Work Hard, Play Harder
Hey all!
I have been in class a full two weeks and some change and let me tell you - I am about 6 feet underwater (which is about 2 inches over my head) and see a tsunami coming my way! What have I gotten myself into?
Well, I can't resist a cadaver update (sensitive types skip this part):
We have removed all the skin off our cadavers from about mid-chest to neck and down the upper limbs (aka arms) on the front and back (aka anterior and posterior sides). We are getting used to the fat and various other slimy things that are in your body when you get old. Cleaning off bursa tissue from the elbow area of our cadaver was a noteworthy treat. Bursa is a highly viscous 'lubricant' that is normally in all your joints to allow your muscles, bones, ligaments, nerves, veins, and arteries move on and around each other without causing friction. Think cherry gelatin made with 7-up. Well, in old folks it leaks out of the joints (ever seen an older person with "inflamed" knees who says "my bursitis is acting up"?) and adheres to the superficial skin layers and has to be removed to see the muscle tissue. There is something about the way it feels, the way the scalpel cuts it away, they way it releases little air bubbles as you touch it - I almost puked.
Safe to read again:
But other than the bursa nastiness, our current dissection has allowed us the privilege of reflecting muscles to investigate the wild world of the cervical and brachial plexuses (aka, big bundles of nerves that break off and go to many places - somewhat like an electrical circuit box junction); we have memorized the axillary nerves, arteries, veins and associated anastamosis and what they do and where they go; we have memorized the muscles, tendons, ligaments, all their attachment locations on the bones; not to mention each bone has dozens of bumps, grooves, and fossas that all need to be known cold. A portion of our test will include a human bone in front of us with a piece of tape on it to mark a spot off and the question will read: "what nerve innervates the muscle that attaches here?" You have 60 seconds to figure it out and write it down. We have had to make up every pneumonic possible to remember the hundreds of structures we see in the cadaver, on the CT scans and X-rays, and on the cross sections of the body (if you have ever seen the body stairwell at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, you know exactly what I am looking at for hours a day). "C3, 4 and 5 keep the diaphragm alive!", "Real Truckers Drink Cold Beer" (for the organization of the brachial plexus), "Sue The Lawyer, Save A Patient (for the 6 branches of a 2" section of your axillary artery that comes out of your axilla, or armpit). And this was the easy stuff. Every time I get up for a little air, another wave comes crashing in over my head. By the time I understand the Greek/Latin (literally, you wonder if they are speaking English) I heard in lecture one day, the next lecture is going in one ear and jumbling up everything I thought I knew! Think Charlie Brown's teacher from the cartoons - wha, wha, wha, whaa, wha! Thank God for the weekends! Seriously, I have never studied so much and classes haven’t even hit full stride yet. I am spending about 25+ hours week (usually 15-18 just on Friday-Saturday) outside of class studying, going into the cadaver lab, talking to instructors, looking up stuff on-line, meeting with students, pulling out my hair, smelling like formaldehyde and finding bits of body tissue in my hair when I get home. I am so swamped that I didn't notice that my gas light came on and I ran out of gas - again. At least there is no time to procrastinate. ;-)
At orientation the administrators reminded us not to let ourselves burn out: "Here memorize thousands of things, nothing below a B is passing, you loose your scholarship if you fall below a 3.25, but don't forget to have fun!" And now, I understand what they mean. Last night I was studying with Chad - my numero uno study partner. We were reviewing all the stuff mentioned above and we hit a brick wall like a speeding train whose conductor was on crack. Our brains turned to a mush similar to the bursa we removed and we couldn't stop laughing out loud at ourselves - sentences and words came out backwards and made no sense. It is lost in translation to be sure, but suffice it to say there was a dentist in the café and he came over and knew exactly what had happened to us. Dentists have to go through the same class but to a much more difficult level. There is a sense of community with anyone who is in any medical field. We meet them everywhere and they know exactly what we are studying. We called it quits - it was 9 pm on a Saturday night after all - and went and had an adult beverage with some other classmates to release the tension. A cold beer never tasted so good. So, yeah you read it right folks, 2.5 weeks into PA school and Jessica had to end the 1.3 year "no alcohol" fast. A frosty Corona with lime never tasted so dang good. One beer is considered getting crazy - watch out Lexington!
It is good being a student. Though I am poor, there are all kinds of discounts and free things your hideous student ID card is good for: Friday night included free tickets to the Lexington Philharmonic (and they were quite good!) and Saturday afternoon included a $5 ticket to see the UK Wildcats beat South Carolina. There is nothing like being in the student section in the Rupp Arena to watch one of the winningest NCAA teams play (although right now they are doing terrible and are not even on the March Madness bracket which is the first time in the history of the school)… no pacemakers needed there - though you won't have a voice when you leave and your hands will be sore from clapping. Sunday included a trek to Memorial Hall (the original building of UK) for our convocation ceremony and to see the class of '07 get their white coats which signifies the beginning of them going on rotations in the hospitals. In one year that will be me - oy vey! If I survive that is. I noticed that the list of the folks receiving their white coats was a few short of the 54 that started the program one year ago… several have dropped out.
FYI - since I have been here, I have not donned my hat, scarf or gloves. On about 40% of the days, I even take off my light fleece by mid-day. But, it does snow here - and attached is a picture as evidence. One day last week there were "winter storm advisories" - we got maybe one to two inches of snow that was gone in 24 hours. Southerners.
Well, hope all is well in your respective corners of the world… I love to get notes from y'all letting me know what is going on with you… it makes me feel like I am still in the loop! Miss you all!
