A Little More Than Half Way!

It's been a while since I last posted. So far I have definitely settled into the Palmer routine. It's actually really easy to do. It only consists of a few things getting up early going to class, getting home late from class and studying till I fall asleep. It's actually not that easy it takes the most self discipline that my mind can handle. But when I do buckle down, what an amazing thing my brain can do. Its able to bring in a massive quantity of new information and connect with old information and then with even more new information its able to conclude an answer or a diagnosis or able to find a problem. I'm just fascinated by our brains and the capability that they have. We don't give them enough attention or credit for all that they do for us.

We were able to watch a surgery done on a 8 year old boy who was suffering from Cerebral Palsy. This disease was causing many problems in the boys essential motor functions thus not allowing him to have a normal life. The surgeon was able to dive deep into the boys medulla spinalis and expose a portion from L1 to about L4. She then cut through the dura mater and tested each root one by one to find the roots that were impairing this boys motor function by not sending the correct signals to the brain. As the surgeon stimulated the roots the boys limbs would automatically flex even though he was unconscious. It was just an amazing thing to see the wonders of our CNS and sadly the problems that can occur from defects in such a crucial area of our body. I think all of us in the room would have loved to see this young boy work with a chiropractic adjustment schedule for a couple months and watch the improvements be made without such an extreme invasive surgery. But non the less it was amazing! On a side note the neuro surgeon was born with spine bifida. And it was amazing to see her and hear her story of struggles with her disease and to see all she was able to accomplish.

We are currently studying all the spinal cord fasiculi (tracts) in CNS. And it is literally mindbogglingly to understand and grasp. But one by one they come together and little by little I am able to see how our CNS works with the rest of our body. In this course it takes weeks just to understand a portion of the brain the size of a head of a tac. But that portion like the "Pons" is so significant without it we would not live.

I am finally understanding Bio-Chemistry a little more. Even though my lab group and I had to re-do the hour and a half long lab because we failed to achieve the needed outcome of the experiment. But the lecture information and exams are going better. Spinal anatomy seems to go 100 mph everyday and I spend most of my time in lecture just trying to keep up and then heading home to decipher what I wrote down. In Embryology we learn about some of the most amazing steps and process that must happen in order for humans to reproduce and the strict timeline a females body follows when pregnant and the amount of coordination that it requires for a fetus to come to full term. Gross Anatomy is great as ever we are now on the lower limbs and able to study much larger structures unlike the posterior and anterior antebrachium of the upper limbs. And Neuro Physiology is going as best as it could go. Some how Palmer needs to just liven that class up a little.

We are now heading into next week loaded with four exams. We have an exam everyday but Wed. We have an Embryology exam, a Spinal Anatomy exam, a Neurophysiology exam and the big CNS exam.

Even though it is tough for me to come home after 10 hrs. of school and continue to study for another 5hrs. My fire is still cooking. Only 4 1/2 weeks left in the trimester but who's counting?

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. "

--Franklin D. Roosevelt