Saturday Studying/Immersion :)

Before going home last night I went to the library and printed out around 500 sheets worth of powerpoint slides from Anatomy and have started to tape them all over my home.  Doors, hot water heater, walls, etc.  Soon, the sacroilliac joint will be as common place to me as the nose on my face.  

Our gross anatomy tutoring session got changed from 3 p.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Saturday so I'll need to start getting ready for that soon.  I know all the muscles in the lower leg and foot and the nerves which innervate those muscles.  I need to brush up on the artery supply to each muscle.  I know the glutes pretty well and have a start on nerve innervention and artery supply.  I will be going to Denny's tonight to study with a classmate and work on all the origins and insertions - I'll need to pick up some bones from the library today so I can better understand exactly where everything inserts and originates from.  

I have a slew of test coming up next week - I'll have to check out the test board in our classroom today so I know exactly what's coming up - 

below is a blog i wrote for my fitness site to a lady who mentioned she suffered from chronic back pain.  I kept the blog factual and hope the suggestions can help provide some relief and help her eliminate some stress from her spine to help ease her pain.

...

Hi Joan - I'm a current chiropractic student and just wanted to share a few tid-bits worth of back facts that may be relevant or useful to you. whenever you lay horizontally and axial compressive forces are removed from your vertebrae then the intervatebral (IV) disc between your vertebrae fill back up with water. After about 5 hours these IV disc between your vertebrae are fully hydrated which is good on one hand but, on the other hand you should be aware that when they are filled up (as is the case after a good nights sleep) then the internal pressure in those disc is increased about 240% which makes a person vulnerable to "throwing a disc out of place" I put that in parenthesis because it isn't exactly what's going on but I think it gets my point across. With that extra internal pressure in your disc we want to avoid the combination of flexion and rotation of the vetebral column to avoid aggravating those disc. Which is to say, avoid bending forward at the waist and then twisting. If you take a shower first thing in the morning and need to bend over and reach across your body to grab the shampoo, for instance, that's the kind of movement you want to avoid immediately after waking up. I've thrown my back out more than once from that exact movement but never knew why before. The structure of your disc if very much like a jelly donut. The jelly in the middle of your disc is like the nucleus pulposis (NP) in your vertebrae and the dough part of the donut surrounding the jelly is like the membrane of the disc. However - the dough part of the donut is not symmetrical - it's thicker in the front and thinner towards the rear so, when we bend forward we press the NP back towards the weaker part of the disc. Anyway - the more you can bend your knees in the a.m. hours, the more your back will thank you. Also - when sitting in a chair, try to make sure your hips are a little higher than your knees. The optimal angle between your spine and the top of your thighs to reduce stress on your spine is about 135 degrees. I can also relate to a situation of carrying extra weight around the midsection. The curve in your lower back is called a lordosis (and you should also have a lordosis in the cervical region of your spine) but when there is extra weight anterior to the spine then the lordosis can be exaggerated which would also press the NP towards the posterior portion of the disc between your vertebrae. So, avoid bending forward at the waist and twisting (especially in the mornings) and try to sit in chairs which keep your hips slightly above your knees. Hopefully, GHF may assist in reducing anterior pressure on the spine by dropping a few pounds (still working on it myself) Best to you in health and happiness, Scott :)

Day 29, Friday, February 27, 2009

Yesterday, day 29 was quite an adventure.  The main thing that sticks out was a two hour, 80 question, written anatomy midterm.  I was there - I took it and took the entire two hours to finish up.  After the test I went to the gross anatomy lab and spent some time with the cadavers.  They were labled in a mock practical setup with strings tied around various body parts and the other ends of the strings were attached to notecards which had questions like 1) Identify and 2) what nerve innervates this muscle or 2) where does this muscle insert or 2) what artery supplies blood to this muscle.

Whew!  I've got to get moving ... and if my parents (or anyone else) is reading this and care to supplement my academic endevors.  I could use tape and some half sheets of poster board.  :)

Day 28 - time to STOP studying ...

It has become all too obvious to me that I cannot study as if I were merely going to school.  What I'm doing now is well beyond any schooling I've ever had before in my entire life.  I can not simply go to class, come home, study and then go about my life.  I cannot simply study anymore - I have to start LIVING this stuff every minute of every day.  If my eyes wander off my computer screen and gaze onto a book then I need to have that part of my bookshelf covered with a slide from an anatomy PowerPoint.  I've already started to cover my hall closet doors with PowerPoint slides.  

There is simply too much material to look at once or even twice to get it.  I need to be looking at this stuff around the clock.  

My hall and front room book shelves will be covered in papers and note cards.  The mirrors in my bathroom need to have academic material taped to them.  I only need a small section of mirror in order to shave but the rest of it needs to have school stuff on it.  

I really need to immerse myself.  I've been wading in water that's too shallow.  I need to jump into water over my head and stay submerged for as long as I can each day.  

