Next phase

We pretty much entered the next phase of the semester today - and the anxiety that followed was the proof.

The anatomy test went down rather quickly, approx. 35 power point slides with pictures covering ligaments and joint compartments of the superior and inferior extremities. To twist it up a bit our teacher added the regular scheme drawing of either a cross-section of the knee or the hip joint, depending on the group you were placed in.
I got the hip-joint which I knew fairly well and made a quick scheme. I would have preferred the knee joint thou since it was my lecture presentation subject and would probably have nailed it.
After the test I felt pretty good about myself until my friend Paymon started to discuss the questions with me. Then I felt the complete opposite (you know how it usually goes after a test).
I know I missed some bits and pieces here and there and I just hope I'll still get an acceptable grade.

After the test we went on to the dissection rooms and got our first view of a bigger piece of the real thing. The room smelled a bit of formalin, the chemical used to preserve the tissues, but when the sheets covering the limbs were removed the odour just got stronger. Since this wasn't the first time encountering the smell, my obviously very selective nose pretty much overlooked the smell and I could focus at the introduction of the muscles of the superior limb.
Since I can't post any photos of our procedure I'll just randomly link to something similar and let someone else get the blame.

(!)Gore alert(!) on the following google links:
Photo of shoulder girdle dissection #1, joint capsule
Photo of shoulder girdle dissection #2, muscles and innervation
Photo of inferior limb and abdomen dissection

The statement of the day is that the muscles (name, innervation, insertion and function) are rather complex anatomies to conquer. They are all shown pretty good in this overview.
The forearm contains loads and once again loads of parts mentioned in brackets above. For every muscle we need to know these different parameters as wells as being able to label them in a dissected arm.
My plan is to once again, break it down to bits and pieces, study different atlases, then sketch and repeat.
A good thing is that the dissection rooms are going to be open for self studies during the weeks so we'll get a chance to repeat on the specimens.

The next week is going to be hectic and I have to increase my time studying. I got two weeks to learn the muscles of both the superior and inferior limb, a histology test covering the histological techniques, staining and both epithelial and connective tissue as well as biophysics labs and lectures that I still keep procrastinating.
I'm growing the fear that I'll all pile up in the end and I'd like to prevent that by being one step ahead. It's damn hard thou due to the high pace, hence the worries, the increase in studying and the increase in coffee drinking.

Tomorrow is a day off since there's a holiday going on in Czech Republic and since I'm always off on Fridays my weekend begins tonight. Nabeel, a really nice guy from third year, asked my roomies out for a beer and I took some time off to tag along. So did Fredrik and Christian and we had a nice chat over a beer and a XXL drink in a crowded, smoky, basement pub called the Black Sheep.
It was a great start of the weekend, and since Halloween is around the corner it's just going to be better.
To smash that party mood up I'll still have to study a lot, so tomorrow is dedicated for studying and a major workout.

Until next post, have a good one - oh yeah got to end it with another fancy quote - this time in Latin I think (since I got pretty good hang of the Latin grammar today...)

"Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem" - Horace