Saturday, January 30, 2010

Spinal Boot Camp


I'm thinking being under the weather a bit can help sensitize a person to what makes them feel better and what makes them feel worse. I'd have to say my drive home made me considerably worse and I'm starting to think living 2 miles from school could do more to benefit my health than even quitting smoking.
It also makes me think that there are probably derogatory effects when I'm feeling fine but probably not enough to perceive in any one trip yet, over ....oh, say six or seven years worth of this long drive that the commutes probably add up in terms of degraded health.
I know the one night I stayed in town between Irene Gold sessions it felt like an entirely different life when the trip to school was no longer than my current trip just to get to the highway.

I was just thinking that a few days ago I came to realize there was a dampening of my thoughts via my ride home - a subduing of excitement and enthusiasm. As such, I think that lends a bit of credence to my initial hypothesis that my huge ongoing commute is driving me to an early grave.

I did end up with a better grasp of parasympathetic nerves for today's efforts and a very simple drawing clearly put it in my head. Cranial Nerves 3,7,9 and 10 are parasympathetic as are sacral nerves 2, 3 & 4. That's it. The picture up top on the left is very similar to the one which made parasympathetic nerves more clear to me. If you click on the picture and expand it to full size you'll notice blue lines at the top and bottom of the picture. Those blue lines represent parasympathetic nerves.
The picture is good for clarity but rather misleading when it comes to our spinal cord. The human spinal cord only goes down to about the 1st or 2nd lumbar vertebrae yet, the first picture shows the cord as going all the way down to our tailbone (or coccyx) however, the picture above illustrating an entire person more accurately shows the spinal cord going down to about the L1, L2 vertebral level. After that point we have what's called the cauda equina which literally means, horses tail.
I think I also learned tonight that students in Tri-5 are a lot smarter in general than us people in Tri-4. I had a lot of Tri-5's sitting behind me and Tri-4's in front of me and it seemed like most of the answers that were being called out came from the folks behind me. I do remember one teacher stating that we start acting like doctors around tri-5 so, maybe that has something to do with it.
In addition to Dr. James & Dr. Laura who represented the NBS (National Boards Specialist) we also had three of our own teachers in the room who basically were there to take notes of their own which I thought was a rather impressive display of commitment and dedication on their part. Those teachers were Dr's Clifford, Ignatov and Ludwinski. Apparently, before Dr. Ignatov came to Logan our National Boards test scores on physiology weren't anything to brag about but with Dr Iggy's tenure along came better and better test scores on the physio portion of national boards. In fact, a few semesters back, Dr Ignatov agreed to let students shave his head bald if 100% of his students passed the physio portion of National Boards. Well, they did it and he got shaved bald! I don't think he wants to make that bet anymore.

I was kind of embarrassed that I didn't understand the parasympathetics better but talked to one of the Logan doctors after class and he said school was kind of like trying to take a drink of water from a fire hose turned on full blast. That immediately made sense to me.

TRI-4, Wk3, Day 213 - Friday

(6:30 a.m.)
Either I caught what the guy sitting next to me in class had or ate something bad but I started getting sick around 2:30 a.m. Friday and never made it to school. I think my last round of sleep lasted about 12 hours but I'm feeling better today (Saturday) and should be good to go for spinal boot camp later on today.

At the beginning of TRI-4 we were told no weddings, no divorces, no babies and no deaths which all was in reference to the fact we were taking Part I boards and need to keep focused on the task at hand.

Just caught the weekly update from the Dead Chiropractic Society on YouTube from Dr. Bill DeMoss and noticed this years California Jam party is being held exactly one week before Part I boards. My brother is one of the featured speakers which is a pretty big deal but I'm going to need the time to study for boards.

Physio text on Monday and Path on Thursday next week.