I have to get back to studying - well, round the clock immersion studying but from now on, studying isn't something I do for a bit then get back to, it's something that has to occur around the clock.  I'll have some time tomorrow night to cut loose and I'll have time in the gym and time when I sleep when I won't have to look at school material but the rest of the time needs to become ALL school - it has to - it simply has to or I'm not going to make it to the next trimester.

Day 27 - ...

I just need to get to bed ....soooooooooo tired 

I'm not sure what to say - I'm hoping to get up by 4 a.m. so I can get to school early and get in some extra studying.  I need all the time I can get.

There's a trailer for sale only 2 miles from the school for 8 grand?  would anyone like to buy it for me?  finance?  buyer can have my gas money for rent and flip the property after i graduate.

Two more test tomorrow which includes one midterm in spinal analysis - 

Midterm in Anatomy on Friday - Midterm practical next Tuesday - other test i'm not even aware of at the moment because i'm intently focused on what's next and not much else. 

we now return you to your regularly scheduled program ....

Day 26 - Surviving ...

This is quite a ride ...

Let's see ...Biochemistry was very interesting this morning.  We're kind of covering the life of a proton as it travels from bicarbonate, dissociated CO2, hemoglobin and fun stuff like that.

Spinal Analysis - I had my midterm practical today.  Hands on palpation sort of stuff.  I probably did rather well and expect an A.

Prosection - i ran a little late to this class since I was in the last group to take the spinal analysis midterm.

Dissection - I primarily worked on the neck of our cadaver - we're ripping out spinal erector muscles (kind of literally).  I know one group had transverse processes breaking off vertebraes because of severe osteoporosis in their cadaver.  There's a lot of fascia in a body and that's just the fibrous sheaths that cover muscle groups (among other things) and we can tell a lot about the activity level of our cadavers when they were alive because if they were active not active then the fascia undergoes scaring and the muscles aren't able to glide across each other easily but, if they kept active during their lives then the muscles are more easily separated.

It's all pretty amazing.  There's a lot of muscle in the neck region.

Cell Biology - I feel sorry for our teacher, Dr. Anaad sometimes because his class is right before Anatomy and everyone usually ends up studying for their upcoming test and ignores his lectures and he's a very nice man.  We're supposed to have a mid-term in that class sometime soon.

Anatomy - OK - I was ahnihilated.  I had actually visualized shouting "Praise Jesus" after getting a 100% on the test but the reality was far from anything praise-worthy.  I'm not sure what I did wrong.  I had studied at Denny's on Friday night until 5 a.m. and at least 6 hours on Monday night but it wasn't enough and I ended up getting one of my lowest test scores.  There was an opportunity for extra credit and I got all of those questions correct.  

I did talk with people from the psycology department at SLU today and sent in a retainer of $50 for testing.  The total price is $280 for the battery of test but, if they can help me and my studies in any way then it will be worth it.  This course of action was recommended by one of our school councelers who is a DC and a psychiatrist.

It's way too late tonight for me to still be up but there's just a ton to do ...I'm shocked tomorrow is only Wednesday - it seems I've put enough work this week that tomorrow should be Friday :)

Day 25 - Multifidus

I had various topics in mind for today's blog but can't remember everything I was going to put down.  I've been studying for my Anatomy test tomorrow - we're working on the muscles of the back now - which ones ....why, all of them of course!  

I don't have all these memorized like the lower extremities but that's probably because we just started learning them.

I know we have extrinsic and intrinsic back muscles and those can be further catagorized as superficial, intermediate and deep - let's see what's in my head.

For superficial extrinsic back muscles we have the more well known muscles such as the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, major and minor rhomboids and the lesser known levator scapula.  A major function of these muscles is to attach the arms to the torso.  for intermediate extrinsic back muscles we merely have the posterior serretus muscles, both inferior and superior.  

now ...about those intrinsic muscles -..... splenius capitus and splenius cervicis - the cover the deep muscles in the neck and that's it for the superficial layer of the intrinsic muscles - 

NOW - we get to a Mnemonic I made up to remember the intermediate and deep muscles of the back (at least that's how I'm thinking of them at this point)

I Love Spines - Spine Muscles Rock!

I - Iliocostalis

L - longissimus

S - Spinalis

S - semispinalis

M - Multifidus

R - Rotatores

and I like to put an Italian accent on the Rotatores muscles!

the three muscles from I Love Spines make up the erector muscles and in the order I L S that is the order they run laterally to medially which works out nice because the most medial muscle is the spinalis muscle and the most medial position on the back just happens to be the spine.  

and the Spine Muscles Rock part of the Mnemonic runds from lateral to medial also (sort of) I guess you might say superficial to deep but, I know what I'm talking about - the Semispinalis comes first, then the Multificus and the deepest little muscle is the Rotatores!

I volunteered for a multifidus study at school and my first ultra sound was today at 11:30 a.m.

The multifidus muscles are found in the lower back.

