Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Today was the last day of gross anatomy lab—which you know if you have been reading! At the beginning of the year, our instructor told us that they give awards at the end of the year, which I completely forgot about but was reminded of it yesterday because we were asked to wait after today’s lab lecture for the awards. The first award went was the eagle-eye award. This is presented to the student that caught the most errors in the material over the course of the year: grammatical, content and the like. This went to Thomas Hooven. (No one I’ve mentioned before, so don’t worry if the name is not familiar.) The next award goes to the best table of the year. It is the Demigods of Dissection! Believe it or not, this went to my table! When they reminded us yesterday, I figured we were in the running, but I did not think we’d actually win.
Dr. Gest (our instructor) took an action shot of us at work today, which was in fact not staged and a group photo. I also scanned in the award. They’re over in the photo section if you want to see what I look like with a beard again! :)
Some days being a gunner pays. Besides the certificate, we were given an anatomy coffee mug and a glow-in-the-dark finger-bone pen all place gently in a head-bag. Yes! It’s what you think it is. Fortunately, it is unused!
Dr. Gest (our instructor) took an action shot of us at work today, which was in fact not staged and a group photo. I also scanned in the award. They’re over in the photo section if you want to see what I look like with a beard again! :)
Some days being a gunner pays. Besides the certificate, we were given an anatomy coffee mug and a glow-in-the-dark finger-bone pen all place gently in a head-bag. Yes! It’s what you think it is. Fortunately, it is unused!
Monday, March 29, 2004
Deep breath in!....And let it out…
We’re two thirds through the Neuroanatomy sequence and it’s time for the seventh inning stretch. There are two outs, the tying runner on third and it’s a full count.
(No! Mary Lee did NOT help me write that sentence, dad!)
We have our lab practical this Friday and our final exam this weekend. We had our second to last dissection today (I’ll expound upon that in a moment) and we’ll have another histology lab tomorrow. Compared to last year, this anatomy lab and tomorrow’s are double labs and the last histology lab, day after tomorrow, is also a double lab. The practical will be a killer with a total of seven “standard” anatomy labs, three “standard” histology labs and two “new” Neuroanatomy labs. This is the first year they have tested on these Neuroanatomy learning modules that the professors use to try to make the material more tractable. And they need ALL of the help they can get cause they are a SORRY bunch. There is one prof. who is okay on his own, but trying to integrate those lectures into the other ones, which are all varying levels of awful, is next to impossible. I think this is actually the second worst block so far as far as presentation quality.
Anyway, the material is starting to take its toll. I know of quite a few people that did not pass this last quiz (on its own). They can still pass the course because the pass/fail is based on the cumulative average, but it does not seem to be getting easier: at least not in this block. I’m keeping my head above water, but not terribly high above water. I did not take the quiz yesterday until 10:30p and there were a LOT of people still studying in the common room (it’s called Fursty).
Tomorrow is the last official anatomy lab. (Weep-sob) Really, I wish we had not done the neuro-labs during the block, there is not enough time to enjoy it. Actually, this is the first time the labs have been taught with the class which made it all that much worse because the lecture course is set up to be a dense 9a-12p with the afternoons to study plus the two neuroanatomy labs. Now we’re 9-5 most days and there just isn’t enough time to put all of the pieces together. But! That is not what I want to tell you about now. Today’s anatomy lab was…The EYE!!!! And as many of you know, I have a “thing” about eyes. I figured if I was going to pass out any day, it would be today. (You can guess by now that I did not.) What was most impressive, is I actually got into the dissection! I was a little apprehensive at first, but once I “dug” into it, I did really well. To be sure, we did not actually dissect the eyeball, which may be a BIG reason I did not, well, faint. But I managed to deal with all of the muscles, nerves and veins of the eye which are still pretty darn gross.
Tomorrow, our last official dissection is of the ear. So, I will finally understand what the heck my mom is talking about when she says something about the inner ear! Now, you ask, “why do you keep saying official?” Well, that’s because my lab partner and I are going to barrow a bunch of brains and see what we can see when we have some free time in the weeks and months ahead. In all of these official labs, one hemisphere was untouched. The other hemisphere does not get sectioned to any extent either. I suppose this is part of the reason I’m called a gunner. But, that’s okay. I’m old and wise enough to know that opportunities like this do not come along that often in ones life. If ever!
