Friday, April 24, 2009

HA!!! TRI-2!!! It's OFFICIAL!!!!


Last class was just posted - it's official - 27 hours attempted - 27 hours passed!  My god, the GPA is even high enough to qualify for a lot of the scholarship offers we get via email!!!

I sacrificed biochem to focus on my other classes because that was my best class - and it paid off - 5 of the remaining 6 classes all were improved by a full letter grade since midterms!!!

I *can* be taught!!!  LOL!

I need to find me a genius picture to post and relish in this for a few minutes!!!  :)

Man - I just saw histology/cell bio posted and was pretty pleased with the 21 hours attempted & 21 hours earned - I was thinking, that alone is more than I've ever done before, then upon refreshing my screen - I saw the big 27 for 27!  HA!

Scott = Happy!!! ->Very Happy!!!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Thanks Mom & Dad!


I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents for all their help and support during my first trimester at Logan.  For many students, midterms were like a giant wave crashing over our heads.  After the tsunami type wave crashed over my head I asked my parents for any help I could get and they came through with flying colors.  Every day they could, they would stop by to let my dog out during the day, wash dishes, help with laundry, vacuum and even make my bed.  All their efforts helped to make a world of difference regarding my ability to study since they took care of so much of the mundane yet necessary task of day to day living since I could then readily imbue myself in my studies and not be distracted by the immense levels of entropy which had been gripping my home.  
Today was reasonably productive.  I headed back to Logan to make up one quiz I had missed in anatomy that was given during our last week of class.  The stress levels in school can get amazingly high which is well understood amongst classmates.  My mental blow-out happened during the last  two days of class.  Another student I talked with admitted he had blown up at a couple other classmates during the same time period.  A number of classmates simply dropped classes such as biochemistry and/or anatomy weeks before the end while others stuck it out only to find an F as their final grade.  
I'm reminded of Roosevelt's quote "The credit belonging to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly, who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at the best, know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

A chunk of our classmates have been removed and will not be graduating with us and from what I understand, we'll lose another chunk of people in the 2nd trimester.  I've been told whoever is left standing in Trimester 3 is pretty much the group of people we'll be graduating with.  

After my make up test today I headed to see my MD as recommended by my DC to get some meds for my amazingly high triglyceride levels.  The doctor was amazingly nice and rounded up a bad full of samples, actually two months worth of Crestor and another name brand drug she wanted me to take over the next 7 weeks before my next checkup and she also wrote out a prescription for a couple more blood test to be taken before my next meeting with her.  

I did chat with my MD a bit about Gross Anatomy and she mentioned that her class didn't get to dissect the brain or lungs during her tenure at school but instead had a pre-dissected brain brought in for study.  I've heard some of the chiropractic schools use pre-dissected bodies as well and I'm sure it has much to do with the tremendous cost of providing individual bodies for everybody to dissect but it really seemed foreign to me not to dissect a body to study the various parts.  A concern from my DC was that the added resistance on my heart due to the high triglyceride levels combined with intense cardio would give cause for my heart to enlarge.  The MD I saw today didn't seem to subscribe much to that theory but I've personally seen, felt and held many human hearts in my hands, both from our cadavers bodies as well as from the bucket of hearts we have in the cadaver lab and I can tell you from personal experience that hearts can and do get enlarged and since the heart is a muscle I can also vouch for the notion that resistance against a muscle can give rise to an enlarged heart.  

I checked out the Wal-Mart website for a list of $4 drugs to see which ones would be compatible with lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels and did find a couple statins I figured would work.  The MD wanted to use some name brand drugs for the first couple months to start with then pending positive results switch over to one of the other two drugs I had found.  It was very interesting reading about the way the statins work.  In short, statins are referred to as an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor.  Regarding cholesterol, all this really means is there are a number of metabolic steps the body must go through to make cholesterol and the drug inhibits one of those steps.  It's like if you had enough pieces and parts to make 100 cars then took away 25 engines, then you could only make a total of 75 cars because you'd be missing some of the pieces to make all 100 cars.  The statins work the same way in regards to cholesterol.  I wasn't as familiar with the mechanisms behind triglyceride inhibition but do have a 2nd drug to help lower those levels.  
On one hand I'm wondering how much the lowered levels of fatty acids in my blood might contribute to my overall happiness because overall I tend to be rather chipper.  One other curious note was that my blood pressure was actually high.  This is very abnormal for me because it's generally a tried and true 120/80 and the diastolic reading is generally below the 80 mark.  I hypothesised that maybe the stress of finals had something to do with it and maybe there was some residual cortisol coursing through my veins resulting in the higher readings.  The MD concurred it was a reasonable hypothesis so I'll go with that for now and just be sure to take it easy and regain some homeostasis in my life during this break.  

The last good thing I got done today was to get my homeowners insurance renewed.  My hypothesis there is that I never got the renewal notice in the mail to begin with.  When I bypassed my insurance agent and talked directly to the insurance company I found out they were missing basic information on me, simply things like....address ...phone number ....
yeah ....well, it's taken care of now.

