Anatomy, PBL, and Portfolio Draft Due

We're only having anatomy sessions every other week now instead of every week, and the topics we're covering have nothing to do with what we're studying this block. But since we didn't have enough time to cover this material during the neuro block last winter, we have to do it now. Our session today was about the eyes and included the normal prosections and radiology. This was the first time all year that we've actually seen the cadavers' faces. (It's kind of hard to see their eyes without seeing their faces!) Seeing their faces didn't bother me too much. The creepiest part was the prosection where the brain had been removed and we were looking down into the orbital cavity from the top. You could see the white part of the eyeballs in there, and they were all kind of wrinkly-looking like a ball that has started to deflate. I touched one, and I was able to press my finger right into it. The resident said that this happens because the fluid tends to come of people's eyes after they die.

I think a lot of my classmates didn't like today's anatomy session too much because the classroom part of it, which covered the ocular muscles and how to test them, was pretty confusing. But I had only finished half of the reading before class today anyway. So I came in already not understanding all of the ocular muscles and how to test them, and it didn't bother me that I still felt confused when I left. I plan to read about them tonight. Overall, I think that eyes are really neat and interesting to learn about. I still don't see myself being a surgeon, but I wouldn't mind considering ophthalmology. Too bad it's such a difficult word to spell. :-P

We started a new PBL case this week, and so far it has been a pretty good one. Part of what makes it interesting is that the patient has a lot of different symptoms, and she's also extremely obese. That makes it difficult to decide whether some of her symptoms are due to her having a disease versus just being problems from her obesity. (One could fairly argue, of course, that being this seriously obese is a disease in an of itself.)

Our portfolio final drafts are due to our PAs today at five. I'm completely done with the essay part unless my PA wants me to make any last minute changes. My essay is 18 total pages, 1.5 spacing, 1 inch margins, not including my 105 references. Now, I just have to go back and add in the links to all of the references before I submit it. (My PA is out of town this week, so we're just going to be emailing instead of meeting.) This is actually the worst part of the process as far as I'm concerned. I don't know if you've ever used RefWorks, which is a referencing software, but it is just awful. I never had used it before I came to medical school, but in my limited experience, it is not at ALL user-friendly. I've gotten a little better at it now that I've done this a few times, but it's still a pain. The good news is that so far it looks like I won't need to go hang out in the tech support office this afternoon!