I'm tired - quite tired - very tired - sooo need to sleep - I so much would like an extra 2 hours each day.  One hour would be spent on extra sleep and the other hour could be studying or working out  :D

btw - we had another FANTASTIC speaker today we got to listen to in our philosophy class - this guy really rocked.

coffee isn't having the effect i was looking for - i'm going to have to get up super early tomorrow to get a couple extra hours of studying in  - i've also got to print out some documents for my spinal analysis class ....i should really order some ink for my home printer for times like this.

let's see ...what did that guy say today ....can't locate the notes - will follow up - can't keep eyes open any longer - 

G'nite all!  :)

Sunday Studying

I had a couple hours free time in the morning/afternoon but didn't really get moving until about 1:30 when I left for school.  Along with two other people, I had tutoring on the cadavers and we mainly learned about the arteries of the lower extremities.   I'll still need to go over the arteries of the gluteal region but have at least have a pretty good handle on the rest of the legs - 

from the inguinal ligament there is a femoral canal and the artery that goes through there is called the femoral artery (it has a different name before it passes through that canal).   the femoral artery passes down to a hole provided by the adductor magnus muscle and once it passes through that hole it is called the popleteal artery which runs behind the knee.  after passing the knee it goes through a hole in the interosseous membrane which is the membrane between the tibia and fibula and after passing that hole it's called the anterior tibial artery.

back up to the top - the femoral artery branches off after going through the femoral canal and that branch is called the deep femoral artery or, with a little Latin flair is called the profundus femoral artery and that artery has to immediate branches which come off it called the medial circumflux artery which makes a U-turn and provides blood to the posterior side of the neck of the femur.  the other branch is the lateral circumflux artery which provides blood to the anterior side of the neck of the femor.  below those two branches there are 4 perforating branches of the deep femoral artery and i think those supply blood to the adductor magnus (among other things)

In the Poleteal region of the artery (in the knee area) we have the superior medial and lateral genicular arteries, the middle genicular artery and inferior lateral and medial genicular arteries.  there are also two sural arteries which branch off the popleteal artery and supply blood to the lateral and medial heads of the gastrocnemius.   the .....i think it's the inferior medial genicular artery which is just superior to the poplitius muscle which is used to lock the knee when we are standing.  

While the anterior tibial artery (ATA) is the part that runs through the interosseus membrane, the other branch stays posterior in the leg and is called the peroneous or fibular artery.  

I believe it's the ATA which then becomes the dorsalis artery ...dorsalis something artery??? which changes names shortly after the ankle and becomes something else - 

I know there's an arcuate artery down there and medial and lateral arteries in the foot but am not sure where they come from 

BUT - everything I just wrote is from memory - some of the spelling may be off but at least I've got something to work with.  

oh, just below the adductor hiatus, the popliteal artery has a branch called the saphenous artery which is a terminal cutaneous artery

The talus bone in the foot is one of two bones in the body that doesn't have any muscles attached to it - i believe the other one is the incus muscle in the ear.  The talus bone in the ankle region is sometimes called a mortar joint as it's sandwiched between the lateral and medial malleolus

i've got a pretty good start on the muscles - kind of lost on all the ligaments ...

anterior thigh - 

vastus medialis & lateralis, rectus femoris, rectus intermedius, adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus, pectineus, obturator externus, sartorius

and the sartorius, gracilius and semitendinosus form the pes ansurance (goose foot) triad of tendons which insert on the medial side of the superior portion of the tibia.  

The biceps femoris has a long and short head, the semimembranosis lies deep to the semitendinosis which we already mentioned, on the lateral portion of the thigh we have the tensor facia lattae muscle which connects with the iliotibial or IT band.

How about the butt???  ok, let's see - we have the ....

gluteus maximus

gluteus medius

gluteus minimus, 

the tensor fascia lattae is sometimes listed as part of this region

the superior gemellus

obturator internus

inferior gemellus

quadratus femoris muscle ...

...I'm missing one - let me check ....

OMG!  would you believe it - i missed the piriformis muscle - I should know that one better than any of the rest!

anyway - 

we have Tom, Dick and Harry in the posterior leg ....anterior ti....geez, if it's an anterior muscle then we aren't talking about any anterior muscles - 

so, let's make that the anterior leg - Tom, Dick an Harry - Tibialis Anterior, Extensor Hallucis Longus and Extensor digitorum longus along with the peroneus tertius

laterally, we have the peroneus longus and peroneus brevis - we know we have those two becuase the peroneus tertius muscle means the "third" (from tert)

and since we have extensor muscles it would be a good idea to have flexor muscles in the rear of the leg - and we do - flexor hallucis longus, flexor digitorum longus and tibialis posterior - again - Tom, Dick an Harry - 

the 'an' part of Tom Dick an Harry means "artery and nerve"

those three muscles have a Dad in the rear - a POP - a popliteus muscle (previously mentioned)

the superficial muscles of the back of the leg include the gastrocnemius, soleus and plantaris

the plantaris muscle is very cool looking!  :)