We’re two thirds through the Neuroanatomy sequence and it’s time for the seventh inning stretch. There are two outs, the tying runner on third and it’s a full count.
(No! Mary Lee did NOT help me write that sentence, dad!)
We have our lab practical this Friday and our final exam this weekend. We had our second to last dissection today (I’ll expound upon that in a moment) and we’ll have another histology lab tomorrow. Compared to last year, this anatomy lab and tomorrow’s are double labs and the last histology lab, day after tomorrow, is also a double lab. The practical will be a killer with a total of seven “standard” anatomy labs, three “standard” histology labs and two “new” Neuroanatomy labs. This is the first year they have tested on these Neuroanatomy learning modules that the professors use to try to make the material more tractable. And they need ALL of the help they can get cause they are a SORRY bunch. There is one prof. who is okay on his own, but trying to integrate those lectures into the other ones, which are all varying levels of awful, is next to impossible. I think this is actually the second worst block so far as far as presentation quality.
Anyway, the material is starting to take its toll. I know of quite a few people that did not pass this last quiz (on its own). They can still pass the course because the pass/fail is based on the cumulative average, but it does not seem to be getting easier: at least not in this block. I’m keeping my head above water, but not terribly high above water. I did not take the quiz yesterday until 10:30p and there were a LOT of people still studying in the common room (it’s called Fursty).
Tomorrow is the last official anatomy lab. (Weep-sob) Really, I wish we had not done the neuro-labs during the block, there is not enough time to enjoy it. Actually, this is the first time the labs have been taught with the class which made it all that much worse because the lecture course is set up to be a dense 9a-12p with the afternoons to study plus the two neuroanatomy labs. Now we’re 9-5 most days and there just isn’t enough time to put all of the pieces together. But! That is not what I want to tell you about now. Today’s anatomy lab was…The EYE!!!! And as many of you know, I have a “thing” about eyes. I figured if I was going to pass out any day, it would be today. (You can guess by now that I did not.) What was most impressive, is I actually got into the dissection! I was a little apprehensive at first, but once I “dug” into it, I did really well. To be sure, we did not actually dissect the eyeball, which may be a BIG reason I did not, well, faint. But I managed to deal with all of the muscles, nerves and veins of the eye which are still pretty darn gross.
Tomorrow, our last official dissection is of the ear. So, I will finally understand what the heck my mom is talking about when she says something about the inner ear! Now, you ask, “why do you keep saying official?” Well, that’s because my lab partner and I are going to barrow a bunch of brains and see what we can see when we have some free time in the weeks and months ahead. In all of these official labs, one hemisphere was untouched. The other hemisphere does not get sectioned to any extent either. I suppose this is part of the reason I’m called a gunner. But, that’s okay. I’m old and wise enough to know that opportunities like this do not come along that often in ones life. If ever!
Monday, March 22, 2004
One more story to add before I call it a night! Last Tuesday evening, Mary Lee started baking while I was studying. During one of my study breaks, I went downstairs to investigate the crime she was perpetrating. I inquired as to what she was making. Now, I must tell you that her asthma as been acting up the last few weeks. As such, she does not expel as much air not as forcefully. This, unfortunately, causes her to talk softly without her really realizing it. We discovered this when I moved back to Texas (the second time). Her asthma was flaring up (it’s usually seasonal) and I frequently misunderstood what she was saying. When I was reemployed by UTMB, they gave me a routine physical which included a hearing exam. I explained to them that my wife thought I was having some hearing difficulties because I frequently misunderstand her. All of the nurses roared out in laughter and exclaimed that it was just my wife I could not hear. They proved with my ability to pass the hearing exam with flying colors!
Okay, back to the story. She I asked her what she was making and she responded. Very puzzled, I looked at her and repeated what I though I heard, “You’re baking Gremlins??” With both broke out in laughter and once I used my eyes, I discovered that when one speaks without expelling an appropriate amount of air, the word brownies sounds like gremlins. Needless to say, now when we cannot understand each other we substitute “gremlins” into the part that doesn’t make sense. Or, just through out an entire stream of “gremlins gremlins gremlins” when the entire sentence is lost.