(7:42 a.m.)
I might be adding to today's blog throughout the day - I was thinking about some of the stories our teachers have related to us about their various chiropractic clients. One teacher has a chiro patient who is 93 years old. This lady had to laugh when she heard a lady from church talk about all her aches and pains then torted that "after all, I am 77 years old" To the 93 year old, this lady was a spring chicken.
I also hear of several stories about patients well into their 80s who still travel and enjoy a very high quality of life and yet, there are 65 year old patients who have never seen a chiropractor before and don't enjoy the quality of life that people 20 years older enjoy.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

TRI-4, Wk3, Day 212 - Thursday

It's not uncommon to leave school with a bit of excitement and a bunch of ideas swimming in my head but, I've noticed the long drive home has a bit of a mental dampening effect on that mind set. I think that kind of happened today. That or I'm just having a hard time remembering everything I was excited about.
Oh, fundamental imaging diagnosis is a pretty cool class. Right now, we're basically learning everything there is to know about x-rays, from the anode to the cathode, what they're made of, what they were made of in the past, the improvements made over the years and, personally, I've found it all to be amazingly interesting.
From our teachers perspective, Thomas Edison was a bit of a jerk but, that made me think of the fact that Edison lost his hearing in his youth and that reminded me of the time I met Lou Ferigino up in Columbus, Ohio a number of years ago and Lou seemed to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder as well, maybe there's a relationship there or maybe I just caught him on a bad day.

The anode part of the x-ray machine has a disk made of Tungsten which rotates at about 3,000 rmp's per minute along w/ a cathode which generates a couple thousand degrees worth of heat/energy. Also, while the spinning disc hospitals & chiropractors would use for taking x-rays of bone is made of Tungsten (Tungsten alloy) the spinning disc used for mammographies is made of Molybdenum. I believe the spinning disk have silver ball bearings and no lubricant so, when those bearings give out, it's time for a new anode.
A small disk of tungsten, maybe 3 or so inches in diameter runs about $5,000

It's pretty interesting again how all our classes seem to line up with each other. We're studying neurophysiology in physiology III and also in NMS (neuro-muscular-skeletal diagnosis) and have already had exposure to neurology in Tri-2's Neuroanatomy class.

I am getting more familiar with basic concepts regarding the brain. Most all of our sensory input goes through the thalamus. The thalamus is a centrally located portion of our brain which is sometimes refereed to as the "primitive" brain. If we get poked w/ a needle in our leg, then our thalamus can perceive the pain but cannot discriminate much with regard to that pain, only that we've maybe been hurt and are experiencing pain. From the thalamus, the nerve signal goes to the outer gray portion of our brain - the cortex which is capable of higher levels of interpretation. With our cortex we can determine exactly where the pain is coming from.

If you hold out your hand and, using a blunt instrument, draw out the letter A then the thalamus might perceive pressure on the body but the cortex can tell you exactly where the pressure is coming from, how much pressure there is and can also discriminate and tell you the letter A was just drawn out on your hand.

In physiology we're learning that the brain works by inhibition - I need to learn more about this but right now, I'd say the brain is about 2/3 inhibition - maybe more. We're also getting into the RAS or reticular activating system in the brain. This area of the brain has to do with our levels of awareness. It's like a huge filter that basically ignores everything that isn't important to us and let's through everything that is important - - -

This has HUGE physiological implications and has been the topic of previous articles I've written elsewhere. As people, we are literally bombarded with millions of pieces of information every single day but only a very small percentage of that ever makes it's way to our cerebral cortex. And, that's basically what we have to interpret life with. Two people experiencing very similar days may perceive each one very differently. Even if the stimulus input is 100% identical - the perception and what is noticed may be radically different. A person used to complaining all the time and thinking life sucks and is the most unfair prank ever to be played by god will have a RAS that lets in as much negative stuff as possible - for that person it would be part of what keeps them in a state of homeostasis, it keeps their life and probably more importantly, their beliefs in tact.
Another person - again, with the exact same input, may have a RAS which filters out much of the garbage and lets a preponderance of good things get to the cerebral cortex and that's what that person may dwell upon.