OK - on the dorsum of the foot we only have two muscles - think about this - they're on top so they better be extensors - right?

how about extensor digitorum brevis and extensor hallucis brevis

bottom of the foot - i know this one!

layer one - 

abductor hallucis

abductor digiti minimi

flexor digitorum brevis

layer two - 

quadratus plantae

lumbricals (one medial, four lateral)

layer three - 

flexor hallucis brevis

flexor digiti minimi brevis

adductor hallucis

layer four - 

dorsal interossei (4 of them)

plantar interossei (3 of them)

let me check my list and see if I missed anything ...

i did pretty well - there is also an articularis genus in the anterior thigh along with the illiopsoas muscle (made up of the psoas major and iliacus) but, other than that I pretty much nailed it

now i just need to know each artery that goes to each one of those muscles as well as the names of each nerve and then brush up on all those ligaments and then memorize all the back muscles we just started studying ....

I think I'm ready for bed now :)

Saturday Studying :)

about the only studying I got done on Saturday was an extension of Friday evening studying.  I went straight to Denny's after school and stayed there until 5 a.m. working on anatomy.  

so, from midnight to 5 a.m. made up the gist of my Saturday studying :)  It was fun :)

Day 24 - WOW!

Well ....I survived four test in four different classes this week and next week should be extra special with 3 test in one class alone - ie, Anatomy.

Here are some things I learned from our prosector, Frankie, today.  

Cranial Nerve CN II is responsible for brain freeze - the appendix actually does have a function, there are 6 teres in the body.  pudendal is derived from the Latin, pudere, which means to be ashamed of or embarresing.  

People have pudendal arteries running behind their knees.  Vice President Dick Chaney had an embolism or maybe it was anurisms in those arteries in both of his legs ...as well as a pace-maker, quadruple bipass and defibrilator for his heart.  

Speaking of Dick - we have Tom, Dick and Harry in Anatomy, which stands for Tibialis Posterior, Flexor Digitorum Longus an Hallucis Longus (the 'an' stand for an Artery and Nerve)

Flexor Digitorum Longus, i.e. Dick - is a Dick for four reasons - 

1.  He's the closest in origin to an actual dick - medially speaking

2.  He crosses over Tom

3.  He has an extra muscle (quadratus  plantae which makes him greedy)

4.  He has worms - lumbricals.  

vaso vasorum is the term given to larger arteries which have arteries of their own - in other words some of our arteries are of such magnitude that they need their own blood supply from arteries

 - some arteries have their own artery supply. ...vaso vasorum

plenty of little things were clarified today - we have muscles called Peroneus Longus and Peroneus Brevis and then there's a Peroneus Tertius but it didn't occur to me when I was learning the muscles originally that the prefix tert was for tertiary which would mean the third in a series of peroneus muscles.  

and when your leg falls asleep it's due to pressure on the common peroneal nerve as opposed to when your thigh might fall asleep - a condition known as parastesia (something like that) which is from sciatic interference.  

Philosophy was amazing today - 

Put a brick in a bucket of water and the water rises.  Step into a tub filled with water and the water rises.  Now, step into a 300 acre lake and the water would still rise but the change would be imperceptible to us, we wouldn't be able to perceive the change.

Our body and whatever abuses we incur to our body are a lot like jumping into that 300 acre lake - the changes tend to be imperceptible and aren't anything we'd notice on a day to day basis but, matter has limitations and eventually we would notice the ill effects of poor health care.  

I have to study - we have two regions of the body that we're being tested over next week in Anatomy along with our Midterm on Friday (also in Anatomy)

ToodleS! & Pars Interarticularis :)   hehehe

Day 23 - What Happened ...

Throughout the school day I'm often filled with wonderful thoughts, appreciation and often amazement from all the new material I'm learning but at the end of the day, after I get home and it's time to blog then my mind is often numb and I'm sometimes hard pressed to even remember what classes I went to during the day without referencing my schedule.  

Given proper rest though, things start to come around and make sense.  There have been several times when I've actually noticed changes in my brain perhaps in the sense of either new neural pathways being created or existing pathways being strenghtened.  

Since starting ASP and continuing now through the DC program I've noticed psychological changes as well.  I'm kinder to myself.  There is very little internal bashing or berating of myself which I believe is due to the tremendous amount of effort going into this endeavor.  Internally, I stick up for myself more.  

I've noted the difference between feeling good and feeling good about myself.  I could go out and get drunk and probably feel good and it would last a little while or I can study hard and get a good grade on a test and end up feeling great about myself and that is a nice attribute which culminates with each successive victory.  

A number of years ago I did a thought experiment in which I was able to justify a conclusion that a lack of specific progress by an individual isn't necesarily due to a lack of talent or ability but rather by too much talent and ability.  The crux here is that with an overabundance of ability there can be a straining factor on ones ability to focus which in turn can have a limiting effect on results.  