We had a new supermarket (Bella Vino) move into the neighborhood. It’s a nice mix between a Whole Foods and an upscale grocery store. That is, they have high end stuff and they have good normal stuff. Moreover, the prices are not totally outrageous. Out agreement is that when we go there, we have to bike. That way, we cannot buy too much and we will work off some the cheese Chicago stuffed pizzas that will certainly be purchased there. Oh, any obviously they have a somewhat extensive wine collection, too.
Okay, back to the story. She I asked her what she was making and she responded. Very puzzled, I looked at her and repeated what I though I heard, “You’re baking Gremlins??” With both broke out in laughter and once I used my eyes, I discovered that when one speaks without expelling an appropriate amount of air, the word brownies sounds like gremlins. Needless to say, now when we cannot understand each other we substitute “gremlins” into the part that doesn’t make sense. Or, just through out an entire stream of “gremlins gremlins gremlins” when the entire sentence is lost.
We had a new supermarket (Bella Vino) move into the neighborhood. It’s a nice mix between a Whole Foods and an upscale grocery store. That is, they have high end stuff and they have good normal stuff. Moreover, the prices are not totally outrageous. Out agreement is that when we go there, we have to bike. That way, we cannot buy too much and we will work off some the cheese Chicago stuffed pizzas that will certainly be purchased there. Oh, any obviously they have a somewhat extensive wine collection, too.
I cannot begin to explain the lack of truths in a recent article published in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution about Galveston Island, Texas. (Scroll down to the travel section to find the article.) Well, first of all, the title is a flat out lie. Galveston is far from the best little island in Texas. Maybe the best little island near Houston, but even then people (such as my wife) would argue that Pelican island is a nicer island—and it was made with all of the dredging from digging the Galveston ship channel! The article shows a picture of Galveston smothered in blue water all the way to the shore. This is another untruth! It’s not quite a lie, but it is really close. In all of the years that I have lived there, the “blue water days” (the number of which can be counted on one hand in a year) never come close to the shore and when there is blue water to be seen, it is in the middle of winter. I should point out that 40 F can actually be quite cold when there is 100% humidity. During true beach season, the water is brown. Very brown! If you’re lucky, you can swim out to where it is brown-green (and not a pretty green, either). Once you’re out there, there is a gauntlet of enormous jellyfish and sharks to contend with. Actually, once you’re out in the green water, you can be certain that there are sharks between you and the shore!
Aside: As you will find out in a moment, my mom really likes the summers in Galveston. She was visiting one summer and we ventured out into the water. (This was my first year there so I did not know about the sharks just yet.) We swam out a bit since it says very shallow. All of the sudden, my mom says, “come here, now!” Since I was a mature adult of 25(ish) I looked at hear and said, “Why?” Should could not speak while she was starting to back up and finally mustered the strength to point. I turned around to see the oncoming wall of a substantial wave. The surf was high that day, which made it that much more fun, and, although the wave was substantial, that was not the problem. The wall of the oncoming wave was basically a wall of jellyfish!!!! Not more that 6 feet away! I quickly looked around me to see if it was still clear and we both start swimming and running as fast as we could to get the hell out of the water! Okay, back to the tirade.
What Galveston beaches truly have to offer is a hot breeze, high and low temperatures in the mid nineties, and humidity to match. With that said, it is certainly less humid feeling than Houston or Dallas as they don’t get the breeze, but it is certainly not the weather that ANY Floridian would want to travel to experience. Well, that is except for the small fraction of the population that truly thrives on heat and humidity. My dear mother springs to mind, but she’s the only one I know that fits that bill. Love ya’ ma!
Moody Gardens is by far the best thing about the island with respect to attractions. It is well thought out and many hours of good fun including the 3D IMAX theater. They also hold the yearly IMAX film festival so you can see all of the movies, if you can get a ticket!
The article makes no mention of the excessive poverty the island suffers with. 60,000 people live on the island. UTMB is the largest employer at 10,000 employees. 75% of the employees don’t live on the island. The next largest employer is Wal-Mart. Thus, the island has an enormous expanse of housing projects.
They do through a yearly Mardi Gras (which is must more tame than the version hosted in Louisianan, which I enjoy more than anyone else. So, it’s probably not that much fun for a “normal” person.
