Saturday, July 31, 2010

Zumba

Today I tried Zumba for the first time and loved it! The gym on Cary St. offers all kinds of fun classes, so I think I’m going to check out more of them (especially now that I know where the gym is!) Zumba was really high energy and a really good workout. I liked it even though I was pretty bad at it. There were three Indian girls in the front of the class who were really good, so I tried to follow them, but didn’t come anywhere close to moving like they did! Some of the steps are complicated and hard to follow, but I hope if I go to Zumba a couple days a week I can get the hang of it soon. I also really want to try yoga and a class called “boot camp”.

I found out that my bus pass expires at the end of July even though my class doesn’t end until August 11th. So yesterday I went to the office to get a new bus pass and discovered that they’d changed their policy to include bus passes for students. Instead of paying $50 for next semester’s bus pass, I got it for free! (Although I’m sure I’m still paying for it with my tuition.) I actually enjoy riding the bus to class each day because it’s a chance to just relax in the morning. I’m also glad that I don’t have to try to find (or pay for!) parking in the city. The only downside is that you have to wait awhile for the bus sometimes. One of the things I hate the most in the mornings is walking up to the bus stop just as a bus is driving by. I know another one will come by in 5-10 minutes, but it still irks me.

One of the things I like when I’m driving in Richmond is that the pedestrian crosswalks have the signal lights that count down. It’s great because I know exactly how many seconds I have before the light turns yellow. I don’t really drive that much in Richmond, but when I do, it’s not that bad compared with other cities. I’m starting to figure out how to get around, where to park, and which streets to avoid because they’re only one-way. Richmond’s not that complicated. When all else fails, I simply make my way to Broad Street and I can find my way from there!

Tonight- Flying Squirrels baseball game!

Friday, July 30, 2010

My OCD dream

A few nights ago, I had a dream that made me so mad and frustrated that I woke up in a sweat and nearly in tears. What was the dream about? Well, it was about painting walls. As far as I can remember, in my dream I came into the living room and my sister was drawing squares on the wall in pencil. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was going to make a design on each square and paint the room with pink and white squares. I started to get mad because I knew it would look horrible- and when I complained to my mom, she told me it was her idea! Then my mom started painting another room a horrible color. I tried to tell them to stop, that the rooms would look terrible and that the house would never sell. I tried to reason with them and even yelled at them but neither my mom nor my sister would listen to me. I was getting increasingly irritated and frustrated and ANGRY and got into such a pathetic state that I woke myself up.

I normally don’t put much stock in dreams, but I’m kind of worried about what this one might mean. I think it’s a sign that I’m too controlling and too much of a perfectionist. Other interpretations are welcome!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Mold, Belle's, and the Blues

Today was probably the hardest day in lab thus far- emotionally. The most difficult dissection was probably the brachial plexus because it was such slow, tedious work. Today though, we finally had to dissect the muscles of the face. We've had the faces covered since day 2 of lab, so we had to take off the covering and start cutting away skin. A few of the girls were very anxious about it, but I found that it was best to just get in there and start removing skin. You have to treat it like any other part of the body, even though the face is the most recognizable, “human” part of the body. As a Christian, I believe that our soul/spirit is what makes us human- it’s not any feature of our bodies, but that indefinable supernatural aspect of ourselves. Today I had to tell myself: “It’s just a body. The person is no longer there.” I think that made it easier.

On another note, we've been having mini-crises in the lab for the past couple of weeks, as we've discovered mold on several of the cadavers. It’s been unbelievably hot and humid in Richmond this summer, which has made it difficult to prevent the growth of mold. We've been pouring ethyl alcohol on the cadavers when we find mold, but once it starts growing, it’s hard to get rid of it completely. We've managed to contain the problem, but all the mold has only made the cadavers smell worse! It’s a good thing we only have two weeks of class left.

Outside of class, I've been enjoying having a bit more time this week to hang out with friends. On Wednesday, Audrey, Kelly and I went to the river again for a picnic. This time we invited some more people from our class and we all had a great time chatting, eating, and cooling off in the water. We’re thinking about making a Wed afternoon picnic a regular part of the schedule for the rest of the summer. Belle’s Isle is a great little spot and I’m so glad we “discovered” it only a few weeks after moving to Richmond!

