I Got To Ride The Electron Microscope... How Awesome!!!

Tuesday was such an amazing day! It started with one of my Med101 instructors giving a brief presentation on kidneys and all of the different possible complications that result from and are seen in diabetes.

After the presentation, we were taken to the medical lab at Vanderbilt and were given the amazing opportunity to meet Dr. Fogo, one of the most prominent and well-known pathologists in all of the United States.  She welcomed us into her office where she had the electron microscope. I wish I could have taken a picture of it but was way too fascinated with the microscope itself. I was so ecstatic. I had always dreamt of having the chance to see an electron microscope but didn't realize that this moment would come really soon in my academic career. Dr. Fogo is such an amazing woman. It was simply an honor to meet her. It has pleased me to have a firsthand look at sliced up kidneys through the electron microscope. This is something I will never forget.

I left Dr. Fogo's lab filled with excitement that radiated in all possible directions. To make this day even greater, Alex Taylor showed us many different forms of kidneys. He showed us kidneys with cysts, tumors, and kidney stones. It was really great.

On a completely different topic, but yet still related, Alex showed us a severed foot from one who used to be diabetic. To tie all of the different things Alex had shown us together, he explained how diabetes had a great impact on several different parts of the body, not just the pancreas.

In our second part of the course, a nutrition and body trainer was brought into class to give words of advice and to stress the importance of maintaining a healthy diet while remaining physically active. This presentation was really well executed and was very informative. She explained stuff related to heart rate and the recommended level we would have to be at in order to be in the "fat burning stage" of a workout. It was awesome. I will definitely take a lot of these tips home.

After the presentation we were given time for study hall. Instead of studying and reading our assigned articles, my roommate and some other classmates of mine took the time to try to get to know Alex a bit more. We got to know him to the point where he told us where he wants to be in a couple years, which will not be disclosed. All I will say is that is was very pleasing getting to know one of the instructors much more as a person rather than just an instructor.

After that, we went to our arete class, began writing another poem and were allowed to go off to dinner.

After dinner, we were given the opportunity to go out into Nashville and explore, although not too far. This was the moment my fellow cohorts and I decided to reunite after a couple of days of not interacting. It was really fun and one of the best nights I've had in VSA so far.