Galveston also has a lot of ornithological opportunities (lots of birds). However, they also have mosquitoes that are as large as birds, and much more vicious! They have NO problem whatsoever penetrating denim. On several occasion I watched them try to drill through Mary Lee’s leather jacket! The number and strength of them is absolutely incredible and they are out year round. Of course, they are worse when the birds are out. So, that’s a zero sum game!
There is a reason people that live there call it Galvetraz!
With all of that said, there is something to be said for the people. There are a handful of good people and when you find them, it makes it more bearable. You learn not to go outside when the mosquitoes are at there worse. You don’t go out during the middle of a summer day. You learn to bring a sweater to work during the summer because the air conditioners work really well. (No place knows A/C like Texas!) You learn not to get lost in the projects at night. And you learn not to hang out on Broadway during the gang initiation weeks (that’s when most of the drive-by shootings take place).
There is one thing that I found appealing about living in Texas. I liken in to living in a Fraternity in College. Not everyone you meet is nice. Not everyone you meet will like you. Not everyone you meet you will want to like. But, when the chips are down, everyone will come to your aid! The one time my car broke down, I cannot tell you the number of people that stopped and offered to help. It is also true when there are major (usually weather related) catastrophes. I have never seen that in any other state.
Oh, and before I forget! Bush did HORRIBLE things to Houston!
I’m sure there are a one or two other things that I did like about Galveston, but not very many. Mostly, it was the friends I have there (both at work and outside work). The one thing that was perfectly true in the article was this: “Truth be told, we didn't have that many great, unique meals in Galveston. Many seafood restaurants were national chains, and one local landmark seafood restaurant was positively awful.” I wish I knew where they went?! And in there list of places to eat, they left out the best ones on the island: Schutte’s Corner (we were known as the King and Queen of Schutte’s by the owner and staff…we ate lunch there A LOT), The Mosquito Café (Mary Lee’s favorite) and the El Napolito (best salsa in the world! Next to mine, of course).
Crap! I gotta go study!
Aside: As you will find out in a moment, my mom really likes the summers in Galveston. She was visiting one summer and we ventured out into the water. (This was my first year there so I did not know about the sharks just yet.) We swam out a bit since it says very shallow. All of the sudden, my mom says, “come here, now!” Since I was a mature adult of 25(ish) I looked at hear and said, “Why?” Should could not speak while she was starting to back up and finally mustered the strength to point. I turned around to see the oncoming wall of a substantial wave. The surf was high that day, which made it that much more fun, and, although the wave was substantial, that was not the problem. The wall of the oncoming wave was basically a wall of jellyfish!!!! Not more that 6 feet away! I quickly looked around me to see if it was still clear and we both start swimming and running as fast as we could to get the hell out of the water! Okay, back to the tirade.
What Galveston beaches truly have to offer is a hot breeze, high and low temperatures in the mid nineties, and humidity to match. With that said, it is certainly less humid feeling than Houston or Dallas as they don’t get the breeze, but it is certainly not the weather that ANY Floridian would want to travel to experience. Well, that is except for the small fraction of the population that truly thrives on heat and humidity. My dear mother springs to mind, but she’s the only one I know that fits that bill. Love ya’ ma!
Moody Gardens is by far the best thing about the island with respect to attractions. It is well thought out and many hours of good fun including the 3D IMAX theater. They also hold the yearly IMAX film festival so you can see all of the movies, if you can get a ticket!
The article makes no mention of the excessive poverty the island suffers with. 60,000 people live on the island. UTMB is the largest employer at 10,000 employees. 75% of the employees don’t live on the island. The next largest employer is Wal-Mart. Thus, the island has an enormous expanse of housing projects.
They do through a yearly Mardi Gras (which is must more tame than the version hosted in Louisianan, which I enjoy more than anyone else. So, it’s probably not that much fun for a “normal” person.
Galveston also has a lot of ornithological opportunities (lots of birds). However, they also have mosquitoes that are as large as birds, and much more vicious! They have NO problem whatsoever penetrating denim. On several occasion I watched them try to drill through Mary Lee’s leather jacket! The number and strength of them is absolutely incredible and they are out year round. Of course, they are worse when the birds are out. So, that’s a zero sum game!
There is a reason people that live there call it Galvetraz!