What did I do today???  I'm not sure ...we started with biochemistry, then spinal analysis, then I studied all I could for our anatomy test.  Then we had cell biology and then I did marginally better than adequate on my anatomy test.  Not horrible but not exactly the kind of test you'd want to hang from the refrigerator.  

Our fourth test of the week is tomorrow in spinal anatomy.  I need to get to bed soon and hope I don't sleep too much but am a bit concerned because I only got three hours of sleep last night and maybe 4 hours the night before ....I just have to gut it out one more day so I can get the time necessary to study for this test ....

I could sure use the extra two hours per day I would gain if I were living close to campus instead of 50 miles away ....it's really taking a toll.  I'm thinking my sleep could be 5 & 6 hours for the last two nights instead of 3 & 4 ...

That hour drive seems to knock me out of the study mode a bit also.  The stress inherent with rush hour driving seems to be just another thing I need to decompress from mentally.  

I know I should be able to get an A out of this spinal anatomy class if I had more time.

I'll just have to get even more efficient at using every last drop of time I have at my disposal!  :)

toodles!  :)

Day 22 - Wednesday, February 18, 2009

We had an interesting speaker we listened to today in the Purcer Center.  The mans lecture was from 9-11 but I was talking with my biochem teacher after class today ...mainly I wanted to listen to questions fellow classmate Kathleen was asking because I thought I might be able to learn a little more :)

Biochemistry is one fascinating class.  :)  We're learning about peptide linkages and amino acids.  Today in biochem lab we tested 8 different carbohydrates - from xyline to an unknown which I was able to determine was fructose via a series of different test.  

It was a pretty long day today.  I got up around 2:30 a.m., left for school a little after 3 a.m. and made it to the student process center at Logan around 4 a.m. and got in some extra study time today for our test today in biochem lab and Histology.   I had trouble identifying a beta-carbon fron a series of 5 amino acids molecules, well, only 4 were amino acids and I had it narrowed down to 2 but picked the wrong one so I ended up w/ a 4 out of 5 on that test.  I'm hoping that will be my low score so it gets dropped :)  It's the only point I've missed so far in biochem lab.  The biochem lab teacher wasn't able to explain the answer or understand it himself so I don't feel so bad for missing it :)

Histology went reasonably well.  I'd better get to my Anatomy studies.  We have a test today (tomorrow, 2/19) covering the joints of the lower limbs and need to know the names of all the ligaments.  I also need to email our prosector, Frankie, to set up some tutoring time so I'll be ready for our Anatomy practical coming up soon.  

Day 21 - Tuesday, February 17, 2009

It's actually a little after 4 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb 18 but I still needed to get this blog in for yesterday - I've got 4 more test over the next three days and need to study now.  Yesterday was a bit rough in the cadaver lab since we cut the legs off some of our cadavers in order to study joints such as the knee.  I could only wonder if the people who donated their bodies knew their legs were going to be cut off.  My feelings pertaining to this matter are probably not very pragmatic but it's just the way I am currently.  

well - back to studying!  :)

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.

Saturday Studying :)

Here's something kind of weird and really off the wall - one of the teachers in my spinal analysis class suggested I start sleeping with my spine! LOL
I've only done it once so far but it worked out pretty well. I stuck my model spine inside a pillow case so the pillow acted as the thorax and the pillow case was like the skin. I sleep on my side and have a couple pillows support my arm (i guess they take the place of a real person but then my hand rest right on the spine. There is no vertebrae protuberance on C1 so, I just start feeling the spine and counting out vertebrae, all the way down to L5 then count back up.

C6 is pretty easy to find on a real person. If you place three fingers along a person's spine up by the neck and then tilt your patient's head forward and back, C6 (the 6th cervical vertebrae) noticeable slides forward so then you know where both C6 and C7 are located and T1 is right underneath C7.

I always think breakfast, lunch and dinner when it comes to the top 3 regions of the spine to remember how many vertebrae are in each section, 7, 12 and 5 correspond to breakfast, lunch and dinner and that's how many vertebrae are in each section.

The cervical vertebrae have holes in the parts of their bony processes that stick out to the side and arteries run through those holes.

There have been some ongoing studies by a couple of MD's on chiropractic adjustments made to the first two vertebrae with regards to decreased blood pressure. Adjustments made on the Atlas and Axis (those are the names of the first two cervical vertebrae) have been shown to have an effect on blood pressure equivalent to two blood pressure drugs. The initial study was done with about 75 people and exams 8 weeks later showed an average drop in systolic bp of 17 points if I recall correctly. The positive findings have warranted a much larger study and is currently in progress.

I'll probably take tomorrow off from lifting and hit legs again on Monday.

