Wednesday 27 January 2010

Meeting Kumar

I always loved clinical demonstrations, they're not exactly very sciency, but it gives us the opportunity to learn a bit more about relevent diseases, and to hear it from a patient's perspective. What made the session even better today, was having Prof. Kumar!

Ok i sound a little star struck (i was!!), but she was so down to earth, and funny.

At the end of the lecture, she asked us what the rules of Kumar were, and from what i remember these were it:

1st rule of Kumar.... (i missed this one >.< )
2nd rule of Kumar ... Listen to your patients
3rd rule of Kumar ... Don't be arrogant
23 b) rule of Kumar ... (along the lines of work hard!)

So with Rule 23b in mind, its time to kick start the revision for the upcoming HDxCRxMET Exam! >.<

Although content wise, it's only 9 weeks worth (similar to Funmed), but this time round, it feels like it's 3x more work!

Thanks to Super idiot for reminding me:
"she asked someone how much poo they make!! and the guy said 400-450 grams and she started laughing :D"

Friday 22 January 2010

Anatomy: Body painting!

This week's learning landscape and practical session was by far the MOST ENJOYABLE anatomy session so far; as we swapped pens for brushes, and prosections for torsos during a session of body painting (!!), and played around with spirometers during the practical.

Thankfully some of the boys were happy to take their shirts off, so off we went following a booklet of instructions, and painting on the bones, muscles, and arteries of the thorax. It sounds a bit odd, and at first i was like "hmmm interesting....", but it was actually really helpful to see where the different things were in relation to each other, and it was something different for a change ^.^

CR module finishes tomorrow, and Metabolism starts on Monday.
It's taken me so long to get into medical school, but i'm actually sort of glad there'll be some sort of biochemisty coming up, i know i may regret saying this later, but..... i miss learning pathways!

Saturday 16 January 2010

Clinical Skills

On Monday i had my first clinical skills session.

We were seperated into 2 rooms (one for boys, and the other for girls), and then given 2 hours to turn the - CV examinations lecture into a touchy feely session.

I managed to locate the radial, brachial and carotid pulses, and failed from then onwards to find the apex beat and any of the other pulses below my waist (>.<), i'll keep trying, but having tried a couple of times at home, i'm still in search of my apex beat!

Oh and we finally got to do something with a stethoscope, but to be honest i had no idea what i was doing or trying to listen out for. Thankfully, i have a few people who have agreed to become my guinea pigs, and i have until the summer to work these things out.

Until then, its time to start stressing about the next set of ICAs!

Saturday 9 January 2010

Snow Days Cardiorespiratory

Firt week of CR is over, and of the 5 days i was late on 4, and the only day i turned up on time, the facilitator couldn't make it in. Travelling in the Snow, is definately not FUN!

That aside, consistent lateness has led me to stumble across a new route to uni, which although involves a few more stops, actually ends up shaving a good 5, possibly 10 (on a good day) minutes off my travelling time!! Will give this route a good trial over the remaining 2 weeks of CR.

Fun fact i found whilst writing up some notes:
The blood vessels in humans stretch for 100,000km through the internal body landscape!!
-My RBCs have travelled further than i have in the past year, im pretty jealous.

So hows CR?
Hmmm well on first impressions, CR anatomy is more friendlier than that of the pelvis from HD last term (pelvis anatomy stole many of my evenings). Though i suspect it might just be down to familiarity with the heart, afterall the heart has some how been on my syllabus almost ever year since GCSEs! BUT that doesn't make it easy, in fact im DREADING all the ECG lectures!

Sunday 3 January 2010

New Year + HD notes over

Just about finished with the HD note writing/revision marlarky (but in actual fact i've skipped a few lectures >.<), in time for the start of term. It has been a massive drain over the short 2 week X'mas break, and im not all that refreshed and ready to take on the upcoming CR module, but hey 'ho thats life~!

What HD has made me realise is... wow did my mum go through a lot to give birth to me! HD has definately made me think of pregnancy a bit differently, I'm sure most people in the year will do too (varying amounts, i'm sure), and i know this just from listening out for the "Ewwww"s (probably a photo of a dilated cervix with a head popping out of it), and "Awww"s (Video of the kid growing up and learning different abilities) throughout the different lectures.

So with a fresh (hardly feeling it) start tomorrow, it'll be the simpsons movie followed by an early night tonight ^^




p.s i hope muesli is healthy, ive been eating a lot of it! (not for a health regime, but just because its so damn tasty!)