tools. And that’s when I realized that suturing involves pushing a needle through a person’s skin over and over again. If it wasn’t so cool and necessary, it would have simply been barbaric. Looking at my stitched sponge, the trainers said I did quite a good job, but maybe that’s a code for “thank you for not slicing us”.

 

The circumcision session was eye opening. Who knew you can learn to do circumcision by doing it to a candle penis wrapped in two layers of elastic gloves? In the beginning, it was somewhat awkward for me. The trainer, who happened to be a girl, explained the basic anatomy of a penis to a group of penis-owners. To my relief, there was no new information on penis anatomy. Then we proceeded to the circumcision itself. It was a little hard (no pun intended), but the trainer assured us that real genitals are not that stiff (except during certain times, of course). In the end of the training, I got my first minor surgery certificate. I won’t be cutting anyone open anytime soon, but there was that unmistakable sense of achievement.

 

Today, the president of RI visited my campus as a part of Alumni Awakening Day. The background story would be very long so here’s the summary: FKUI was founded by the Dutch and its students was instrumental in the national awakening movement which ultimately led to Indonesia’s independence. My favourite part of the story is how Abdulrachman Saleh spread the news of RI’s independence using a simple radio in my school’s physiology lab. In the nascent republic, doctors from FKUI served various position within and outside of the government. It is of utmost importance that the current FKUI embrace its noble past and emulate that fighting spirit to build an even better FKUI and Indonesia.