It's Over!

Yup, my very first test of med school is now over with! It was harder than I had expected. The intense preparation and unsettling amount of guessing reminded me of organic chemistry at St. Olaf. At least the subject is WAY more interesting than that! The exam was done in two parts, the lecture exam and the practical exam (in the lab, identifying tags on cadavers, skeletons, and radiographs). I felt a lot more confident on the practical (but all bets are off until I see my real scores; that can wait until tomorrow). It was nice to sit around my apartment this afternoon and actually do nothing! Of course we get right back into in all tomorrow, but today, ignorance is bliss!
Tip: It is helpful to do lots of cooking on the weekends so you'll have food for the rest of the week. It's not fun to be stressed out and hungry when studying for a big test and trying to make something tasty and semi-nutritious in a short amount of time.
Tip Part Two: Make sure the food you make for the week will still be enjoyable come day 6 of it. I zoomed past my taco salad threshold for one week and probably won't be eating it again for quite some time. Maybe it'll seem delicious again in a couple months. In smaller doses.
Testing tip of the day: Learn to love multiple choice questions! It's the format of choice, so get used to it! Besides, it's really satisfying to forcefully cross out obviously wrong answers.

Another Day In The Lab

Today I wasn't in the anatomy labs quite as long as yesterday. Today I was only in there from 2:30 to about 5:45. Yesterday I was there from 11 to 5:45. Uhgg. I think all the chemicals got to my head because I was giddy and amused with most anything for the rest of the night yesterday. Today I am much better. Which is a good thing because I need to review the leg and foot. Hands are feet are incredibly complex! After doing a hand dissection, I really really wish I had gotten a video of my trigger finger surgery so I could figure out precisely what they did.
Lesson of the day: Don't spend 6 hours in the lab.
Funny thing: I am inclined to draw on myself to trace the tendons of different muscles groups, major veins and arteries, and delineate the different dermatones for which nerves are sensory in what areas. My roommate and I are wondering if it would be cheating to get a tattoo of all that stuff....

Strange Joys

Through anatomy, I (and other med students I've talked with) have found strange joys and satisfaction. We love removing fascia and being able to see the beautiful striations of muscles below. Distinguishing the veins, arteries, and nerves stuck to each other in large bundles will make us ooooo and awwwww. We also love using tools! Learning the proper reverse scissoring technique was our first big skill (taking a closed scissor and then gently opening it to push things apart rather than cutting anything). We're getting much better with scalpels, dental picks, forceps, and as of today chisels (we needed them in order to remove parts of spinal vertebrae so we could see the spinal cord and dorsal and ventral roots coming off it, soooo cool!). I also really enjoy x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs and being able to see what all these anatomical structures look like inside out, the organization of all the muscles, nerves, bones, etc is really cool. Probably the jigsaw puzzle addict in me loving to think about spatial organization and putting all of this together in my head, and I really like being able to trace muscles and bones in different slices of CT scan moving down the leg or the arm.
Fact of the day: If someone tears their ACL in their knee, they are more likely to also tear their lateral meniscus than their medial meniscus, even though anatomically speaking, more strain should be placed on the medial meniscus. The "unhappy triad" of knee injuries actually isn't that common.
College course gratitude: Thank goodness Anatomy at Olaf taught me about bones because I would be so confused if I didn't have that as a solid base. It would have been nice to know about the carpals and tarsals, we have some fun mnemonics for those!
Also, I wish I could have better learned spatial orientation, and being to see a 2D image and be able to piece it together in my mind to a 3D reality. That would have been helpful. I'm decent at it, but I have room to improve.
This weekend is the big study weekend as we prepare for our first test on Wednesday! I'll be spending most of my days in the lab, wish me luck!

The Shoulder Is A Complicated Joint

Today we got to practice doing our very first physical exam! It was really fun and cool to find the different structures we've seen in our cadavers on each other. We learned how to test for rotator cuff tears and how to differentiate which muscles are affected (ones used to lift your arm above your head, ones to reach behind and scratch your back, etc).
Fun fact: Try moving one arm as if your are scratching your back. See how high up you can go. Now try the other arm. Your non-dominant hand can go higher than your dominant hand.
Now put up your arms like you're on a roller coaster, palms forward, elbows locked. See how far backwards you can go. Your dominant arm can go farther back than your non-dominant. Cool huh?
Also, I have found that residual formaldehyde smell on my hands after lab doesn't really bother me anymore. If I cut it to down to a manageable level, then eating, studying, leaning my head on hands, etc are fine. This is a good thing since the scent is really hard to get to rid of after 3 juicy hours of lab, but I'm starting to wonder if other non-med student people can pick up on this lingering perfume.

Beginning Med School: The Armpit Is More Important Than You Think

When I was told that medical school is like drinking from a firehose, I thought to myself, yeah sure. But I'm beginning to understand how true that is. We're starting Anatomy with the pectoral region and the axilla (better known as the armpit). It really surprised how many important things are located in that area between the armpit you can see on the outside and your collarbone! Nerves, arteries, and veins course through that small triangle weaving around and through a whole collection of muscles and bones. With how vital these things are to daily functioning and how relatively close to the surface these nerve fibers and blood vessels are, I'm surprised people don't damaged themselves permanently more often!
Fun fact of the day: the ulnar nerve (which comes out of the nerve network that is the brachial plexus) is the "real" funny bone, it runs right by your elbow and when it's whacked, it gives rise to that not-so-funny feeling.
Pre-med gratitude: thank goodness I know basic bone structure and names of muscles, otherwise this firehose would be cranked to full blast.

Interview!

Last night my mom and I got back from Nebraska (made it out of Omaha while the entire city was being shut down because of a snow storm). My interview at Creighton yesterday went pretty darn well! It was great to see the campus, meet the people, and compare this med school with U of MN Twin Cities and U of MN Duluth. The students at each place seem really similar: cooperative, friendly, happy. I could see myself at each school. In the end, it's up to where I get accepted! Best case scenario, I have choices, worst case scenario, I've got Duluth in the bag! I'm so happy I have that one letter in hand, takes the pressure off. And it also helps that my family has been so supportive (like driving me to the Twin Cities and to Omaha, nice to not have to stress over driving or be bored all the way south on I-35). I should hear from Twin Cities by the end of March and from Creighton within three weeks. Exciting!

Back in the U.S.A.!

So, I've been back for a few days now (being busy + recovering from a nasty voice-sapping cold = no time/energy to write) and it feels good to be home. Many small things are much appreciated following a stint abroad. American plumbing being one of them. It's fun to go through what I brought back, revisit the pictures I took (there are lots, I will put up the best of the best here at some point, it may take a bit to sort through them all since I took over 3000 pictures and videos). Mom and I went to an Asian grocery store in town and it was really fun to see things I recognized, had eaten in Japan and Thailand, and currently crave. We made a fun stir fry using some ingredients from there and the plain old Cash Wise. I now have a few culinary goals for recreating some of my favorites from Japan and Thailand, but since I'm going back to Olaf in few days, those plans will have to be put on hold. I bought a variety pack of spices and two medium sized bags of saffron and curry in Thailand; it'll be fun to play with everything. I'm still on the hunt for green tea powder though.
The next few days promise to be busy, a medical school interview at the Twin Cities, family get-together (the weather had better cooperate this time! :) ), and going back to Olaf for my last semester. It's weird being a senior. Beginnings and endings at the same time. But it's exciting!