Sunday Studying :)

the following blog is a copy from my GHF blog - 

I cut out of the gym a little early to go spend some quality time with my cadaver at school. I'm always fascinated and gain new appreciations everytime I reflect back the skin and start digging around.

Hallucis is derived from Latin and means "great toe" or more commonly what we refer to as the big toe. That toe gets a lot of attention in terms of muscle. If we pull aside the gastrocnemius (calf muscle) we can see the real meat of the lower leg which is the soleus muscle and pulling that muscle aside we get to see a rather long meaty muscle that runs up about 2/3 of the lower leg known as the flexor hallucis longus muscle and the sole purpose of the muscle is to flex the big toe and give us a strong push off when we walk. There is also another flexor muscle for the big toe located in the foot called the flexor hallucis brevis muscle and then there are two antagonistic muscles found on the anterior portion of the leg - basically the same names as the ones in back but with the words "extensor" in front of them - extensor hallucis longus and extensor hallucis brevis.

We have the plantar or bottom of the foot exposed and I was able to pull on the extensor hallucis muscle and feel the tendon moving in the foot to flex the big toe.

I learned there's different types of embalming depending on what is to become of cadavers. When they are used for dissecting it's a formaldehyde based substance which keeps them in decent condition for an extended length of time but when cadavers are used for practice surgery they are embalmed with an ethyl glycol substance (basically antifreeze) which makes them very pliable.

Our first practical is only two Friday's away so I guess I'll have to start uncovering all 40 bodies in our lab to get familiar with the differences so I'm able to name any muscle, ligament, nerve, artery or vein in any of them.

It's all utterly fascinating and I think going back to school to do this is probably the best decision I've ever made in my life.

Fresh out of high school, about 25 years ago, I started out taking some courses for pre-med but was really pretty clueless and then I think back to when I was about 6 years old and remembered I wanted to be one of three things - either and astronaut, magician or doctor. So, I guess I'm getting back on track.

I once read in an article that around the time people are in their 30s or 40s that there is a tendency for them to end up going back to something they thought about doing back in grade school. So, maybe there's something to that.

btw - I learned about kinesiology tape tonight - has anyone else ever heard of it? I was told one of the USA Olympic womens volley ball players had that kind of tape on her shoulder. I was talking to one of the student doctors about inversion of the foot and straining ligaments. He mentioned the tape that's put around, say a football players ankles to help reinforce that area but the kinesiology tape is used to help make weak muscles more easily prone to contracting. It's supposed to help make weak muscles work.

Sometimes, when you twist your angle, and it's most usually an inversion of the foot, that it's due to weak lateral muscles in the leg.