The picture today is of the brain, looking at it from underneath.  I was reading a book this afternoon called "Clinical Neuroanatomy made rediculously simple"  That title alone sounds like an oxymoron if I've ever heard one!  

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Tri-1 DONE - Wk15, Day 64

1/10th of the path has been traversed.  There are still 2 classes or 11 hours worth of classes to be posted.  So far, I've attempted 16 hours and earned all 16 but, not everyone has been so fortunate.  I'm still waiting to hear from other classmates to see who is moving on with the tri and who has to repeat classes.  

I'm going to sleep without an alarm tonight.  


Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Tri-1, Wk15, Day 63


Knocked out two more test today - Cell Biology and Biochemistry - I'm pretty sure my performance in Histology and Cell Biology have been good enough to raise my grades since midterms.  I think Biochemistry is probably the only grade which will not be improved but I'm hoping it doesn't drop.  I had a B+ at midterms in Biochem and since it was one of my stronger classes and since I was only competing against my fellow classmates I spent the gist of my time on other classes that weren't coming along so well.  

So far, every class grade has been improved by a whole letter grade and two of the classes were only a single percentage grade from being bumped up another grade.  :)

One more final exam tomorrow at 9 a.m.  I'm spending most of my evening at getbodysmart.com working muscle quizzes.  

I'm ungodly tired, I slept for about an hour earlier today but have been up since 11 p.m. yesterday ...hmmm, 24 hours ago - Anatomy final in 10 hours - I'm not sure I can afford to risk sleeping at least not too much.  I still want to raise my grade in anatomy.  

Just a neat picture of the vertebral column and brain today - back to studying!  :)

Monday, April 20, 2009

Tri-1, Wk15, Day 62 - Harvard Med Students Rebel!


Harvard Medical Students Rebel! 

If I figure out how to make this Harvard link permanent then you'll see it along the right column of my blog as a staple.  The statistics are stunning - 
  • drug companies spend $4 billion each year on direct-to-consumer ads in the US
  • drug companies spend $16 billion to influence US doctors - that's $10,000 for every single doctor in the United States!
  • 70% of doctors regarded drug representatives as an efficient way to obtain new drug information - are you kidding me?!
Other than being a chiro student, I'm basically and average Joe and I have noticed a few things over my 42 years here on earth.  For one thing, I used to think autism was something people are born with but I've noticed over the past 5 or 10 years that autism can be acquired !

How is this happening?  Something else I've noticed is the vast increase in the number of vaccines being either mandated or recommended for children.  I have yet to nail down exact numbers but, from asking other doctors I'm getting figures which indicate there were maybe a dozen vaccines back in the early 80's and around 64 vaccines currently in effect today.

Also, on a YouTube video (I know it needs verifying) but, I noticed a statistic which indicated the rate of autism back in the 80's was about 1 in 5,000 and today that number is around 1 in 600.

I've been noticing these things the same way I was noticing banks doing things they weren't supposed to be doing over this past decade which prompted me to do a little research and then I was able to find out that the Glass-Steagall act which was initially passed back in 1933 in response to the bank failures of the Great Depression was repealed by President Bill Clinton in his last year in office, 1999.  

No disrespect to President Obama but, I had to cringe when I saw him on Leno a few weeks ago and he said there needs to be safe guards in place ....my god - we had safe guards in place and they were repealed in 1999!  Unfortunately, I'm willing to bet less than 1 in 100 Americans are even aware there ever was an Act in place since 1933 to help prevent bank failures in the first place.  

Obviously, take derivatives for example, the world of finance is much more complex than in the 1930's but to take away a fundamental safe guard to our banking system which was doing it's job for nearly 70 years and have nothing to replace it with was foolhardy - 

which maybe brings us back around to the billions of dollars shelled out by the drug companies.  The Glass-Steagall act wasn't repealed overnight - it took some 20 years of lobbying and 300 billion dollars thrown at politicians before they finally caved.  

China still has seperation between investment and commercial banking and that sure won't change anytime soon in light of the global financial fiasco that's been going on.  Incidently, the whole separation between church and state is not something that's in the consitution,  it stems from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to a Baptist association back in 1802 since they were concerned about the government setting up a national religion which, is what we find in the first amendment to the constitution.  "...no law respecting an establishment of religion"  etc. and all that good stuff - 

I've got two final exams today - better switch my thinking over - Philosophy and Histology and I still have brushing up to do in both classes!  Yebo!  :)

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sunday Studies & Epignosis


I've started my Sundays studies with philosophy and was reviewing the concepts of gnosis and epignosis.  From what I can tell, gnosis is head knowledge or left-brain knowledge, it's what we would learn by rote from books and teachers.  Epignosis is heart knowledge or right brain knowledge.  Epignosis is what may happen to left-brain, head or book knowledge as (or if) it is integrated into our lives via deeper thought and experience.  

I've been aware of this transition occuring many times throughout my life as knowledge that was academically accepted as valid in my teens or 20's takes on new significance and meaning as I transcended into my 30's and 40's.  

