A day in the life of

 

(Not really) Watson :

5:15.Snooze.5:30.Snooze.5:45.About time right?I turn off the alarm.I wonder whether I can muster up the willpower to leave the comfort of my satin sheets.Will it be one of those days?Or will I lie to myself that I needed a little more sleep and go right back into hibernation.Ah what the hell,this much slothfulness isnt good for my soul.Giving myself a short pep talk,I jump out of bed and proceed with the normal routine mobile,toilet seat,brush.Yes and all three at the same time(sometimes).

Glad im already in my workout clothes,i put on my jogging shoes and get out of my house.It was still dark outside and the cool breeze hit me making me feel revived.The sleep was completely gone and i felt so alive.40 minutes later,i was back home,showered and dressed for college.My sunny side up with fried bread and coffee sat on my table waiting for me.Well,i didnt keep it waiting too long.

I check the time-its only 7:45,Im way ahead of schedule(as usual).Using the 15 minutes i have to spare very wisely,I go to my room and stand in front of my long mirror.I bobbed my head around to confirm whether my ponytail was perfect.Then,taking a few steps back,still looking at myself in the mirror I went on to do 20 squats.I felt the burn in thigh muscles intensify as I got to the 20th rep.Satisfied,I was good to go.I waved goodbye to my mother and leave the house with my bag on my shoulders and money for the bus ticket in my hands.As I’m walking to the bus stop,i plug my earphones in.My music plays and I feel like I am floating. All my surroundings disappear, all my attention is on the rhythm & lyrics.I stay that way all through the bus ride and the walk to my college building until i have to take the earphones out.And im back,back to reality equipped for another day.

(Definitely not) Crick :

I wake up to the sun streaming through my window. Damn, I thought, I must have overslept. Again. It was 7.30, on a bright Friday morning. As rituals go, I searched for my phone between the sheets and whatsapped a quick goodmorning to my parents. I couldn’t go through my Instagram newsfeed, not this morning lest I be late to my 8.30 class. I – must I add, reluctantly- scramble out of my bed and grabbing my bucket and towel make my way to the stinky common bathrooms that I, as a hostelite was destined to. Its been almost two years in this hostel and you  may wonder why I haven’t made peace with  this part of my life. Well I haven’t okay? Its just my thing, let me whine a little and feel better. I get dressed, water the plant sitting on my table and check to see if I can still make it for breakfast.  Its only 8.10! Well what do you know, living on the campus has its perks! I could leave with 5 minutes to spare and still make it to class on time. I pour myself a bowl of cereal and turn my book to the page where i had left off last night. (All you book nerds reading this, even 2 pages in those brief 5 minutes totally matter, right?) With that, I take my bag and my labcoat and rush to class.

(Not really) Watson and (definitely not) Crick :

We promised y’all a day in the life of but then we considered writing about our daily mundane schedule and realized that it wasn’t all that fancy. So how about we give y’all a quick run through of the things we learn in school for this year.

Pharmacology-
So if ever a med student-preferably one who has passed second year-becomes a druggie. They would know exactly how much coke to consume to get a kick out of it but prevent an overdose.Thats what we study in pharmacology,all about drugs(therapeutic drugs),how they act,their uses and adverse effects, their dosage and overdosage.
•If you were wondering Coke(cocaine) is actually a therapeutic drug used as an anaesthetic.
As for practicals,it’s not very different from potions class.And as two Harry Potter fangirls it’s like a fantasy.A gram of a certain powder,a drop of a yellow liquid,some melted wax and voila.A potion which heals.Except it’s not as magical as I make it sound,but no one needs to know that!

Microbiology–
“I am everywhere, all the time and I am powerful”, declares the germ. Did you think I was talking about God? In micro we study about the different microorganisms that cause us harm in any way. And the practicals are spent in making slides off a throat swab or a sputum specimen or pus or blood or some other  gross body secretion laden with infection. It’s fancy. No really. Organisms are distinguished on the basis of whether they look pink or purple or whether they ferment glucose or fructose. Whether they make golden colonies or silver. Pretty neat huh?

Forensics –
You know all those cool things we see on csi and bones? How when there’s a homicide they call in a forensic expert who sprinkles some luminol and the whole place fluoresces blue? Or how the forensic guy can decipher which gun was used and from what distance it was fired?  Yeah well all that’s forensic science. Not what we do. (FYI, all that they show on csi and bones and dexter, its a lot ott! Just saying.)
What we study is forensic medicine, a branch of medicine that deals with application of law to medicine. So what we study in class is about euthanasia, exhumation (digging out the dead from the ground), post death changes and thus estimating time since death and more. The practicals include performing autopsies and finding the cause of death. (In fact we did our first autopsy only last week!)
And finally,

Pathology-
“It is pathology which tests a patient’s blood, checks his excrements, tracks down his diseases, decides whether his tumor is malignant or benign. It is pathology which advises the patient’s physician on disease and sometimes, when all else in medicine fails”—“it is the pathologist who makes the final diagnosis.”

Excerpt From: Hailey, Arthur. “The Final Diagnosis.”,one of our adored medical books.
You know how we study the causative organism if a certain disease in micro? Well here we learn how that same organism goes about causing the disease. Which organs it affects and what symptoms it causes. We learn the pathogenesis of the disease.
Oh and the practicals? So we observe stained cut sections of different tissues and organs under the microscope and identify the unhealthy parts. Now these stains are either eosin (pink) and haemotoxylin (purple). If you look into a crayon box, pink and purple are two very different colors. However under the microscope its a very different story. As an example, the following pictures don’t look all that different now do they?

Except, the one on top is that of a benign (harmless) bone tumor while the one on the bottom is a malignant osteosarcoma (bone cancer). Like I was saying.
So Monday to Saturday we have these same subjects in a different order. And today being Friday our day includes microbiology, pharmacology and pathology practicals.
As we finish our long tiring day, we’re exhausted. We have no test lined up for tomorrow or anytime this week. So clearly we are not hitting the library. Not today at least. After our mandatory post-college coffee, (definitely not) Crick drops (not really) Watson at the bus stop and we both head back to our respective homes .