With all of that said, there is something to be said for the people. There are a handful of good people and when you find them, it makes it more bearable. You learn not to go outside when the mosquitoes are at there worse. You don’t go out during the middle of a summer day. You learn to bring a sweater to work during the summer because the air conditioners work really well. (No place knows A/C like Texas!) You learn not to get lost in the projects at night. And you learn not to hang out on Broadway during the gang initiation weeks (that’s when most of the drive-by shootings take place).
There is one thing that I found appealing about living in Texas. I liken in to living in a Fraternity in College. Not everyone you meet is nice. Not everyone you meet will like you. Not everyone you meet you will want to like. But, when the chips are down, everyone will come to your aid! The one time my car broke down, I cannot tell you the number of people that stopped and offered to help. It is also true when there are major (usually weather related) catastrophes. I have never seen that in any other state.
Oh, and before I forget! Bush did HORRIBLE things to Houston!
I’m sure there are a one or two other things that I did like about Galveston, but not very many. Mostly, it was the friends I have there (both at work and outside work). The one thing that was perfectly true in the article was this: “Truth be told, we didn't have that many great, unique meals in Galveston. Many seafood restaurants were national chains, and one local landmark seafood restaurant was positively awful.” I wish I knew where they went?! And in there list of places to eat, they left out the best ones on the island: Schutte’s Corner (we were known as the King and Queen of Schutte’s by the owner and staff…we ate lunch there A LOT), The Mosquito Café (Mary Lee’s favorite) and the El Napolito (best salsa in the world! Next to mine, of course).
Crap! I gotta go study!
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Meet the modest version of Homunculus! He is a representation of the distribution of sensory nerves throughout the body! Can you tell what sequence I'm taking?
Where did I go? You ask. What did I do on my relaxing long weekend? I took care of my ill wife and did my taxes. Oh, and my FAFSA renewal and UM loan application. For those of you that don’t know what FAFSA is, you’re lucky! It stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. I don’t exactly understand the “Free” part. Is there someone I can pay to fill it out for me? Is it then called the PAFSA?
The hellish paperwork occupied most of my Sunday. I had already done my federal taxes weeks ago, but then I received a corrected 1099-DIV form, so I had to fix that. It was not too bad, but the Michigan State taxes were terrible!!! I had to fill out six different forms in tandem! What was worse was we actually lost money by moving here and so I had a negative sign resulted in a division by zero error on their form with no instruction how to resolve the problem. I begrudgingly e-mailed them and I must admit that they did respond two days later with a useful answer. I mailed them yesterday, so it’s all done! Happy days! Next year will not be so bad because we won’t be part year residence. But, I sure do miss living in a state with no income tax.
Now, we are in neuroanatomy hell. Monday was not very bad as it was just overview. Today started okay but ended badly. That being the case, it’s time to jump on it!
The hellish paperwork occupied most of my Sunday. I had already done my federal taxes weeks ago, but then I received a corrected 1099-DIV form, so I had to fix that. It was not too bad, but the Michigan State taxes were terrible!!! I had to fill out six different forms in tandem! What was worse was we actually lost money by moving here and so I had a negative sign resulted in a division by zero error on their form with no instruction how to resolve the problem. I begrudgingly e-mailed them and I must admit that they did respond two days later with a useful answer. I mailed them yesterday, so it’s all done! Happy days! Next year will not be so bad because we won’t be part year residence. But, I sure do miss living in a state with no income tax.
Now, we are in neuroanatomy hell. Monday was not very bad as it was just overview. Today started okay but ended badly. That being the case, it’s time to jump on it!