For the most part, I think the RAS does much to help us maintain our current set of beliefs. I think most people have probably experienced the power of the RAS when they get a new model car that they've never owned before. All of a sudden, they start to notice that car all over the place when just the week before owning the car, they never really noticed them.

Another classic example would be a person at a party in a room full of chattering people. You wouldn't notice all of the conversations going on but, if a good friend said your name from across the room then the RAS would probably let that bit of info get up into your higher level consciousness.

The NBS or National Board Specialist came in today to chat with our class and give us our first set of assignments to help prepare for national boards. One thing they were quick to point out was the fact that we haven't completed all the classes that will be covered on National Boards, Part I so, we're to look over Bone pathology, Immunity and attend this coming Saturday's Spinal Boot camp.

It's all interesting. For Irene Gold, this past weekend, I met a chiropractic student who has flown in from New York for the past two weekends in order to get the Board Review and, like with this weekends spinal neurology lessons, we'll also have people from other schools and other states coming in to town to get the four hour review. Until today, I didn't actually realize it was a part of the NBS.

So, we've got prep coming from Irene Gold, which students pay for out of their own pocket and we also have NBS which is provided by the school (via part of our tuition) to also help prepare us for Part I of national boards.

I guess I'll stay up until 8 or so tonight - I've got another spin class tomorrow morning from 5:40 to 6:30 a.m. Wednesday was the first class and I *really* liked the new gym.

Off to cap off the night with a bit of studying :)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

TRI-4, Wk3, Days 209, 210, 211, Mon, Tue, Wed

I had a blog started yesterday but nothing materialized!
There's so much going on it's hard to encapsulate everything.

I'd have to say, I'm loving Basic as an adjusting technique. It's almost like some kind of physio-therapy routine right now but, it's pretty cool to find sacral-lumbar pain on somebody and then after working on them hearing that they don't hurt anymore. It's kind of remarkable. Diversified has been going pretty well also. Diversified is another adjusting technique and we're working on the thoracic region now which I've been waiting for because I've usually always gotten T-6 adjusted when i went in for my adjustments before school and now it's being adjusted many times per week. It's kind of fun to hear that cavitation when adjusting somebody and especially nice when you know they need it and can help provide some relief.

I know I've mentioned before that I've lost the people sitting on either side of me but, was pleasantly surprised when I learned one of the ladies had come back to school. It's kind of a tough road because she's starting back at Tri-1 but, you've gotta be a little in awe with the tenacity of so many of the students here. I think there's another guy in Tri-1 who was also in my class.

I am dropping out of the student government thing for our class but i can't really afford to stay for meetings that keep getting scheduled 4 or 5 hours after we get out of school. not worth it.

I've sort of given up on going to the Ozarks this weekend due to a Spinal Anatomy boot camp being held on Saturday out at Logan. maybe the next weekend....
we'll have a two hour pre-test on the following Friday and the first hour will be during our regular lunch hour w/ the second hour coming when we would normally have pathology.
Speaking of which, we have our first path & physio test next week and a lab due this friday.

It's not even 7 but i'm not sure i can stay awake until my laundry is done. Good times and I wouldn't change 'em for anything.

Monday, January 25, 2010

TRI-4, Wk2, Days 207 & 208, Thur & Fri

56 hour of classroom work per week for the first two weeks - wow....
We finished up our second round with Irene Gold this weekend and I am BEAT! We got out early Sunday and I was up for maybe 1/2 hour after I got home then crashed and woke up about 2 a.m. this morning.
I cleaned out my car and found my billfold this morning and am considering joining a health club near school. They have a spin class at 5:40 in the morning and figured it would be a good way to start my days as well as avoid morning traffic.
It's almost 5 a.m. now so I've got to get moving.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

TRI-4, Wk2, Day 206 - Wednesday

Going to school at Logan to become a chiropractor is reminding me of the Rocky movie series. In each movie, Rocky had to face a bigger, badder opponent. This is pretty much like each of the first four trimesters with each one being bigger and badder than the last. Looking back, Tri-1 kind of seems like kindergarten in comparison with everything going on now.