One interesting thing from Histology was that ATP is actually cause for a muscle to relax after contraction. We just had a general overview in that class. Also, in biochem, what I've always heard as the Creb's Citric Acid cycle is referred to as the TSA cycle - that's going to be an interesting cycle to get down, along with the metabolic functions of the liver. glycolosis or something like that (I was reading ahead a bit) :)

another interesting thing is that all those transverse processes and other bony protrusions that stick out of all our vertebrae are actually used as levels and we have muscles attached to all those levers and its how we are able to move, twist and rotate our upper body. The intervatebral disc between each of our vertebrae have a nucleus inside of them (nucleus pulposus or np) the outer membrane of our disc are thicker in the front than in the back. In the mornings it's best to lean back slightly to stretch which helps center the np by pushing it forward.

We are most vulnerable to "slipped disc" in the morning time and the most dangerous motion we can perform is bending forward and twisting to the side, especially in the morning. This made me think of a few times I had twinges of pain and sure enough, it would be in the shower which is early in the morning and in would lean forward and twist to the left to grab a bottle of shampoo. I'm right handed so I would be reaching across my body to get the shampoo which further enunciated the twisting motion and along with bending forward would seem to throw my back out with lots of little pain receptors firing to let me know I had done something wrong - of course, I never really knew what was going on until my Spinal Anatomy class.

anyway, leaning back in the mornings and making sure to bend the legs when picking something up is a good idea.

Those intervetebral disc (IVD's) kind of get reinflated with water via osmosis everytime we sleep or lay down. compressive axial forces need to be removed in order for the disc to rehydrate with water and it takes about 5 hours of a horizontal position to allow those disc to fill back up with water. throughout the night the volume of fluid held by those disc increases about 240%

oh well, I guess I'll get back to studying. I think I'll put a t-shirt over my pillow encased spine tonight to increase the thickness between my fingers and the spine to help improve my sense of touch.

Day 20 - Friday Feb 13, 2009

The following blog entry was copied from my Global-Health & Fitness Blog to help save myself some time from blogging and allow more time for studying :)

Sometimes people fall asleep in class but I was falling asleep during our break between classes on Friday. Since I had nowhere to sleep I figured the 2nd best thing I could do was to fit in whatever workout I could and try to bring myself back to life.

Once, I spent time doing landscaping work where I'd build retaining walls and paver driveways and patios which was the most physically exhausting job I'd ever done but I'm not sure if that ever wiped me out as much as school did this week. I once read a person's brain consumes 60-80 gm of carbs during sleep and I'm now wondering about the energy consumption of intense study and forced cerebral activity. I never knew working out the brain could be so taxing.

Fortunately, we've got a three day weekend and just woke up from 12 hours of recuperative sleep! :)

The machinery and engineering of the human body has been absolutely fascinating to me. The design is pure genius and the foot has been absolutely fascinating to study. There are 18 muscles in the bottom of the foot. Usually tendons connect muscle to bone but there are some exceptions in the foot where a tendon will connect muscle to the tendon of another muscle. The quadratus muscle found near the base of the foot attaches to the flexor digitorum longus (fdl) muscle which, as the name suggest, flexes the digits of the foot or the lateral four toes but the tendon of the fdl muscle enters the base of the foot along the side of the foot at about a 45 degree angle and that quadratus muscle can act to straighten out the pulling action of the fdl so the toes are not being pulled at an angle. The fdl tendon also acts as the origin for four lumbrical muscles in the foot.

I better get to studying, we've got four text next week then something obscene like 6 or 8 test the following week. It's Saturday today so I should be able to get another workout in today.

Day 19 - Thursday, February 12th

I wasn't able to get my day 19 blog in last night due to pure exhaustion.  I got home around 10 p.m. last night.  I went to a Pi Kappa Chi last night at school at 7:30 p.m. then stopped to eat around 9 p.m. on the way home.  

I did get 21 out of 22 questions correct on my Anatomy test yesterday which is good.  Unfortunately there were 25 questions on the exam.  I think the teacher may have cut us short a bit on time since she was in a rather foul mood since she had gleaned some insight as to someone in class that may have cheated on a test.  

I'm on the heels of a three day weekend and MUST make good use of my time with MASSIVE amounts of studying - no doubt about it.  I have 4 test next week  :)

Day 18 - Amazing Machine!

I've been studying up for an anatomy test tomorrow and have found the foot to be absolutely amazing - I may even have a new favorite muscle!  Yesterday I liked the Plantaris muscle because of it's small body and loooong shiny tendon (and it's missing in about 5-10% of the population) but today I have gained a gread deal of admiration for the Flexor Digitorum Longus muscle.  The amazing thing about that muscle is how it intervates with other muscles in the plantar region of the foot.  The quadratus muscle in layer 2 of the foot actually inserts onto the flexor digitorum longus tendon and then that same tendon, also acts as the origin for the four lumbrical muscles of the foot - amazing - 

That quadratus muscle is probably designed in such a way as to help straighten out the FDL tendon so those tendons aren't pulling the toes to flex them at a 45 degree angle - simply amazing.  

18 muscles in the platar foot - Let's name them from memory!

