Monday, April 09, 2007

Anatomy, PBL, and a Trip to H & R Block

We're now moving on to the anatomy of the male, and it's an experience, to say the least. There were three cadavers today, one of which was set up to demonstrate penis and testicle anatomy. The resident had cut off about a third of the penis so that we could see the erectile tissues in cross section. You can just imagine the effect that this had on all of the guys! Well, next week we'll be looking at female anatomy again, so the girls will get their turn, I guess.

Our new PBL case seems pretty interesting so far. There is a lot of information in the case, so today wasn't as slow as most Mondays are. My learning objective for Wednesday is on the anatomy of the thyroid. I'm adding in some info about embryology too, since we aren't really going over that in seminar. Thyroid embryology is surprisingly complicated. Most of the thyroid comes from the first pharyngeal arch. But the C cells, which synthesize the hormone calcitonin, come from the fourth (or fifth) pharyngeal pouch. They just join together later in development. The weirdest thing about the thyroid is that most of it starts out by the back of your tongue, and then it travels down to its final position near the bottom of your neck. Feel your Adam's apple (thyroid cartilage), and your thyroid is below it. You probably won't be able to feel your thyroid though unless you have a goiter or something like that. One stupid thing is that your thyroid isn't actually over the thyroid cartilage. It's over the cricoid cartilage, which is right below the thyroid cartilage. And people wonder why anatomy is so ridiculously difficult to learn.

I tried to do my taxes over the weekend, but I couldn't do it. There are so many different rules in Ohio, and I have income from two different states for 2006. I had to finally give up and go to H & R Block. They charged me $132, but it was totally worth it. At least now I know how to do all of the local income taxes for next year, and I won't have to worry about figuring out local taxes from two different states again either.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your guys have it easy. We had to do all the cutting ourselves, and it was painful.

CCLCM Student said...

Yeah, we don't spend nearly as many hours in the anatomy lab as most med students do. But if we want to dissect, it's an option during M2.

Anonymous said...

hi,i just came across your blog while searching for thyroid cartilage..lol..it's really confusing...at least u guys have adam's apple..lol..its even harder for girls to not get confused of the thyroid and cricoid cartilage..oh when u mentioned bout thyroid not being on thyroid cartilage; instead its on cricoid cartilage..think bout cardiac sphincter of the oesophagus??lol..