I also got to go to a concert last night with my PT friend Alicia. She and her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother and sister were all going to the Blues Traveler concert, so I tagged along, even though I had never heard of the Blues Traveler before. The concert was at an outdoor pavilion, so when we first got there it was extremely hot and muggy (Richmond temps have been in the 100’s for the past week or so- it’s almost unbearable!). Luckily we got a spot in the shade! The band was pretty good, I thought. They had a mellow, blues-y sound which was kind of nice and relaxing for a summer concert. My favorite part of that concert though, was the dancers in the crowd. There was a hippie woman with pink hair and a long scarf who was swaying to the music and doing some kind of weird interpretative dance. There was an old guy smoking pot who would get up and do slow, awkward dance moves. Finally there were two women wearing long skirts who were twirling and skipping, often with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other! It was quite entertaining. By the way, I've never seen so much beer sold in one place. I wanted a soda because it was so hot, and had to search for the only stand (among dozens!) that had non-alcoholic drinks.

I hope it gets cooler in Richmond soon! Other than that, I've been enjoying living here for the most part. Two more weeks of summer class to go!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Lower extremity- check!

Test Day was yesterday- now we’re done with the lower extremity! I felt good about the practical, but was worried about the lecture test- it was a lot harder than the first one! The practical is easier because it’s simple identification- just the muscles, nerves, arteries, and ligaments on the cadaver or the models. I spend hours in the lab looking at all the bodies so I know what to expect for that test. The lecture test is more unpredictable. We cover so much information in class that it’s hard to know what to focus on. The questions are trickier, too. The first 36 questions are the ones where you have answers 1-4, and then you can choose A) 1,2,3 B) 1&3 C) 2&4 D) 4 only E) All. Anyway, I checked my test grades today and I did well on both of them. Again, I am so thankful and relieved. Praise the Lord!

One of my favorite parts about the test week is the Monday and Tuesday after the exams. We don’t have lecture on the Tuesday after a test, so we don’t have to study Monday or Tuesday night. On Monday night most of the class goes out either to dinner or to bars. Last night we went to Delux, which was one of the nicer bars I’ve been to in Richmond. However, I still prefer simply getting a drink with dinner. It’s been fun getting to know some of the PT students outside of class. In fact, last night I talked to some of my fellow students for the first time! Of course, they might have been too tipsy to remember. ;)

Tuesday afternoon/evening was even better than Monday night, in my opinion. Audrey, Kelly, and I had a girl’s night at our apartment. We invited three other girls over and the six of us watched chick flicks, ordered Chinese food, and ate lots of snacks! It was a great break from the usual evening of poring over anatomy textbooks. This week I also got to try brunch at Perly’s, which is a cute little diner in the center of Richmond. All I got was a bacon, egg, & cheese breakfast sandwich, but it was delicious! This week I have some fun stuff planned due to the temporary lull in studying/cramming. I’m excited to get out, go to some fun events, and see some of Richmond. I feel like I’ve hardly been anywhere even though I’ve lived here for over a month. I’m sure Richmond has plenty of good restaurants and fun places to visit- I just have to discover them!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Down by the river


Yesterday, my anatomy class had a much-needed day off. We get these "study days" every other week or so- and we really do use them to study! I remember in undergrad at Liberty we used to get "reading days" and nobody ever really did much studying, but in grad school it's nice to have a day to catch up on all the material we've been learning. So, like I was saying, I did study yesterday. I went to lab for a few hours in the morning, then reviewed the arteries and nerves in the lower extremity after lunch. By late afternoon though, I was done with anything involving the words fibular, malleolar, or popliteal (bonus points if you have any idea what those terms refer to). So my roommates and I and a couple other girls from our class decided to go to Bell's Island and have a picnic for dinner by the river. It was great to just get outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Sometimes I get into such a study mode that I forget that the world is still there and that there are rivers and pathways and trees and little kids playing, and people who are just having a relaxing summer and have no idea that you're working your butt off because you have some vague idea that you're going to make the world a better place somehow. It's nice to realize that everything's still going on as normal, even though I've entered a completely different alternate reality known as grad school. It's a little humbling too. No one cares that you're about to go through 3 incredibly challenging years of life. To me, it seems like two separate worlds. If you haven't ever been in a professional school, you can't relate. Maybe I'm being overdramatic here, but PT school is truly different from anything else I've attempted.

I'm getting used to the intense study schedule- sort of. However, I've come to the conclusion that for my own sanity, I need to get involved in something other than the current workload. I'm going to try out a church this Sunday and I hope that I can get involved in a Bible study. I also found some classes that are offered at the VCU gym, so I'm hoping to try some of those out in the coming weeks. Here's to success in grad school, while not forgetting to enjoy the Land of the Normal!