Saturday, March 13, 2004
On the advice of the professor in charge of this sequence, I took both my lab practical and my written final yesterday. She thought it would be a good idea of have a day or two off before starting the Neurology/Neuroanatomy block. It is a killer three week block with classes from 9a-12p every day and lab every afternoon with some of them running until 6p. There is not much time for studying! They also study a Standardized Patient lab for the abdominal exam at the end of next week. It really does not make any sense to have it there, but who am I to change the schedule. These will constitute our last block with gross anatomy and, I think, our next block starts the first block of the old M2 year. It is hard to believe that we have actually finished the old “official” M1 year. I say that because they have never had Neuro as part of the M1 year (the current M2’s are taking there Neuro as we speak, but they are studying normal and abnormal anatomy together, we will only have normal anatomy). Hey! I’ve finished my M1 year!! Hot DOG!! Now I just have to wait and see if I actually passed the last block. :)
So, I have a nice weekend free. It’s sunny outside and in the high 30’s. (Not that warm.) And you say, what are you doing writing in our silly blog? Why aren’t you out doing stuff and relaxing? As fortune would have it, Mary Lee came down with a cold yesterday and is running a slight fever today. So we’re taking it easy and lounging around. I did exercise this morning since I did not do it yesterday. (I had my practical in the early afternoon and I was busy studying for that and then I studied and took the written final exam around 9p last night.) I’ve been cleaning my office and putting my new three hold punch to good work. Tonight, hopefully, I’ll actually finish the damn Taxes! And just hang out. Maybe I’ll even nap, just for fun! :)
Oh, one more thing…I received a call from my old friend Peggy last night while I was taking my exam. I finally caught up with her today. Among other pleasantries, she informed me that my mom is apparently sick! Now, if I were a good son, this would not have come as new news. But, in my defense, she was not home when I called her today, so she can’t be THAT sick: Unless she’s at the hospital? I hope not! I know what they do to people there, now.
So, I have a nice weekend free. It’s sunny outside and in the high 30’s. (Not that warm.) And you say, what are you doing writing in our silly blog? Why aren’t you out doing stuff and relaxing? As fortune would have it, Mary Lee came down with a cold yesterday and is running a slight fever today. So we’re taking it easy and lounging around. I did exercise this morning since I did not do it yesterday. (I had my practical in the early afternoon and I was busy studying for that and then I studied and took the written final exam around 9p last night.) I’ve been cleaning my office and putting my new three hold punch to good work. Tonight, hopefully, I’ll actually finish the damn Taxes! And just hang out. Maybe I’ll even nap, just for fun! :)
Oh, one more thing…I received a call from my old friend Peggy last night while I was taking my exam. I finally caught up with her today. Among other pleasantries, she informed me that my mom is apparently sick! Now, if I were a good son, this would not have come as new news. But, in my defense, she was not home when I called her today, so she can’t be THAT sick: Unless she’s at the hospital? I hope not! I know what they do to people there, now.
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Before I get into the long story, and because I know my dad will ask. I did not work out yesterday (not enough time in the AM and did not get home early enough in the PM), but I did this morning. I’m still rehabilitating my shoulder, but that will take some time. Okay, the slightly more interesting stuff…
Occasionally, medical school gets to be too much. Well, not the school so much as some of the pictures in the text books. You see, there is a small version of the anatomy atlas that almost every student has and it is called Atlas of Human Anatomy and is written by Frank, H. Netter. Thus, the book is always called “Netter’s.” It’s got all of the basic pictures you need to help guide you through the course and the dissection. Well, at least it has drawings of how the “canonical” person is built. Very few people are actually canonical. When I was accepted to medical school, a couple of years back, my loving spouse took it upon herself to buy me what is affectionately called the Netter’s collection. (It’s also known as the Novartis collection and the CIBA collection after the two companies that paid for its creation.) Instead of a tight 542 page soft backed book (AKA Netter’s), the collection consists of eight volumes made from 13 hard bound book that are sometimes found in a medical library. Actually, many medical libraries do not have the entire collection and departments will have the volumes that pertain to their field. Yes! I am a lucky man, in case you have not heard that before. Normally, I find the collection to be a blessing most of the time. There is text explaining the drawings (which Netter’s does not have) and will show correlating histology and pearls of wisdom. Initially, I was not going to buy Netter’s at all because I had the Collection, but it became cumbersome as the professors referred to page numbers that were meaningless to me. And, the books are so large they don’t fit in my backpack!
Why does this long drawn out story? Well, prepare yourself. If you are squeamish or easily offended, do NOT read further!!! You have been duly warned.
We are studying the reproductive system as I mentioned early. So, you get to hear all sorts of funny words in class and all of the men can now officially say, “we have found the clitoris at least once!” Since there is an entire volume dedicated to the reproductive system in the Collection, I thought I would take a look to see how/if the images differed from Netter’s. (There are usually additional drawings in the Collection.) The book just happened to open to disease of the testis—now you can see where this is going. STD’s to start off with: not too upsetting. For some reason, I kept flipping the pages to see Elephantiasis, Cysts and such. But then I hit a page that was terribly disturbing. Leaving behind bare testicles, there are apparently diseases of the scrotum that can cause them to explode! It gives me pain just to write this! I have no idea what they do next as there is no skin left. It probably says in the book, but I cannot read it. Not yet!