This reminds me of the various erector spinae muscles in the back because some of those muscles may go from one vertebrae to the next while others jump several vertebrae.  Sometimes the jump from left to right brain is in the same year as new information is learned and sometimes it takes several years before experience and wisdom present themselves to make the leap into epignosis.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Saturday Studies & Okazaki Fragments


I've got 15 hours available today and I've decided to break that time up into five 3-hour study sessions which allows for one study session per remaining class.  My first study session has been in Cell Biology and today's picture includes an Okazaki fragment which is the name given to part of the DNA replication process.  By the way, readers should be able to click on the pictures in these blogs to see a full sized copy.  

This picture actually contains the impetus for a pick up line!  hehehe
Something along the lines of "if you were DNA molecule then I'd want to be a helicase enzyme so I could unzip your genes!"  Just a little joke I found on the Internet while searching for info.  Whether you like the joke or not, I know I'm not going to forget the function of helicase!  LOL

Break-time is over - still remaining on todays pallet is Gross Anatomy, Biochemistry, Histology and Philosophy!  :)
~only three more days until I'm a Tri-2!!!  :)

Friday, April 17, 2009

Tri-1, Wk14, Day 62 - 50/50 in Spinal Analysis!


Rocked the Spinal Analysis final with a perfect 50 out of 50!  We had 40 questions and an essay question worth 10 points - Yahoo!!  :)

Spinal Anatomy came out about as well as I had hoped - I'm not positive which grading scale the teacher uses.  It's one of those things where at most universities a score such as an 83% would be a B but at Logan that same score would be considered a C.  

The grey area in today's picture is the paraphysiological space sometimes referred to as the elastic barrier.  There's also active motion and passive motion in the picture.  To illustrate, if you were to raise your index finger as far as you can, that would be active motion.  Then if you were to press up on that finger with your other hand you'll notice that the finger will move beyond the point you reached with active motion.  You probably won't want to push past that point because little nociceptors will start kicking back a little thing called pain but, there is a tiny bit more movement that is available before the limit of anatomical integrity is hit (that's when things break)  That space before things break is the paraphysiological space.  

That paraphysiological space is where chiropractors work and since it's so close to breaking things it's probably good that it takes 5 years of education and practice before one can become a chiropractor.  Paraphysiological space is one of the things we studied in Spinal Analysis, you know, the class in which I just Aced the final :)  hehehe
At least we know I'm off to a good start and won't be hurting anybody!  :)

Incidently, HVLA or High Velocity, Low Amplitude thrust is a way of dipping into that space without hurting anyone.  That and a thousand or so hours of practice.  I guess the only people we ever hurt are our fellow students when we first start practicing this stuff.

Tri-1, Wk14, Day 61 - 4 Days & 7 Exams To Go!

I'd forgotten a couple exams - Biochemistry test went very well today.  Along with Gross Anatomy, it's supposed to be one of the most difficult classes yet seems to be my best class.

Tomorrow is  - tomorrow?!  It's 1 a.m. now - I should say, later on today, I have finals in Spinal Analysis and Spinal Anatomy.

Next week; Mon, Tue & Wed, I have final exams in
Histology, Cell Biology, Philosophy, Biochemistry and Gross Anatomy.

With the taxing nature of this DC program, I find myself in need of much recuperation & repair.  I got an hours worth of sleep today on a classmates couch between classes, zero sleep the night before and only 4 hours the day before that.  I also got blood chem results from my chiro physical and my triglyceride levels have gone through the roof - some 300% above where they should be.  I've already paid for a 5 day per week, 4 week long boot camp which starts on May 18th but my doctor said she didn't want me participating in it until my triglyceride levels have improved.  She was concerned about all the excessive resistance on my heart and wanted to avoid it becoming enlarged, thereby making it an inefficient pump.  She recommended seeing my MD doctor to get some medication to help knock those levels down quickly so I might be in good enough condition to partake in the bootcamp which, in itself will help me a lot.  

I'm going to have to start thinking of regular exercise as a required class.  It's ironic that in the pursuit of learning everything about the human body and how to care for it that mine is starting to fall apart!  My doctor was rather optimistic though and I know while I was in the accelerated science program I managed no less than three 5k's per week so I'll have to reintegrate that kind of stuff back into my life.  

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Tri-1, Wk14, Day 60 - Succinate Dehydrogenase

I published the title of this blog just before midnight so the blog would be under the proper date but, it's actually 2:30 a.m. as I write this.  It's been non-stop biochemistry tonight and I've been rewatching class lectures I've burned to DVDs.  I have three weeks worth of lectures burned and am on the 2nd of 3 disc.  

The pic today is of Succinate or Succinate Dehydrogenase.  I believe it gets oxidized to furmate which I've found to be part of the TCA or Creb's Citric Acid Cycle.  

