Latest in Whiteboarding

Well, I'm trying to catch up on all my anatomy, but more will certainly follow - I need to work on respiratory material that we're starting to learn, put up some OMM diagrams, and maybe some useful doctoring notes. As we go, though, I feel like there's material we already learned that is slipping away from me! It is so much material, I'm definitely going to have to do some studying over the summer somehow - I hate that I try to remember stuff from first semester and some of it is already disappearing. Tomorrow is Monday, which means 8 hours of lectures, so I have to be sure to bring a decent sized lunch. Also, there's a basketball game between our class (2013) and the second years (2012) - hopefully it will end better than the last game between our classes...

Apologizes for the quality - I have not yet found a decent way to photograph my whiteboard

Post-Mini CVRR Exam...

Well, since the last post, so much has been going on that I haven't had the right state of mind to study...what with the first week of school and seeing everyone, coming back from winter break, and having a party/Gala packed weekend. So, alas, my studying last week was essentially nonexistent and very little studying was accomplished when I visited Kit over the weekend, so I ended up doing an all-nighter last night and I am feeling the pain right now. Anyhow, hopefully tomorrow I'll wake up feeling more energized and be able to charge back into studying!

We've been getting into more detailed cardiovascular exams, dissecting the heart, learning about the heart and various ways of looking at circulation. We're starting the respiratory system now but I want to go back over the circulation stuff a bit since I feel like I probably missed some of the details during my rabid speed studying last night. Hopefully will be having some normal fun this weekend, make some headway on my studies, and feel all prepared for next week.

Awesome Anatomy Lab!

Sometimes you have a really fun time learning things - when you get quality time with professors, they don't seem rushed, and you have prepared, you can get really involved in the active learning process. We had small groups today, and were examining the inner thorax, mediastinum, the lungs, and the heart. There are so many knowledgeable professors, it's great! Also, all the information was being absorbed in my head like a sponge, and becoming more cohesive.

Some of the highlights include finding essentially all of the key terms we needed, learning how to insert a tube through the rib cage to remove air or fluid, following the arteries and veins into and out of the heart, and getting information about x-ray films of the chest. This was quite a fun lab. It also helped my studying - I updated my whiteboard. I barely have any room left for tomorrow's material, or the heart stuff from today, but nothing we focused on today was particularly new. Unfortunately there were a lot of graphs, so I probably need to memorize and understand those...

Week 1 Has Begun!

Well, Week 1 is well underway, starting the cardiovascular system. We opened up the thorax on Monday, peeled away the skin on the chest, saw the pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, serratus anterior, external intercostales, deltoid, subclavian muscle. Also the rib cage, the sternum, manubrium, clavicles, etc. I also dug around and found the subclavian vein, cephalic vein, axillary vein, axillary artery, and brachial plexus. Next we took out the ribs (bone saw) and observed the lungs, heart (still in pericardium), a bit of the trachea, etc. One of the other cadavers had severe lung cancer - he had bulges the size of golf balls on his lungs and the interior of his ribs were black on that side. There was also a male cadaver with breast cancer. On one of the cadavers I was able to see the right and left vagus nerves and the left phrenic nerve also.

I have been making good use of my new giant blackboard - as for OMM we have started the pelvic area, learning landmarks, anatomy, and lateralization tests. I'm glad I had a girl partner for the first one - I'd rather not feel stuff for the first time on a guy - least now I know what to look for and won't feel like I'm groping around their crotch and butt aimlessly. The science lectures are all about how the heart works, mostly action potentials right now - which I have learned multiple times - AP biology, then cognitive science 1, 10 and 11, then in some biochemistry classes as well, and now here. At least I have some fun stuff planned for the end of the week - a party and the shooting range. Seriously, medical school is way more fun than undergrad was! Oh, and also my disbursement check is ready at the financial aid office - I need to get it tomorrow and figure out my budget for the Bolivia trip - if I have some extra money, I may go to Convocation. If not...well, there's always next year.

Spring Semester...

Monday is the first day back at school, and I am not particularly looking forward to it. I just got rid of my year-long writing block so now I want to work on that! Alas, it will have to be put aside. It looks like we're starting in on the cardiovascular system, and will be dissecting the chest wall, the heart, etc. I don't really want to go back to the anatomy lab... One more weekend to enjoy freedom before entering the grind of school again. I won't have a break again until spring break, and then not until I get back from Bolivia. I think I'm going to pass on Convocation this year, simply because I already have one expensive trip planned. Maybe next year I'll go. Anyhow back to enjoying the last break I have for months...