Week #3

Has it been 3 weeks already? It seems like such a blur. Somedays I get home after class and just fall on the couch and wonder what did I get myself into. You start to realize the work load that is put on you never has a break. And the sad thing is most professors started out slow and now they are really turning on the heat. From here to the end of October I have at least 1 quiz and 1 Exam every week. And one week there is an exam and quiz everyday! So I guess you could say the pressure is on. In undergrad it always seemed that Saturday was a break from school and you looked forward to it. But now Saturday I am stuck studying either at home at the library or in an open lab. Its actually the best day to study because I get the most done. But with all that said I haven't grown tired of it and don't think I will. Even though it is a lot of work I feel honored to have the opportunity to wake up everyday to go to one of the finest health care institutions and learn about our bodies from head to toe from inside to out.

I think the most exciting part of the school so far is the Gross Anatomy(where we work with cadavers) and CNS labs we go to. This week in CNS lab we had 30 stations and at each station there was either part of or a whole brain with different things being pointed out. I sat down at a station thinking it was just an empty skull and quickly learned otherwise as I turned it around and saw the face was still intact. This scared both me and the others at the close by stations (it was more or less just unexpected, not gross). But what an opportunity that lab was, we were able to see a brain tumor created in the dura mater and how the brain adapted to it by creating a cavity around it. Also we were able to identify the vessels that are just above the brain stem that most strokes occur in. The brain itself with all of its inner workings is just flabbergasting.

Our Professor in that class is Dr. Gale R Lewellen ( who also is the former stake president for the Davenport Stake) is absolutely amazing. He may have one of the hardest classes to teach but he really allows you to understand and is always willing to explain and make you excited about the subject. Week three was challenging but fun. And I hope to have many more of the same.

"The runner-doctor knows that health has nothing to do with disease. Health has to do with functioning and wholeness and reaching your level of excellence. My health has to do with my life style, with moderation of the soul and the body. It is a matter of discipline of my total person"
"From the athlete, we learn that health is not merely to do with disease, any more than sanctity is the absence of sin. Health, the athlete tells us, is a positive quality, a life force, a vital characteristic clearly recognizable in those who have it."
--George Sheehan, M.D., Running and being