Probably the most interesting thing I've learned (or reinforced) tonight was regarding a constant regarded as Km which is a measure of a enzyme's affinity for a  substrates.  We may consider the enzyme hexokinase and the substrate glucose then values of Km for skeletal muscles and the central nervous system (CNS).  The smaller the value of Km, the greater the affinity for its substrate.  The example we were given in class was skeletal muscle with a Km value of 0.1 and the CNS with a Km value of 0.01.  Since the CNS has a smaller Km value it's going to have a higher affinity for glucose - in other words, in a competition for glucose, the CNS will win.  

I liked seeing this because it relates to another class in which I learned that the brain simply will not go without glucose for one second and since the CNS includes the brain & spinal cord I liked how the knowledge from both classes correspond.

I'm going to have to make at least one more pot of coffee and push it through until I take my test at 7:20 a.m.  I'm not exactly sure what classes I'll have after that tomorrow ...uhm ...spinal analysis probably then I'm free until 12:55 at which time I'll have cell biology then I can go home.  Dang.  If not for that 1 p.m. class I could go home and get some sleep after my second class.  I might just go out to my car and sleep until class time - maybe Heather will let me go to her place and sleep on the couch.  Either that or I need to look over my Spinal Anatomy.  Either way, after I finally get to sleep tomorrow then I'll need to stay up and pour about 85% of my energy into Spinal Anatomy and 15% into Spinal Analysis - both final exams are on Friday.

I am soooooo  looking forward to sleeping on Friday after my classes!  I Hope I stay awake alright during my hour long one way commutes.  

Monday, Final Exams in Cell Biology & Histology
Tuesday, Final Exam in Biochemistry
Wednesday, Final Exam in Gross Anatomy

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Tri-1, Wk14, Day 59 - WHEW!!!

After staying up until 4 a.m. I woke this morning wondering about having to retake Gross Anatomy I.  Like a lot of my classmates, we've been very concerned about this test but, after going over the answer key with my teacher in our afternoon Dry Lab Anatomy class, I do believe I probably ended up with a 70%!  Yahoo!  LOL

I know it doesn't seem like such a great score to get so excited about but, this is just one of 12 different classes and labs we get tested over.  Also, I was able to bring something to the table for about 98% of the test meaning I knew things about absolutely everything that was tagged.  We only have 60 seconds per question so time is a big factor as well.  A long thoracic nerve was tagged and I got it right but didn't have time to properly identify where it originated from so I thought it might have been a thoracodorsal artery but, fortunately in the last seconds of that question I was able to find the the subscapular and scapular circumflex arteries thereby eliminating the thoracodorsal artery as a possibility and got the question right ...but then I'm filling in my answer key during the start of the next question - it moves fast, that's for sure.  

Anyway - I'm pretty confident I'll do well on our written final in anatomy next Wednesday and I should NOT have to repeat this class and there are plenty of people that do repeat the class.  I may have mentioned but, everyone of my dissection partners who I share a cadaver with are all taking the class for the second time.  

Tonight - It's all about Spinal Anatomy - We have a take home test that is due tomorrow and I just found the darn thing around 4 a.m. this morning before I laid down for a couple hours of sleep before school today.  If I can get that test and the clay models of the Atlas and Axis vertebrae done by 9 p.m. then I'll have a full three hours I can devote to studying biochemistry yet tonight ...figuring I'll head to bed around midnight, unless of course I'm in a good study mode then I might be up as late as 4 a.m.  I bought a couple 12 packs of diet Wild Cherry Pepsi to help easily infuse a little extra caffeine in my system to make the late nights during these last 6 days more do-able.  

Our Gross Anatomy teacher already gave us a bit of a warning regarding Tri-2 and the gravity of the classes we'll be taking ...Pathology I, Gross Anatomy II, Biochemistry II, Neruoanatomy I and Microbiology I will make up five very hard core basic science classes - Micro, Neuro and Gross all have associated labs.  Beyond those classes, we'll also have Professional Development, Philosophy II and Diversified I.  Diversified is a basic and well accepted technique for chiropractic adjustment of the vertebrae.  Diversified will be a staple course from here until near the end of my tenure at Logan, maybe 2.5 years of perfecting that one adjustment technique alone.

Which ...kind of makes me wonder about reports put out by places such as Harvard Medical School which are just now starting to realize benefits of what they refer to as "spinal manipulation" and are now offering three day workshops on how to essentially, adjust the spine.  Obviously, 3 days doesn't compare to the amount of time chiropractors put in on learning their techniques but, I also see it as a positive thing that other health care professionals are starting to learn about the benefits of spinal adjustments.  

The last 10 years especially, have garnered much research into the science behind chiropractic adjustments and what's interesting is that most of chiropractors legacy studies have centered around the "outgoing" nerves eminating from the spinal cord figuring that interference with those nerves could cause problems in the rest of the body since the rest of the body wouldn't be receiving the best nervous signal possible, if at all.  But, research from the last 10 years is indicating that impingment with the signal coming back to the spinal cord maybe may actually be the bigger problem in terms of Vertebral Subluxation Complex.  

