I am now writing from the other side of the Cardiovascular Sequence; my life is no longer confined to the beating of the heart of the inspiration of the lungs but to the extension, flexion, abduction, adduction, rotation, and circumflexion of joints. Innervations, origins and insertions, not electrical waves or pressure gradients, are now the things that consume most of my waking hours. It is a welcome change: I truly enjoy anatomy. We are in the labs three times a week dissecting, finding muscles, picking away at fascia, and tracing vessels or nerves. The sheer amount of memorization is a bit staggering at times, but fortunately for medical students, most of the names are somewhat intuitive. For example, the flexor digitalis profundus is the deep muscle that flexes the digits. The extensor palmaris longus is the longer of the two muscles that extends the thumbs. It would have been helpful to study Latin, but I am getting along just fine.
One of the reasons why MSK has "hit home" was an event that happened two Saturdays ago. I was riding my bike downhill down Division street and a car passed me. (Here is where the details go a bit foggy.) I remember the car turning out in front of me into a driveway, and before I knew it I was flying through the air off my bike, landing on my right forearm, and then slamming onto the ground onto my back. (All that the driver said was "I'm sorry" and "I didn't see you".) The wind was completely knocked out of me, and my forearm had felt better, but other than that I was fine. After a brief trip to the First Aid station, an ice pack, and 600 mg of Motrin later I was in the stands singing Hail to the Victors. Unfortunately the swelling on my arm had gotten rather large during the game:
The arm was so massive that I decided to take my roommate's good advice and go into the ER, after I was finished cheering on U of M to a victory. I got an X-ray taken:
The good news: my arm wasn't broken! The bad news: I was feeling intermittent tingling on my fifth digit, or pinky. The line on my arm above the massive bump is my ulna, which is on the pinky side of the arm. On that side is the ulnar nerve, which provides information about what's going on relating to the skin on that side of the hand. Because there was so much blood (or, a hematoma, if you want to be technical) in that area of the arm compression of the nerve was happening, causing the tingling sensation. Coincidentally (or not) this was exactly what we were covering in lab last week: innervation and muscles of the forearm, anterior compartment.
Also, I'm guessing this wasn't in mind when UMMS said that they encourage "active learning".
On an aside, I'm going to Louisville, KY this Thursday-Saturday for the Global Health Missions Conference. I couldn't be more excited.
Love,
John
P.S. MY ARM IS COMPLETELY FINE! THERE IS NO PERMANENT DAMAGE!
No comments:
Post a Comment