Tribute to Dr. Deepti C.J.

I know this coming a lil’ bit late but since I promised to write a tribute to her, so here goes.

I still remember the time when you threw our 1^st mandibular cast away. You were like “Yes! Jackpot!” and our cast flew straight into the huge blue bin. Yes, I was shock and from that very day; I thought, “This is one weird lecturer. You never know what’s gonna happen next.” Truly enough, you went on smashing our base plates.  I pondered why ma’am, why you want to destroy it? I remembered you gave me the answer during your very last demonstration. You said “Next time in your clinics, you be doing tons and tons of these, you want to keep every single one of them? Your house will be full of your patient cast then.” Logical~ Well, those are not really nice memories of you.

One of your favorite quote “Use your brains.” (Simply it means, don’t do your work just for the sake of doing it. Every step, there is a reason to it. If you simply follow blindly what I show, you’re nothing better than a dental technician. You are going to be a dentist; you should know the science behind each and every step. That way, you will know whether the work is done right or not.) I agree to that and I found that, if use your brains and the knowledge your gain from class, not only we can finish our work faster, we also can develop our own skills.

Indeed ma’am, you have train us to be tough. Everything has to be perfect, not a single flaw should be there. Esthetic is very important. Any shabby works is a big NO NO for you. Ma’am, your hand works are really good. Everyone in the class agrees with that and I hope can surpass you one day.

“Have you have your breakfast?” your favorite question to start of your class on the sleepy Tuesday morning. We all will be sluggish and reluctant to answer while you will be wide awake. I still remembered you lectured us about not having our breakfast. Despite that, we still are not having our breakfast.  You would start of your lecture slides with some colorful, glittering “Good morning” graphics.  Your lectures are never boring and we can always relate to the things you thought. You are never stingy in giving us notes though you know we never read it. Our eyes would go up and down and sideways when you ask us about the steps in making a denture.  Please forgive us because prosthodontics is not an exam going subject this year and we are trying our best to cope with others.

It was a tearful departure. I have never foreseen you would one day leave us. Thank you ma’am for being with us. Thank you for teaching us the basic we need.  It’s a shame that you are not here to teach us tooth arrangement. We wish you all the best in your further undertakings. Have a blessed marriage life. We dearly miss you.

Ps: Please forgive us for not able to attend your marriage. Many of us tried to fork out time to go, but we really can’t make it. Thanks for your invitation and sweets. J

PPs: On the day before your departure, you look very stunning in make-up. Many of the boys were blown away by you. Just so you know. J

Cloud 9

Just so you know who is the one behind the picture I use as my blog theme. Tada!

Here's a colour form of it.

All credits goes to her.

From the Dead ; We Live

*WARNING: Those of weak heart and despise eerie body parts, don't look at the pictures~! Don't say I didn't warn you!*

I thought this would earn at least a post in my blog despite how much I dislike them. Well, not them but the formalin. I can't stand the smell of formalin, i never got accustom to the smell even till my last dissection class. I’m being labeled the Mask Girl.

For every dissection class, there would be layers of Vicks and Minyak Cap Kapak on my nose, covered with a facial mask. I know it sound exaggerating, but that’s just how it is for me with the dissection hall. However, above all this, I respect those people who donated their body for our learning. Truly from their body, we got a real picture of what's like within the body. Too be frank, most of them don't even know they would end up on the metal table for dissection. They never knew that hundreds of medical student would stare at their body and be preserve for many many years. They never knew that they would be label as “CADAVER”. Most of them are not unclaimed bodies. While they were still living, they don’t even have a family or proper meals to begin with. Most of them died of hunger or from coldness. And the next thing you know, liters of formalin are pumped into their body. Our anatomy lecturers will then spend time on dissecting them; slowly removing the skin first then fascia etc. The tools that they use range from small blades and forceps to as huge as a tree saw.

About 90% of the cadavers are extremely thin and you can make out the reason of their death. I still remember we had one with Bell’s palsy. As a dental student, we always get only the head. Yes, only the head, no body.  Sometimes, if required, we get sections of the thorax also. Some of the bodies are already chopped into half and have their limbs removed. You might think of it as inhuman, but that’s how it’s. The best is we even have a museum of properly dissected specimen. I haven’t been in there before but I heard that you can really see each structure distinctively.

If you are daring enough, you can have a hand on experience with them. Till now, I have only touch it once; and that was during my viva with Mr. Vk. It feels cold and hard; probably because they just took it out from the huge refrigerator. I thought I would feel nausea during my first dissection class, but everything went fine. My first encounter was a female cadaver. It was a full body and I still can recall her features. And yes, she was an Indian.

I know many have shunt away from medical courses with the reason that they can’t stand looking at dead bodies. I been through that thought before but I’m glad I pursued my course. And I thank God for leading me to do my course in India because I can’t think of a better way but to study from the dead. It’s certainly eye-opening and refreshing during every dissection class. I personally think that each cadaver should be given a noble prize, really they deserve it.

Nobody is useless; even after dead