On the plus side, we only have 31 credit hours this semester and I'm saving about 5 hours per week driving - 8 hours savings total. On the other side of the coin, in addition to learning enough to pass the 31 credit hours I'm currently taking, we also have to relearn, review and be pretty familiar with everything that's been learned in the DC program up to this point.

So be it.

I can't beat this monster on any given day which can make it hard to face up to doing anything because in doing so I end up seeing with great clarity exactly how big this monster is that I have to somehow conquer.

I need to find out exactly how many days I have left until boards. I know many people haven't even started studying for them yet and all those other people are my competition - the Part I National Boards are graded on a type of Bell Curve so, it's kind of like biochem was and the bottom of the pack isn't going to pass - I'm not sure if the population being considered is just the students at Logan or if this Bell Curve grading is applying to every student taking National Boards Part I nationwide.

I'll hit it every day and keep chipping away at it bit by bit, brick by brick.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

TRI-4, Wk2, Day 205 - Tuesday


I was running a little late this morning but figured I could still get to school early enough to catch the last half of my first class however, I was gravely mistaken. Not only does leaving later give rise to much more traffic, we've been hit with heavy fog the last couple weeks and traffic was backed up 12 miles before reaching the bridge to get into Illinois - stop & go the whole way. So, not only did I not make my first class, I was late enough that my 2nd class of the day was skipped as well. I did take care of a few things and wanted to knock out today's blog with the few minutes of extra time I had available before my 3rd class of the day started.

It looks like, in spite of the shorter drive time w/ Hwy 64 being reopened that I still need to get my butt out of the house by 6 a.m. every day.

I think I might take a little trip to the Ozarks at the end of this month. I need something to look forward to and am hoping for a little stress relief and maybe some extra focus with my studies. Mapquest.com says I can make to the Ozarks from school in about 2.5 hours so, that's only 1 hour 45 minutes longer than a normal drive home or about the same amount of time it took me to get to school today.

Today's picture is a snapshot from the Lake of the Ozarks. :)

Sunday, January 17, 2010

80,000 Miles

If you buy a really nice set of tires then you might expect to get 80,000 miles worth of use from those tires before you have to start thinking about replacing them but, what if you noticed abnormal wear and tear on the tires at 35,000 miles? You might get annoyed and wonder about the cause of the premature wear on the tires. After bringing your car into an auto shop, you find out that the car isn't aligned properly, the front and rear tire alignment is out of whack and that is the source of your problem. Now, the tires can be realigned but that doesn't mean you'll get back any of the rubber that's already been worn away but it will help preserve what's left of the tires.

This is very much like osteoarthritis which is a degenerative disease of the joints. Basically, the padding between the joints wears out. This is the most common arthritis around because it happens to everyone as they age particularly around the weight bearing joints such as the knees, hips and all those joints along the vertebrae. Like the automobile tire analogy we have a case of function following structure. If everything is lined up properly then you'll get maximum use out of the padding between your joints. Just like with those tires on the car we previously mentioned.

I imagine this is part of the reason why there is such a push with chiropractors to want to get school age children checked for scoliosis or any other structural misalignment of the vertebrae since the sooner such things are corrected the greater the potential for a higher quality of life for the greatest amount of time.

Still, we almost need to take a step back if all we're concerned about with the vertebral column is the health of the joints. After all, what are we talking about here? We're talking about the brain and spinal cord, also known as the Central Nervous System (CNS), the master control center and it's even a bit more than that. Virtually every other part of the body can have a replacement. Arms & limbs with prosthetics, Iron lungs, and artificial hearts. Even if the stomach, spleen, 75% of the liver, 80% of the intestines, one kidney, one lung and virgually every organ from the pelvic and groin area were removed, the human body can still survive.