Layer 1 - abductor hallicus, flexor digitorum brevis, abductor digiti minimi

Layer 2 - quadratus plantae, and 4 lumbrical muscles (1 medial and 3 lateral)

Layer 3 - flexor hallucis brevis, flexor digiti minimi brevis and adductor hallucis

Layer 4 - dorsal interossei and plantar interossei

the 4 dorsal interossei act to abduct the toes 2-4 and the 3 plantar interossei act to adduct toes 3, 4 & 5  :)

I still have a lot to learn and get down before the test tomorrow so I'd better get to bed soon - I'm thinking 2-3 sleep cycles ...I'm really going to have to catch up.  

There's also a meeting tomorrow night at 7:30 with members of Pi Kappa Chi which should be interesting.  :)

I really need to make waves for moving out to that area ...the drive is killing me ...degredating me physically, taking time away from my studies, taking time away from my sleep, taking time away from when I'd otherwise want to stay at school but leave to miss rush hour.

Days 16 & 17 - Aces Baby! :)

Looks like I Aced the biochem test today - so I did pretty well for my last two test.  I'll have another big challenge coming up on Thrusday in Gross Anatomy!

I've learned so many cool things over the past couple days but am much too exhausted to stay up any later.  I got to school at 5:30 a.m. this morning (after a 50 mile drive) and didn't get back home until 11 p.m. tonight.  Soooooooo tired!  (but luvin it!)

btw - I think the Plantaris muscle is currently my favorite muscle in the human body!  :)

Why Eat Breakfast? How about Metabolic Acidosis for a Reason!

I'm not sure what the correct pH level is for a swimming pool but, for blood in the human body, we like to have it between 7.35-7.45 on a scale from 0 to 14.

The body has a superb built in buffering system to help maintain that narrow pH level in our blood which is necessary to sustain life. The body can also use its capacities of respiration and renal functions to further bolster its ability to maintain pH levels.

One process that occurs in the body during times of starvation or fasting is known as Primary Alkali Deficit and if left unchecked this phase becomes Metabolic Acidosis. When the body is trending towards a state of Acidosis it has two ways of responding. One way is by hyperventilating which will restore the pH levels but doesn't restore the body's buffer capacity. To restore this capacity the body will excrete ammonium ions which restores buffer capacity.

We fast while we are sleeping which is why we call that first meal, Break-fast

consider the pH scale as it relates to our lives

under 6.8    death

6.8-7.24    Acidosis

7.35-7.45    Normal (ideal)

7.46-7.8    Alkalosis

above 7.8    death

 

Now, obviously we don't die from not eating breakfast because people do it all the time but a Primary Alkali Deficit does trend the bodies pH levels lower and, if left unchecked, would result in Acidosis and the longer we go without eating the lower our pH can get.

Here's the question – why would we want to be moving towards a pH which results in death when it's so easy to correct the situation with a simple breakfast. But, considering further, how do you think the quality and well being of a person's life in Acidosis compares to a person whose pH is in the Normal range. Skipping breakfast puts an unnecessary stress on the body that takes it's toll in the long run. Matter has limitations and our body is a bunch of matter that can only take so much.

 

(this is a test blog from a word document – I'll need to clean up the entry but want to see what happens when I try to post) J

Day 15 - Productive Baby! :)

I Aced my Histology Test! - Yahoo!  & damn, I'm tired! I was up until 12:30 a.m. this morning and got up at 3 a.m. to study extra for my Histo test but it paid off!  :)

Today I had;

Philosophy

Spinal Analysis Lab

Histology

Professional Development

Spinal Anatomy Lecture

Gross Anatomy 1 (2 hours)

Worked out after school then spent 2 hours studying in the cadaver lab.

Day 14 - Biochemistry is Amazing! :)

I haven't got a lot of time to blog today because I'm still studying for a Histology exam we have tomorrow but classes were great today.  I had Biochemistry, Spinal Analysis lecture, went to the B section prosection in Gross Anatomy, studied hard for the Anatomy test today (which I passed handily) and also had Cell biology.  

In biochem we're learning exactly how a person's blood plasma maintains it's pH levels which should be around 7.4

the main ways the body keeps everything in check is through respiration and renal excression.  

I know NH3 can combine with excess acid in the body (H+) to form NH4+ which gets excreted and a reason this happens is due to prolonged fast (such as when we sleep) or starving in general at any time.

I seem to think bicarbonate can be excreeted also, in case blood pH gets too low - my notes are at school in my locker so I'm just going by memory here - 

Anyway, back to studying!  :)

Day 13

Let's see - We took our first Biochemistry Lab test today and I got a 100% which is nice :)

We had Philosophy, Biochemistry, Spinal Anatomy (2 hours), Histology (2 hours), Biochemistry Lab Lecture and Biochemistry Lab today and I stayed after school and got in a nice workout at the gym.  I've only been home for about an hour but I'm dead tired and need to get some sleep.  We have a Anatomy Test tomorrow and our first Histology Lab test on Friday.  