Picture!  The reason I picked today's picture is because the posterior scalene muscle was one of the structures tagged on today's test and nobody in class had seen that muscle yet because nobody had dissected it out from any of the bodies yet but, we did learn about it in class.  I am happy to announce that I did get that question correct!  :)

Initially, I figured it was a scalene muscle and was thinking it was the medial scalene muscle because I'd only seen a anterior and medail scalene muscle before but then I thought maybe it was posterior.  I knew the posterior scalene muscle inserted on the second rib so I tried running my finger down the muscle until I hit the rib, which I did but I wasn't sure if I was actually at the second rib or not.  Then I remembered the brachial plexus eminates from between the anterior and medial scalene muscles and the brachial plexus was easy to see so I kind of figured we had a posterior scalene muscle tagged.  :)

Incidently - the only reason I got that question correct, as well as a few other questions was because I'd purchased a copy of Acland's DVD Atlas of Human Anatomy - DVD 1: The Upper Extremity.  This is a fantastic set of DVDs which feature a real, unenbalmed body and does a great job of going through all the parts of the body from ligaments and joints to nerves and arteries.  That DVD was playing non-stop last night as I studied for this practical.  

Another very useful thing I would recommend for anyone heading off to chiro or any type of medical school is a 5ft, 6inch Budget Bucky painted skeleton.  These are available on ebay for around $240 plus shipping.  Half of the skeleton is painted with the traditional red for origin and blue marks for insertion for each muscle and it's pretty imperative that you have a skeleton for learning the origins and insertions.  

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter :)

Tuesday - Gross Anatomy Practical
Wednesday - Spinal Anatomy Test, clay models of Atlas & Axis due
Thursday - Biochemistry Test
Friday - Spinal Anatomy Final and Spinal Analysis Final
Monday - Philosophy Final and Histology Final
Tuesday - Biochemistry Final
Wednesday - Gross Anatomy Written Final

Easter is always a nice time, fraught with family, friends, neighbors, gifts, Easter egg hunts and LOTS of food!  Since I had already went to a ballgame Friday night I wasn't planning on going to the Easter feastivities so I could study but then I figured I had to eat anyway so, off I went.  :)

It's been all anatomy tonight and I should be able to get a couple more hours of anatomy in tonight.  I figure I'll study until midnight - got the alarms set for 5 a.m. so I can get to a 7-9 a.m. study session then I'll probably continue my studies at the lab until it's closed at 1 p.m.  

I need to keep my upcoming test in mind which is why I added my schedule to the beginning of this blog.  (I refer to it often)

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Saturday Studies & Baseball! :)

Went to the Cardinal game tonight with my family and saw a nice 5-3 Red Bird victory over the Houston Astros.  

I started out a bit sluggish this morning but, still managed to get up to Logan and get in 5 hours at the cadaver lab.  I actually did quite well, all the time I spent with paper & whiteboard drawings of the brachial plexus and arteries have really paid off with a very high percentage of accuracy with the 20 or so tags I went through in our mock practicle.  Now I just have to get the rest of the body down and need to decrease my time - we've only got 60 seconds per body per tag come Tuesday.  For reference, I need to post my upcoming test again - I need to stay on top of what's coming up.  :)

Tuesday - Gross Anatomy Practical
Wednesday - Spinal Anatomy Test, clay models of Atlas & Axis due
Thursday - Biochemistry Test
Friday - Spinal Anatomy Final and Spinal Analysis Final
Monday - Philosophy Final and Histology Final
Tuesday - Biochemistry Final
Wednesday - Gross Anatomy Written Final

Friday, April 10, 2009

Wk 13, Day 58 - Thursday, April 9th

I have a gross anatomy practical this coming Tuesday and need to be spending as much time as humanly possible studying for that exam which is worth 1/5th of my grade in gross anatomy.  Another 1/5th of my grade will come about 10 days later in the form of a written final.  

I have many distractions which I'm dealing with right now and, I admit, I haven't been doing a very good job dealing with things.  

Pertaining to the picture in this blog, I need to know everything gross thing about that section of the human body, every muscle, artery, vein, nerve, origin, insertion, action, relationship, fascia, facial compartments, ligament and tendon in that region of the body.

I have the remainder of today (until about 6 p.m.) tomorrow and a few hours on Monday to learn all that stuff.  I know a lot of things on paper but I need to recognize everything in an actual cadaver.  If I took the test today I might not fare any better than 60% which is unacceptable.  

I need to get back to the school today and get at least four hours in.  I think it might be in my best interest to go straight to the Cardinals ballgame tonight from Logan instead of coming all the way home then back out that way.  On Saturday, I can allocate from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. then again on Monday for as long as the lab is open (until tagging at 1 p.m.)

During my break between semesters I want to fashion a manuscript I could bind into a simple book format pertaining to the human body.  I can't afford to forget what I've learned and should not be satisfied with knowledge of the human body which corresponds to a C or even B grade.  So, I want to continue my studies by compiling this book to reinforce my knowledge and better learn human anatomy.  I already have many sections started which have emerged from my present studies.  I have separate documents started for all the nerves, muscles by region, and arteries.  I'm putting these in alphabetical order and will also group them by region.   A compendium of list and tables is what I have now but I'll also add commentary as well as my own You-Tube links which will pertain to things such as the drawing the brachial plexus as well as all the arteries in the upper limbs.