Monday, July 19, 2010

My Best Friends

I realized today that it's been awhile since I posted pictures on my blog. I also never blogged about the wonderful 4th of July weekend I had with some of my best friends! So even though it was 3 weeks ago, I'm going to post these pictures now. Better late than never, right?


We went to B-Dubs...


...and the beach!

To my "soulmates":
I miss you all so much! I love how when we all get together we can laugh about anything and everything! And we can do anything or nothing and still have fun. I love that we will drive two hours just to spend a couple of hours together. I sometimes think that the distance makes us better friends because we treasure the time we do have together that much more, however I would give anything to see all of you more often! I love each of you and am so glad I met you and that we all became friends. I hope we stay in touch through the years to come no matter where life takes us!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

My life in scrubs

Random occurrences from class and lab:

Two weeks ago, our class had a four day weekend. It wasn't planned, at least not by Dr. Mayhew, who was rather aggravated that we got so many days off in a row. He felt the need to constantly remind us all that we couldn't take the entire weekend off. One time he said, “Taking four days off would be problematical.” I didn't think “problematical” was a word, but I looked it up on dictionary.com, and it IS a word; it can be used interchangeably with “problematic”, although it’s more obscure. This just proves that Dr. Mayhew is even smarter than I first realized.

Dr. G is the OT anatomy professor at VCU, and he is a character! He talks so fast, you get tired just listening to him. Sometimes he’ll come around to our table in lab and name off muscles so quickly it makes my head spin. Before you can ask any questions, he’s gone again. I call him the tornado because he comes out of nowhere, creates a whirlwind of activity, and then he’s gone again- leaving us all confused by what just happened. My favorite part of Dr. G’s spiels is the little tidbit of advice he’ll give at the end. For instance, after he got done naming all the muscles in the forearm of our cadaver, he started saying, “Spouse, Kids, Job.” “Spouse, Kids, Job.” While he was saying this, he was thumping the chest of the cadaver. I’d tuned out for a second and thought at first he was giving us a mnemonic for memorizing chest muscles. But no, it was just advice about where our priorities should be.

Other favorite pieces of advice from Dr. G:
Good friendship is like coffee- rich, warm and strong.
Being loved makes you strong. Loving someone else makes you brave. A loving relationship makes you both strong and brave.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good:
I got A's on both my lab practical and lecture test! It's a big confidence booster and it makes me feel like I can succeed in this grad school program. Also, my class was pretty successful at holding their liquor! Only one person got too drunk to show up to class and no one passed out or threw up (although several looked a little green). Also good: we sort of had a day off yesterday (we only had lab; no lecture, no homework!) So my roomies and I and 2 other PT girls spent the afternoon at our pool. It was so nice just to relax for awhile! I love that our apartment has a pool. I love our apartment period. We have a secure building, big bedrooms and closets, our own washer and dryer, and off-street parking. And we're right near the baseball diamond and movie theater and not far from the bus stop. What more could we ask for?

The bad:
Today I spilled iced coffee all over my backpack. Luckily it was mostly ice water since I'd already finished the coffee, but still- my notebook, binder, and workout clothes got all wet! I spent 20 minutes in the bathroom trying to dry everything out as best I could, but my notebook is still soggy. Next time I need to remember to pour out my ice after I finish my coffee! [PS. Everyone said I would become a coffee drinker in college, but that didn't really happen. Now I understand what they meant. The coffee bug has hit me big time in grad school- I absolutely need it to stay awake!]

The ugly:
I'm getting sick. :( It started with a sore throat and has now progressed to a sore throat, cough, runny nose, and headache. I stopped at the store on my way home from class today and bought Robitussin, cough drops, and honey vanilla chamomile tea, so hopefully I'll be better soon. I'm not sick enough to miss class by any means, but I don't want to be miserable in class and lab tomorrow either!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Statistically speaking

I had my first test in anatomy today. There were actually two tests- a lab practical at 10am and a lecture test at 1pm. I felt really good about the lab practical and fairly good about the lecture test, so hopefully I did alright (i.e, got an A). I studied a lot for those tests and I'm relieved to not have to study tonight!

