Reflections on anatomy

Our anatomy final is tomorrow and it's so surreal to think that gross anatomy is finally over. It felt like such an impossible task when we first started 11 weeks ago.

I remember stressing out about the three muscles we learned in the first week. "I have to know the arterial supply as well? How am I ever going to remember the transverse cervical artery?!" That actually happened.

Towards the end of our first block, we learned the entire leg in 4 days. That seemed ridiculous and impossible.

But now, the seasoned medical students that we are, we did the entire head and neck in under two weeks. No one batted an eye at that. It just seemed normal.

I wish I had learned some things better. The pelvis and perineum still confuse me. The details of the poop cycle are also lost on me. All in all, though, I have a pretty good grasp on how our bodies are put together and I'm okay with that.

It's not surprising that I glossed over those areas because I've never found them interesting. Similarly, it makes sense that I enjoyed learning the anatomy of certain parts of the body (muscles, lungs, and eyes) because I've been interested in that stuff for a while.

Some things surprised me, though, like really nerding out on the autonomic nervous system and cranial nerves. I don't think I'll end up in neurology, but the logic-puzzle nature of the disease processes has been really fun to work through.

I'd like to say that I'm taking it easy tonight and taking the evening off because I need to do very, very poorly on the final exam to fail the course. But like a proper over-achieving medical student, I'm not satisfied with the pass. Instead, I'll be doing more review questions until my brain tells me to stop.

More "old" posts

I know I've been absent for a while. Part of that is due to medical school taking over my life (kind of true). But mostly it's because I just haven't wanted to write.

I'm publishing a couple of super old and somewhat old posts for now, and am writing new ones as well. I should be back to somewhat regular blogging soon.