I have to get and keep focused on the most important, immediate task at hand.  

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Wk13, Day 57 - Que Sera Sera


What will be, will be.

1st offense = warning
2nd offense = $50 fine
3rd offense = suspension

Those are the new rules to be implemented four months after the no smoking ban at Logan passes.

We had a guy at the last job I worked at who was an alcoholic.  He actually passed out at work from drinking but his job was protected and he could not be fired.  His job was actually safer than a lot of the non drinking type people who got let go a few months after I quit to go to Logan.

Just the perplexities of life, I suppose.  I did get a nice welcoming email from a chiropractic school in San Jose, California which, ironically enough does allow smoking on their campus.  Another email I've sent out is to Northwestern which is located in Bloomington, Minnesota.  At least I'd be semi close to relatives if I went up North and Mom & Dad do head up that way on occassion so I could always see them on the weekends when they visit.  

I really have a ton of work to get done for tomorrow.  We have our last quiz in Gross Anatomy and I'm thinking of staying at a classmates house again in order to already be at Logan for an 8 a.m. tutoring session.  My god - our anatomy practical is Tuesday!  Only five full days away and the lab is closed on Sunday due to the Easter holiday.  

...checking my calendar - 
Monday - no school
Tuesday - Gross Anatomy Practical
Wednesday - Spinal Anatomy Test, clay models of Atlas & Axis due
Thursday - Biochemistry Test
Friday - Spinal Anatomy Final and Spinal Analysis Final
Monday - Philosophy Final and Histology Final
Tuesday - Biochemistry Final
Wednesday - Gross Anatomy Written Final

I suppose I better fill my car up with books and have an extra change of clothes ready just in case.  

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Wk 13, Days 55 & 56, Monday & Tuesday :)

Epistropheus - Axis (C2)
Only 9 more days of class until I'm done with Tri-1 at Logan.  Still getting crap about smoking.  It's kind of hard for me  to understand.  A major reason I wanted to go to school here was because I figured I would be forced to become a better person in order to complete the program and I also thought all the extra knowledge might actually help me quit smoking but indignation from the psychosymatic anti-smoking zealots is getting a bit old.  Maybe that combined with the extra pressure from the final few weeks of class are just getting to me.  

I've got too much going on this weekend and need to cut back on some things.  We're off school on Friday and Monday for Easter break but I'll still be in the cadaver lab Friday morning for Gross Anatomy tutoring (which, incidently is what I'm waiting for tonight - tutoring starts at 6 p.m.)  The cadaver lab is closed on Sunday due to Easter and we've only got until 1 p.m. on Monday for any final studying before our practical on Tuesday.  
Friday night is a Cardinal's Ballgame - Saturday I'm supposed to spend 6+ hours at St. Louis University undergoing test - Sunday is Easter at the Parent's neighbors - I know I can cancel testing on Saturday - Sunday I should be able to limit my time to maybe just eating - kind of bad timing on the baseball game - 

We've learned everything we're going to learn in Gross Anatomy 1 - lower extremities, back and upper extremities - 

Spinal Anatomy is rather detailed, we can literally spend hours talking about a single vertebrae.  We went over the 2nd cervical (C2) vertebrae the other day.  There are no less than 10 different muscle attachments on C2, four on the transverse processes and 6 on the spinous process which is kind of amazing because there isn't much of a spinous process there to begin with.  

Well, I just added a picture of the first two cervical vertebrae in case anyone is curious.

The muscles that attach to the transverse processes (sides of C2) are the
  1. levator scapula
  2. scalenus medius
  3. splenius cervicis
  4. intertransversarii
the muscles that attach to the spinous process (in the picture above, the spinous process is opposite the Dens)
  1. obliquis capitis inferior
  2. rectus capitis posterior major
  3. semispinalis cervicis
  4. spinalis cervicis
  5. interspinales
  6. multifidus
It's all rather amazing.  By the way, epistropheus is another name for the 2nd cervicle vertebrae (in addition to the Axis name)

final thoughts? - yeah - phosphoric acid in soda is triprotic but by the time it reaches the small intestines it's diprotic with a pH of about 7.2 - there are no federal taxes on sushi - blood pH is about 7.4 - starting tomorrow I have at least one test (sometimes 2) every day until April 22nd - 

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Tri 1 Class Picture


I sent an email out last Monday pitching the idea of getting a class picture taken and as you can see from the photo above, we had a pretty good turnout.  Offhand, I'm thinking we might be missing about 1/2 dozen people from that picture and probably more in reality.  I might take advantage of the parts of the picture with the bookbags and splice in some face pics of other members of our class.  That might be a worthwhile thing to do during my study breaks.

I have my final practical in Spinal Analysis tomorrow.  