Well, I am pretty sure I’m not going to sleep very well tonight. What have I done?
Occasionally, medical school gets to be too much. Well, not the school so much as some of the pictures in the text books. You see, there is a small version of the anatomy atlas that almost every student has and it is called Atlas of Human Anatomy and is written by Frank, H. Netter. Thus, the book is always called “Netter’s.” It’s got all of the basic pictures you need to help guide you through the course and the dissection. Well, at least it has drawings of how the “canonical” person is built. Very few people are actually canonical. When I was accepted to medical school, a couple of years back, my loving spouse took it upon herself to buy me what is affectionately called the Netter’s collection. (It’s also known as the Novartis collection and the CIBA collection after the two companies that paid for its creation.) Instead of a tight 542 page soft backed book (AKA Netter’s), the collection consists of eight volumes made from 13 hard bound book that are sometimes found in a medical library. Actually, many medical libraries do not have the entire collection and departments will have the volumes that pertain to their field. Yes! I am a lucky man, in case you have not heard that before. Normally, I find the collection to be a blessing most of the time. There is text explaining the drawings (which Netter’s does not have) and will show correlating histology and pearls of wisdom. Initially, I was not going to buy Netter’s at all because I had the Collection, but it became cumbersome as the professors referred to page numbers that were meaningless to me. And, the books are so large they don’t fit in my backpack!
Why does this long drawn out story? Well, prepare yourself. If you are squeamish or easily offended, do NOT read further!!! You have been duly warned.
We are studying the reproductive system as I mentioned early. So, you get to hear all sorts of funny words in class and all of the men can now officially say, “we have found the clitoris at least once!” Since there is an entire volume dedicated to the reproductive system in the Collection, I thought I would take a look to see how/if the images differed from Netter’s. (There are usually additional drawings in the Collection.) The book just happened to open to disease of the testis—now you can see where this is going. STD’s to start off with: not too upsetting. For some reason, I kept flipping the pages to see Elephantiasis, Cysts and such. But then I hit a page that was terribly disturbing. Leaving behind bare testicles, there are apparently diseases of the scrotum that can cause them to explode! It gives me pain just to write this! I have no idea what they do next as there is no skin left. It probably says in the book, but I cannot read it. Not yet!
Well, I am pretty sure I’m not going to sleep very well tonight. What have I done?
Sunday, March 07, 2004
Me? Ignore my own web site? Never!!!
I took my Reproduction quiz a couple of hours ago and then cleaned my office. Well, I ate the scrumptious roasted chicken that Mary Lee made for lunch. She was obviously inspired by the Iron Chef rerun last night which was the tomato battle. We had roasted Roma tomatoes with roasted garlic, basil and oregano as a side. Yummy! Yesterday, I took a break from studying and had ice cream with a few students to celebrate a birthday. It seemed like a great idea day before yesterday when the temperature was in the mid 60’s, but yesterday we were back in the 30’s. Still, not as bad as what my friends and I used to do at Purdue: we would *walk* to the Ben & Jerry’s when it was -20 out side. The ice cream would warm us up!! Good times!
Cleaning my office this afternoon included deleting several hundred e-mails backed up in my umich in-box. I still need to clean out Juno. But, I was a good boy and I recycled all of those e-mails I threw out. (Yes, that was a joke told by my loving wife.)
Now we’re going to go shopping for STUFF! When we come back, I’ll have to get back on the workout bandwagon. I fell off Friday.
Oh, yeah, Friday was sweet! We had a 9-10a class and then the 11-12a class was cancelled. So I did get to do some studying on Friday, but not as much as I could have.
I took my Reproduction quiz a couple of hours ago and then cleaned my office. Well, I ate the scrumptious roasted chicken that Mary Lee made for lunch. She was obviously inspired by the Iron Chef rerun last night which was the tomato battle. We had roasted Roma tomatoes with roasted garlic, basil and oregano as a side. Yummy! Yesterday, I took a break from studying and had ice cream with a few students to celebrate a birthday. It seemed like a great idea day before yesterday when the temperature was in the mid 60’s, but yesterday we were back in the 30’s. Still, not as bad as what my friends and I used to do at Purdue: we would *walk* to the Ben & Jerry’s when it was -20 out side. The ice cream would warm us up!! Good times!