This is hardly the case for the CNS. In addition to interpreting all of our senses, our sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell, the CNS is also home to everything we've ever felt, perceived, conceived or imagined, it is the one organ that would literally be most of what we consider to be "us"

Function follows form & structure. To compare the CNS in terms of engineering and complexity to any other organ in the body is almost like comparing the space shuttle to a skateboard. So, I'd imagine if the most important part of what makes us, us is in a misaligned structure then we just might have bigger problems than osteoarthritis to contend with.

TRI-4, Wk1, Days 203 & 204, Thur & Fri


I guess you could say I've been a bit busy lately. After school on Friday, I headed to the Double Tree hotel along with 80 other classmates who are eligible for taking Part I of National Boards this March for intense study sessions through a company called Irene Gold. On Friday we spent 2.5 hours on general anatomy and another 2.5 hours on biochemistry. Saturday consisted of 3 hours of spinal anatomy followed by 3 hours of physiology then 3 hours of microbiology.
On Sunday, today, we have another 3 hours of general anatomy, 3 hours of biochemistry and 2 hours of pathology scheduled.

I really appreciate the fact that tomorrow is Martin Luther King day and we get a day off from school. Next weekend will be more of the same but without the bonus day off, in fact, my next day off won't be until the 30th of this month.

Today's picture is of the People's Theater which is the name of the conference room at the Double Tree hotel where our Irene Gold study sessions are being held, one view from the top of the theater and one view from down by the stage looking up. The guy teaching the material is from Tampa, Florida. He's been teaching the subject matter for about 13 years, is 38 years, is a DC and has a practice which includes an MD and is very nutritionally based. He does a lot of blood test with his patients and I found it interesting when he mentioned that 8 out of 10 of his patients were lacking in Vitamin D and this is from people living in the sunshine state!

Well, it's after 4 a.m. so I better get moving. :)

Thursday, January 14, 2010

TRI-4, Wk1, Day 202, Wednesday


Getting used to being in school mode again. We only had six classes on Wednesday and for Thursday, our morning classes are cancelled since our teachers will be helping administer Comprehensive testing for upper Tri's.

NMS or Neuromuscular Skeletal Diagnosis was the only new class yesterday and it's our first clinical diagnosis class.

Today's pic is a copy of our Tri-3 class picture

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

TRI-4, Wk1, Day 201, Tuesday

I woke up this morning at 4 a.m. a full hour before my alarms were set to go off. Our old internet interface called IQ Web was replaced over Christmas break with a new interface called Self Service. Our teachers just gained access to the new site yesterday so there is still got plenty of material to download for each class.

There were a lot of blog comments made over the last few days of our break that I still need to go through and post. I think they came from a student out in California. I think they mentioned Oklahoma but, Logan is located in the St. Louis area and diversified is started in Tri-2. I'll have to go back over them to comment further.

Today we had 7 classes.

  1. Logan Basic II
  2. Physiology III
  3. Orthopedics II
  4. Diversified III
  5. Pathology II
  6. Fundamentals of Diagnostic Imaging (Fun Dx)
  7. Basic Nutrition
It looks like part three of physiology is going to focus on neurophysiology which is kind of cool because I made contact on YouTube with a med student over in the UK who has some nice post on the subject. I think my brachial plexus video is over 10,000 views right now so there's been a bit of exponential growth in viewership.

Ortho was interesting in that 5% of our grade will be in doctor/patient talk. Surveys given to Tri-1 students indicated a lot of misunderstanding between the Tri-1's who were patients of upperclassmen so there may be even greater misunderstanding with the general public. We need to avoid too much Dr. talk and make sure we are relating to the pt in ways they can understand.

There's more to say about all the classes and the new trimester but it's getting very late so, I'll have to pick this up tomorrow. :)

Today's pic of the day is just a simple pic representing the doctor patient relationship.