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Wk 12, Day 54 - Friday

We had our end of the Trimester party on Friday night at a local bar called Hotshots located in Manchester, MO so, I stayed with a classmate and her husband who live across the street from the bar so I wouldn't have to do any driving.  It was really nice being out in the area and so close to school.  I was just a quick 10 minutes away so I was able to spend some extra time in the cadaver lab.  
I've got a plethora of thoughts in my head and might do well to categorize these thoughts;

My first blog follower - Dr. Michael G Rehme, DDS, CCN
Political philosophy
Semantics ...

Politically I'm thinking of the judgemental hypocrisy I seem to be swimming in via everything from the Student Doctor's Council (SDC) at school to members of my own family.  Both sects seem to be selectively perceptive when it comes to the evils of the world, basically if it's an evil they indulge in then it's OK but for anything they don't indulge in then it's a sin and needs to be stricken from the face of the earth.  

Soda seems to be one of those great evils unless of course, you add alcohol to it then it no longer seems to be spoken poorly about.   Coffee seems to be another evil unless maybe you add Bailey's Irish Cream to it then it's not criticised anymore - where does this hypocrisy come from?  I think it was just two weeks ago when a police officer was driving drunk in Manchester and ended up killing four people.  

We had a couple high school groups in our cadaver lab today and I heard one of the teachers comment that 100% of people who smoke die of heart disease - please, can we get any more stupid?  Does that mean if I smoke I never have to worry about getting in an automobile accident and losing my life that way?  I suppose nobody in the world trade center that died on September 11th were smokers because smokers only die from heart disease.  

From basic organic chemistry I believe we learned alcohol was broken down in the body into acetaldehyde which is, in fact, a toxic compound in the human body.  Maybe the SDC at Logan has forgotten all this which is why they give so much alcohol away for free at so many of their events.  But, since so many of the students drink alcohol then I suppose it's easy to overlook - it all depends what's popular and unpopular.  

Basically, as long as you're like "them" then you'll get along fine.  A couple of immutable facts keep crossing my mind in terms of governing bodies - One - just because an organization can do something doesn't mean they should and Two - just because an ideology is popular doesn't make it right.  

Are all these hypocritical judgemental people ignorant of the likes of people like Hitler?  He was immensely popular among his people and was able to make all kinds of changes - like erradicating and murdering over 6 million people.  

There seems to be another truism in that part of history in that whenever we can place blame we can ellicit a following.  

Why does this intrusive desire for a super race still persist?  Why does genuine caring seem to be limited by some only to others who are just like them?

I seem to have a knack for finding relationships among various things which may not seem relateable at first glance but, talking of Hitler actually does have a link to dentistry.  

From what I've read, one of the ways Hitler wanted to help control his people was through the use of fluorine in the drinking water which was the first time I ever saw that fluoride might not be good for us.  I've always just looked at the differences in teeth between people in the US and people over in Europe and noticed Americans generally had better teeth.  

Anyway, I was excited to find a Dentist who is also a Certified Clinical Nutritionist following my blog.  I've provided a link to the Doctor's website at the begining of this blog.  Dr. Rehme advocates holistic dentistry and on his web page you'll find a bullet list of what he does and does not provide and one of the things he does not provide (or promote) is the use of fluoride treatments.  This makes me think Dr. Rehme is way ahead of the curve in terms of health care as he's been a dentist since 1983 and became a mercury-free dentist in 1992.

For people not familiar with the notion of adverse side effects from fluoride they might be interested in this somewhat popular articles called Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb.  It is interesting to note that the first lawsuits against the Atomic Bomb program in the US wasn't over radiatoin but over fluoride damage.  

Now, I don't want to be irresponsible here and suggest fluoride should be totally eliminated but, like a lot of substances that are essential to life and good health fluoride is just another thing that can be toxic in excessive quantities.  Other substances which would fall in that category are salt, iron, vitamins A and D, chlorine, oxygen and even baking soda and water for that matter.  

With Semantics I've been pondering over Blue-Cross' decision to eliminate chiropractors from being referred to as physicians.  You would think that between MDs, DOs and DCs that the one with the most amount of schooling pertaining to the human body would be the one most apt to be labled a physician but, that doesn't seem to be the case with Blue Cross/Blue Sheild.

I've registered a URL called www.tripledocs.com for which I'm still awaiting hosting but I was thinking of the maxim most associated  with the hypocratic oath, namely, "Do No Harm" and I'm thinking to myself - what's less harmfull than a chiropractor?

MDs generally have malpractice insurance cost in the $50-70,000 range.  I know of an OBGYN who pays $106,000 per year and have heard of neurologist who pay over $200,000 per year.  

Insurance companies measure risk so which doctor/physician are you taking the greater risk with - one that pays anywhere from 50 to 200 thousand dollars a year in malpractice insurance or one that pays less than $2,000 per year?

And as far as the education goes - I learned this past weekend that not only does Logan College of Chiropractic use the same pathology book as Washington University, we have the same teacher as well.  

