Thursday, December 7, 2006

Another day, another dollar



The best thing that happened today was that I started to revise anatomy. I have learned most of it before, but that was several years ago, and apart from the vascular side of things, I haven't really covered cerebral anatomy for years!

It was really strange looking through all of the names of things like "mesencephalon" and remembering the word but not remembering where it is or what it does. I think that the key this time around will be to look at the function of things rather than just the name - my last anatomy subjects were almost pure rote memorisation of names, and I hated it.

When I remember just how much hard work I had to do in anatomy classes (which was at least as much time as all three other subjects put together) I wonder whether I am cut out to pursue studying medicine. However, I forget the benchmark test that I made for myself - if I was clever enough to pass the entrance exam (aka MCQ water-torture-test), then I should theoretically be clever enough to study medicine.

And yes, I do know where the major landmarks and organs and everything else are. I'm not going to be one of those med students that you hear about in the paper ("Medical Students Fail Basic Anatomy! World Ends")!

The weird part about anatomy is how many section of the body are named after breasts. Seriously. The mastoid processes, the mamilliary bodies and so on and so forth. Those anatomists must have been a seriously obsessed bunch! Honestly, how did that happen?

Anatomist 1: "Hmmm, what do we call that little lumpy bit of bone?"
Anatomist 2: "It looks like a breast!"
A1: "Everything looks like a breast to you."
A2: "I'll call it the mastoid process!"
A1: *with head in hands* "Not again."

Back to the books, I guess. At least having seen so much of it in real life at the Hospital, it is making more sense this time around.

No comments: