Toads, Hemoglobin and Banana Skins

Today's news:

People used to smoke toad skins to get high. - Dr. Rhian Cope, in toxicology class.

Dr. Mosley, lecturing about the effects of high altitude (with its correspondingly low partial pressure of oxygen) on percent hemoglobin saturation, informed us that he once went to a high elevation on a trip and took a pulse oximeter along (just for fun, as far as I could tell). He measured his percent hemoglobin saturation,found it to be extremely low, and proceeded to measure the saturations of those with him. I found the sheer nerd quality (which, to be clear, is regardly highly on this blog) of this episode to be rather amusing.

Principles of surgery again: today we took our quizzes on bananas. I don't think I'd ever written on a banana before, but it works pretty well. There was one written question. The rest of the quiz involved making an incision down the length of the banana, extracting the "tumor" (banana insides), sending it to pathology (eating it), and demonstrating a few surgery stitches on the incision edges.

These articles contain some pictures of suture patterns (the quiz involved a cruciate, a vertical mattress, and a simple interrupted):
"Mattress Sutures: Vertical, Horizontal, and Corner Stitch"
"Suturing Techniques"

Imagine grading a pan of banana skins.