Heart Dissection vs Pharmaceutics

Everyday has been busy. Being loaded with lectures and tutorials gives me nothing but work. Well, besides knowledge perhaps.

Last week, I had a sheep's heart dissection. Before the dissection, I NEVER had a chance to operate on such yucky thing before, not even a full chicken. So this can be considered as the first time I handed something like this, with gloves of course. My first impression towards the heart was: It Stinks!!! Cold and sticky... Next, I will leave the story telling job to the pictures below.

Before the dissection, we (I and my lab partner) tried to identify the major arteries and veins of the heart and of course, the ventral and dorsal regions of the heart.

Now, let's get started. We began the dissection from the dorsal region, making the cut through left atrium and left ventricle parallel to the interventricular septum. The above picture shows me holding the heart after the cut. It was amazing to me that the tiny valve can actually hold on to such a large amount of pressure. It did not tear off although I tried hard pulling them apart.

I had a pharmaceutical mock test just now. It was a mere 20 minutes test but I started to doubt my ability to complete all the questions in time. For those who do not know, it was a test involving general mathematical calculation to determine the amount of drug to be given to the patient at right concentration. In short, it was another form of more complicated Mathematics test. The most cruel part of the test is - no mark will be awarded to workings if the answer is wrong. Reason: Making a mistake while prescribing can be disastrous, and it cannot be undone by all means.

I should stop now.

^^