Day 12 - Patient/Cadaver Dissection

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

I really don't have the words or level of writing aptitude necessary to do justice for how grateful students, such as myself, are to have the amazing opportunity to fully explore the human body via dissection.  Nothing I have done, read or seen compares to the profound change I've had in viewing other people more so than human dissection.  

I would imagine if you were going to take your car to a mechanic to get fixed that most people would prefer to have a mechanic that's already been under the hood of a car and knows all the parts to the engine and what they all do as opposed to just reading about it in a book and looking at a few pictures.  With similar logic, I'd have to say that the best doctors, whether it be OD, DC or MD would necessarily come from schools in which cadaver dissection is part of the curriculum. 

I am personally working on a male patient, perhaps of advancing age and probably non-ambulatory since the fascia around the leg is so tough.  We may be able to get a cause of death as well as an age for the cadaver in due time which will help us better understand the condition of the body at the time of death.  

We are fortunate that we have around 40 bodies in our cadaver lab to study to help understand the variances in the human body from person to person.  

Today, I had classes in Biochemistry, Spinal Analysis, Cell Biology, 4 hours of Gross Anatomy and an extra hour of Biochemistry tutoring.

Day 11 - Feeling the Pressure

I could really use an extra 12 hours each day to do nothing but study and absorb all the material I'm being fed at school.  I thought of using this blog today to help me review for a "muscle game" we're going to have in Anatomy tomorrow.  We just need to know every muscle we've studied so far and how to spell their names correctly.

I had a hard time staying awake in school today in spite of a decent albeit shortened nights sleep due to watching the super bowl last night.  Today classes consisted of philosophy, spinal analysis, anatomy lecture and spinal anatomy.  Spinal Anatomy is getting rather intimidating - today we were going over the names of the tiny ligaments that hold different vertebrae together.  Anyway, I need to get a review down of the muscles learned thus far -  

Anterior Thigh (9 Muscles)

1. sartorius
2. rectus femoris
3. vastus lateralis
4. vastus medialis
5. vastus intermedius
6. articularis genus
7. pectineus
8. iliopsoas
9. iliacus

Medial Thigh (5 Muscles)

1. adductor longus
2. adductor brevis
3. adductor magnus
4. gracilis
5. obturator externus

Posterior Thigh (4 muscles)

1. biceps femoris, long head
2. biceps femoris, short head
3. semitendinosus
4. semimembranosus

Anterior Leg (4 Muscles)

1. tibialis anterior
2. extensor hallucis longus
3. extensor digitorum lungus
4. peroneus tertius

Lateral Leg (2 Muscles)

1. peroneus longus
2. peroneus brevis

Superficial Posterior Leg (3 muscles)

1. gastrocnemius
2. soleus
3. plantaris

Deep Posterior Leg (4 muscles)

1. popliteus
2. flexor hallucis longus
3. flexor digitorum longus
4. tibialis posterior

Dorsum of Foot ( 2 Muscles )

1. extensor digitorum brevis
2. extensor hallucis brevis

Gluteal Region (9 muscles)

1. gluteus maximus
2. gluteus medius
3. gluteus minimus
4. piriformis
5. obturator internus
6. superior gemellus
7. inferior gemellus
8. quadratus femoris
9. tensor facia latae

1. sartorious
2. rectus femoris
3. vastus lateralis
4. vastus medialis
5. vastus intermedius
6. articularis genus
7. pectineus
8. iliopsoas
9. iliacus
10. adductor longus
11. adductor brevis
12. adductor magnus
13. gracilis
14. obturator externus
15. tibialis anterior
16. extensor hallucis longus
17. extensor digitorum lungus
18. peroneus terius
19. peroneus longus
20. peroneus brevis
21. extensor digitorum brevis
22. extensor hallucis brevis
23.  gluteus maximus
24.  gluteus medius
25.  gluteus minimus
26. piriformis
27. obturator internus
28. superior gemellus
29. inferior gemellus
30. quadratus femoris
31. tensor fascia latae
32. biceps femoris, long head
33. biceps femoris, short head
34. semitendinosus
35. semimembranosus
36. gastrocnemius
37. soleus
38. plantaris
39. popliteus
40. flexor hallucis longus
41. flexor digitorum longus
42. tibialis posterior
    

Saturday Studying - 1/31/09

I was able to get in a good 5 hours of studying today at a local coffee shop and a few extra hours towards the evening but I really feel like I should have gotten more studying in.  I guess I was hoping to have mastered the material a little better.  Of course, there is enough stuff in my head that I can continue to study between the time I lay down and actually fall asleep by reviewing material in my head to help solidify things.  

We spent some time on Histology but the crux of the time was spent further learning the butt - learning every nerve, artery, origin, insertion, relative positions, variances and contents of different foramens in the pelvis.  I've got to get some sleep and maybe try to do a better job tomorrow.