Cleaning my office this afternoon included deleting several hundred e-mails backed up in my umich in-box. I still need to clean out Juno. But, I was a good boy and I recycled all of those e-mails I threw out. (Yes, that was a joke told by my loving wife.)
Now we’re going to go shopping for STUFF! When we come back, I’ll have to get back on the workout bandwagon. I fell off Friday.
Oh, yeah, Friday was sweet! We had a 9-10a class and then the 11-12a class was cancelled. So I did get to do some studying on Friday, but not as much as I could have.
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
It’s so cute! I have my first non-compliant patient—that is a patient that does not follow the doctor's recommendation. The girl whose ear I looked at yesterday was not taken to the doctor by her mom. Well, in her defense, the little girl’s ear is not bothering her today and so maybe it is clearing up on its own. Body, heal thyself.
Well, I have managed to injure myself on the bowflex. I have strained my right supraspinatus muscle—which I had also injured during softball back at UTMB—as well as my right leg adductor. I suspect it is the adductor brevis and not magnus as it only hurts when I perform the leg adduction exercise. So, I’m off the bowflex for a while and today I switched over to 40 minutes on my Nordic Track. (And, just to keep my mind happy, I’m watching South Park while I exercise.)
Well, I have managed to injure myself on the bowflex. I have strained my right supraspinatus muscle—which I had also injured during softball back at UTMB—as well as my right leg adductor. I suspect it is the adductor brevis and not magnus as it only hurts when I perform the leg adduction exercise. So, I’m off the bowflex for a while and today I switched over to 40 minutes on my Nordic Track. (And, just to keep my mind happy, I’m watching South Park while I exercise.)
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
My First House Call
We have several neighbors with children and, actually, we are probably one of the only couples without children. We are friends with a few families and one couple has a young daughter who frequently has ear pain but only occasionally a treatable infection. The husband and I were talking on the bus a few weeks back about that topic and I offered to take an “unofficial” look in her ears then next time they are causing trouble--just to see if I could make a helpful observation. Today was that day. Of course, never having looked into a child’s ear canal, I was not 100% sure as to what I would see but I’ve looked in Mary Lee’s ear plenty of times: I at least had some expectation of “normal.” Also, before going over to their house, I did a Google search for ear infection and looked at a few pictures.
The daughter was a little apprehensive when I first asked her if I could look in her ears, so I started by looking in her daddy’s ears. By the time I was moving to his second ear, she was jumping out of her mother’s arms so I would look in her ears. I looked in her bad ear first and it did look a little “puss-like” although it really did not match any of the pictures that I saw on the web. Then, I checked the good ear, which looked a bit better and then back to the bad ear. I made the official doctor’s hmm, said this ear looks “funny” and I handed the otoscope to the mother so she could take a look. She concurred that the bad ear looked infected and so she’s going to take her daughter to the doctor tomorrow. Now, we are all excited to see if the doctor agrees!
We have several neighbors with children and, actually, we are probably one of the only couples without children. We are friends with a few families and one couple has a young daughter who frequently has ear pain but only occasionally a treatable infection. The husband and I were talking on the bus a few weeks back about that topic and I offered to take an “unofficial” look in her ears then next time they are causing trouble--just to see if I could make a helpful observation. Today was that day. Of course, never having looked into a child’s ear canal, I was not 100% sure as to what I would see but I’ve looked in Mary Lee’s ear plenty of times: I at least had some expectation of “normal.” Also, before going over to their house, I did a Google search for ear infection and looked at a few pictures.
The daughter was a little apprehensive when I first asked her if I could look in her ears, so I started by looking in her daddy’s ears. By the time I was moving to his second ear, she was jumping out of her mother’s arms so I would look in her ears. I looked in her bad ear first and it did look a little “puss-like” although it really did not match any of the pictures that I saw on the web. Then, I checked the good ear, which looked a bit better and then back to the bad ear. I made the official doctor’s hmm, said this ear looks “funny” and I handed the otoscope to the mother so she could take a look. She concurred that the bad ear looked infected and so she’s going to take her daughter to the doctor tomorrow. Now, we are all excited to see if the doctor agrees!