As much as I study for these tests, it seems that there are at least a dozen people who know the material better than I do. When I looked at the grades for the first quiz we took, I was pretty excited that I got an A (although a low one- 91%), but then I looked at the statistics for the class and 33 out of 55 students got an A. The average for the class was right around 90%. I immediately felt worse about my grade. This made me realize something- I place great value on being "better than average"- that is, comparing myself to others and coming out on top. I'm used to taking a test and getting a grade well above the class average. But PT school is different. Everyone's smart! Everyone's driven. Mostly everyone is a Type A personality (which can get very annoying sometimes!). Anyhow, I've come to the conclusion that I have to change my value system. I have to base my success on how well I know the material, not how well I do compared to everyone else. In this course, there are no curved grades, no extra credit. Everyone can get an A or everyone could get a C. If we all master the material and we all get an A, should that make me feel any worse about how I'm doing? No way! We're all colleagues, trying to learn information that we'll use in a job one day. We should know this stuff inside and out!

Anyway, tonight was a night to celebrate getting through the first test day! After class, a group of us went out to eat at Capital Ale House, where they have dollar burgers on Monday with the purchase of a drink. Some of the class went at 4pm, right after the test was over. We ate dinner, had a drink, and some of us went to a movie afterwards. The rest of our class is pre-gaming at 5pm, then heading to Capital Ale House, then heading to bars. Yeah, we have some party-ers in PT school. I don't know how they do it, because if I have to get up at 6am during the week, I really don't want to stay up till 2am on the weekends. And in this case, we have lab tomorrow! The TA's did tell me that last year 75% of their class showed up to lab hungover after test day. Let's hope my class has better stats.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

I swear I pay attention in class

It can be really hard to pay attention in anatomy class sometimes, so I amuse myself by noticing some of the words that Dr. Mayhew seems to like. The following are his top 3 favorite words, at least according to the frequency with which he uses them.

1. Robust - Used to describe an artery or nerve that is bigger and thicker than others. "You'll be able to see the Median nerve on your cadavers, as it is quite robust."

2. Resourceful - usually used to describe his students (us!). In fact, I think this is actually the main criterion for choosing who makes it into the program. Dr. Mayhew has said several times, "You're all highly resourceful students."

3. Appreciate - my personal favorite. Used when referring to parts of the cadaver that we're not going to try to preserve during dissection. "When you're removing the skin, appreciate all the cutaneous nerves... then cut through them to get to the muscle."

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Getting into a groove

As grad school continues, I've developed a basic routine:

6am: Wake up
6:15-7:15 Take a shower, eat breakfast, DRINK COFFEE, put on my scrubs, pack my lunch, and generally get ready for school
7:25-7:45 Catch a bus to MCV campus
8-10 Gross Anatomy lecture
10-12 Gross Anatomy lab
12:30-1pm Eat lunch
1-2 Study at the student center
2-4 Go back to lab and review with the TA's for a couple hours
4:30-5:30 Work out at the gym
5:45-6:15 Take bus back to my apartment (on the bus ride home I review my notecards with the muscles for that day)
6:30 Eat dinner
7-10 Study some more. Check my e-mail and facebook. Sometimes go for an evening run.
10/10:30 Bed

There you have it- the exciting life of a grad school student. Basically I'm spending more time in school/lab/studying then I ever have before in my life. It's a good thing I like this stuff!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Wonders of the human body

To my surprise, I'm actually enjoying anatomy. Granted, it's a LOT of information. There's so much to learn, memorize, and identify- and it can get very frustrating trying to keep everything straight. But learning how the body works and moves is amazing! Each muscle has a purpose. Each muscle has a specific nerve that innervates it. The body is so adaptive that muscles can be bigger or smaller, or located and attached differently. Each cadaver is different from the next, yet the same basic concepts apply to all of them.

As a side note, it sort of bothers me when my professor makes an evolutionary remark. He'll say things like "this was adapted over many years" or use the term "vestigial" to refer to muscles/bones that are evolutionary remnants. This is a foreign concept to me since I believe that the human body was uniquely designed, has basically remained unchanged, and that every single part has a specific purpose (even if we don't know what it is yet!) As I learn more about the body, I become more certain that there is no way humans evolved. I wonder how other people (even highly intelligent professors) can believe that we did.

Still, I feel like I'm learning so much. It's pretty amazing to be able to look at a body and be able to identify all the nerves of the brachial plexus. Or to be able to give the innervation and myotome for every muscle (at least the ones we've learned so far). The best part about it is that it's useful information. I think that's what I like about anatomy the most. It has a functional and practical purpose. I'm actually going to use this stuff in the clinic someday!