Chiropractors are hurting themselves due to their lack of political organization.  I'd imagine most all MDs belong to the AMA and I know physcal therapist are very well organized but of the 70,000 or so chiropractors in the US, only about 16,000 of them belong to any organizing body - not only that but we have the ACA (American Chiropractic Council) as well as the ICA (International Chiropractic Association) and from what I can tell in the cheap seats, it's not so much philosophy which differentiates the two organizations as much as it is ego.  

That in itself does a great disservice to the public.  Studies on insurance companies have shown that the average cost per patient is less for insurance companies which offer chiropractic care.  Other studies have shown health care cost have been reduced anywhere from 40-60% when a chiropractor is used as the primary health care physician.

Think about this - if you were living back 200 years ago then who would you wanted to have treating you, a chiropractor who wasn't going to use you as some kind of experimental laboratory or a traditional physician?  I guess back then we didn't really have a choice between medical doctors because either you were a doctor or you weren't.  DCs and ODs didn't exist back then.  

I'm not saying MDs are bad - I think they are a vital component to our society but one must consider the magnitude of the tools they have at their disposal and like I said before - when the only tool you have is a hammer then everything starts looking like a nail.  

And - if the philosophy of MDs was truly to "Do No Harm" then I would think they should be some of the biggest advocates of chiropractors especially since the side effect rate of chiropractic care lies somewhere between 1 out of a million and 1 out of 10 million.  

I would hasten to guess that there isn't a drug prescribed or a surfery performed with such a low side effect rate.  

That thinking lead me to registering the URL tripledocs.com - I'm still waiting for hosting to be completed and maybe I'm way ahead of what I should be focusing on considering I still have 9 semesters of school left but in terms of physicians I was thinking there should be a more symbiotic relationship.  I was thinking the care of the patient should come before the ego of the doctor and the axiom of "Do No Harm" was paramount.  

At first I was just thinking in terms of MDs, ODs and DCs and is why I registered the name tripledocs but, after registering the name I jotted some ideas down on a notecard and added Dentist and Podiatrist.  Then I was also thinking in terms of massage therapist, physical therapist and even personal trainers.  

From what I've been learning so far, it seems that chiropractors are trained pretty well in knowing what to refer elsewhere or to a medical type doctor in particular but I don't think MDs and ODs are schooled very well as to when to refer patients to a chiropractor.  

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Week 12, Day 53

Rocked another anatomy quiz w/ a grade over 100%!

gotta sleep - histology test tomorrow!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Tues & Wed - Days 51 & 52! :)

Well, this blog is going to need to be somewhat study oriented because I have a test in Anatomy tomorrow and I really want to be able to shave - Let's see what I know - 

Anterior Hand - that's the palm of the hand for you lay people out there :)

at the base of the palm we have the ever popular carpal tunnel otherwise known as the transverse carpal ligament.  It extends from the hamate bone to the trapezium and more specifically from the hook of the hamate.  There are 10 structures that run through the carpal tunnel, 9 tendons and one nerve.  Four of the tendons that are most deep are the tendons from the flexor digitorum profundus muscle and the four above that are from the flexor digitorum superficialis muscle.

For those of you playing along at home, you can break out your anatomy coloring book and turn to page 59 to follow along w/ the intrinsic muscles of the hand - 

We remember All For One and One For All to remember the order of the intrinsic muscles, medially to laterally - 
we have the Abductor digiti mini, flexor digiti minimi brevis, opponens digiti minimi, adductor pollicis, opponens pollicis, flexor pollicis brevis and abductor pollicis brevis.

The nerve going to the ulnar side of the hand (which would also be the medial side) is the ulnar nerve - more specifically, it's the deep branch of the ulnar nerve

The arteries going to the three muscles on the medial side of the palm which is also known as the hypothenar compartment are the superficial palmar branch of the ulnar artery and the dorsal carpal branch of the ulnar artery.  The arteries for the thumb side - aka thenar compartment would be the superficial branch of the radial artery.

What's neat about the arteries is that, as a review, I drew all the arteries I knew of from the lateral border of the first rib down to the tips of the fingers and then I counted all the arteries I drew and I came up with 36 different arteries I just happen to know off the top of my head which is pretty cool :)

the three thenar compartment muscles originate from the flexor retinaculum (which itself makes up the roof of the carpal tunnel) the tubercle of the scaphoid and the trapezium.  The insertion for the FPB and APB are on the base of the proximal phalange on the lateral side of the bone.

the nerves going to the three little muscles in the thenar compartment are only slightly more complex than the single deep branch of the ulnar nerve going to the hypothenar compartment

all three thenar muscles get the recurrent branch of the median nerve and the deep head of hte flexor pollicis brevis (FPB) muscle gets the deep branch of the ulnar nerve (along with it's hypothenar buddies)  :)

I've got more to learn - much more - 

future visions are to obtain at least two more white boards and put them where my TV now sits so I can look at my latest creations while I'm on the treadmill - the tv doesn't really serve much of a purpose and certainly doesn't need to be in front of my treadmill -