Jessica
I have been in class a full two weeks and some change and let me tell you - I am about 6 feet underwater (which is about 2 inches over my head) and see a tsunami coming my way! What have I gotten myself into?
Well, I can't resist a cadaver update (sensitive types skip this part):
We have removed all the skin off our cadavers from about mid-chest to neck and down the upper limbs (aka arms) on the front and back (aka anterior and posterior sides). We are getting used to the fat and various other slimy things that are in your body when you get old. Cleaning off bursa tissue from the elbow area of our cadaver was a noteworthy treat. Bursa is a highly viscous 'lubricant' that is normally in all your joints to allow your muscles, bones, ligaments, nerves, veins, and arteries move on and around each other without causing friction. Think cherry gelatin made with 7-up. Well, in old folks it leaks out of the joints (ever seen an older person with "inflamed" knees who says "my bursitis is acting up"?) and adheres to the superficial skin layers and has to be removed to see the muscle tissue. There is something about the way it feels, the way the scalpel cuts it away, they way it releases little air bubbles as you touch it - I almost puked.
Safe to read again:
But other than the bursa nastiness, our current dissection has allowed us the privilege of reflecting muscles to investigate the wild world of the cervical and brachial plexuses (aka, big bundles of nerves that break off and go to many places - somewhat like an electrical circuit box junction); we have memorized the axillary nerves, arteries, veins and associated anastamosis and what they do and where they go; we have memorized the muscles, tendons, ligaments, all their attachment locations on the bones; not to mention each bone has dozens of bumps, grooves, and fossas that all need to be known cold. A portion of our test will include a human bone in front of us with a piece of tape on it to mark a spot off and the question will read: "what nerve innervates the muscle that attaches here?" You have 60 seconds to figure it out and write it down. We have had to make up every pneumonic possible to remember the hundreds of structures we see in the cadaver, on the CT scans and X-rays, and on the cross sections of the body (if you have ever seen the body stairwell at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, you know exactly what I am looking at for hours a day). "C3, 4 and 5 keep the diaphragm alive!", "Real Truckers Drink Cold Beer" (for the organization of the brachial plexus), "Sue The Lawyer, Save A Patient (for the 6 branches of a 2" section of your axillary artery that comes out of your axilla, or armpit). And this was the easy stuff. Every time I get up for a little air, another wave comes crashing in over my head. By the time I understand the Greek/Latin (literally, you wonder if they are speaking English) I heard in lecture one day, the next lecture is going in one ear and jumbling up everything I thought I knew! Think Charlie Brown's teacher from the cartoons - wha, wha, wha, whaa, wha! Thank God for the weekends! Seriously, I have never studied so much and classes haven’t even hit full stride yet. I am spending about 25+ hours week (usually 15-18 just on Friday-Saturday) outside of class studying, going into the cadaver lab, talking to instructors, looking up stuff on-line, meeting with students, pulling out my hair, smelling like formaldehyde and finding bits of body tissue in my hair when I get home. I am so swamped that I didn't notice that my gas light came on and I ran out of gas - again. At least there is no time to procrastinate. ;-)
At orientation the administrators reminded us not to let ourselves burn out: "Here memorize thousands of things, nothing below a B is passing, you loose your scholarship if you fall below a 3.25, but don't forget to have fun!" And now, I understand what they mean. Last night I was studying with Chad - my numero uno study partner. We were reviewing all the stuff mentioned above and we hit a brick wall like a speeding train whose conductor was on crack. Our brains turned to a mush similar to the bursa we removed and we couldn't stop laughing out loud at ourselves - sentences and words came out backwards and made no sense. It is lost in translation to be sure, but suffice it to say there was a dentist in the café and he came over and knew exactly what had happened to us. Dentists have to go through the same class but to a much more difficult level. There is a sense of community with anyone who is in any medical field. We meet them everywhere and they know exactly what we are studying. We called it quits - it was 9 pm on a Saturday night after all - and went and had an adult beverage with some other classmates to release the tension. A cold beer never tasted so good. So, yeah you read it right folks, 2.5 weeks into PA school and Jessica had to end the 1.3 year "no alcohol" fast. A frosty Corona with lime never tasted so dang good. One beer is considered getting crazy - watch out Lexington!
It is good being a student. Though I am poor, there are all kinds of discounts and free things your hideous student ID card is good for: Friday night included free tickets to the Lexington Philharmonic (and they were quite good!) and Saturday afternoon included a $5 ticket to see the UK Wildcats beat South Carolina. There is nothing like being in the student section in the Rupp Arena to watch one of the winningest NCAA teams play (although right now they are doing terrible and are not even on the March Madness bracket which is the first time in the history of the school)… no pacemakers needed there - though you won't have a voice when you leave and your hands will be sore from clapping. Sunday included a trek to Memorial Hall (the original building of UK) for our convocation ceremony and to see the class of '07 get their white coats which signifies the beginning of them going on rotations in the hospitals. In one year that will be me - oy vey! If I survive that is. I noticed that the list of the folks receiving their white coats was a few short of the 54 that started the program one year ago… several have dropped out.FYI - since I have been here, I have not donned my hat, scarf or gloves. On about 40% of the days, I even take off my light fleece by mid-day. But, it does snow here - and attached is a picture as evidence. One day last week there were "winter storm advisories" - we got maybe one to two inches of snow that was gone in 24 hours. Southerners.
Well, hope all is well in your respective corners of the world… I love to get notes from y'all letting me know what is going on with you… it makes me feel like I am still in the loop! Miss you all!
Jessica
posted by TENN at 11:02 AM
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