Man, when I write, I REALLY write! LOL

MED TIDBITS

The sad part about taking up medicine is that I can't seem to find someone whom I can talk to really about what I learn, other than my classmates and friends in medicine. I mean, sure, I can try to talk to my family but I don't really think they'll understand a word I'm saying (not that I understand it much when they talk about their work). And sometimes, I realize that in my chosen course, it's quite lonely. But totally worth it.

We have a yahoogroups for our family and one of my cousins sent a message filled with some information given by a doctor. It was very rewarding to actually understand every single thing written! Not to mention, debate on most of what she said. It was all lies, misleading lies, which just really irritates me because people in authority shouldn't use their authority to spread lies. You're an authority for a reason, use it responsibly. Especially doctors, people believe in you, in what you say. If you suddenly said that all chicken on the market can kill you, people would believe. So don't give out lies. I spent the better part of the evening taking apart every single thing this doctor said.

Anyway, went slightly off tangent there. The purpose of my post is to wonder at the "creative" mind of medical students. Why? Because med school is filled with mnemonics LOL we're also quite bastos LOL Other mnemonics, though, are quite innocent - the result of a mind that belongs to a body that always goes on gimmiks.

For the gimmik-minded: the brachail plexus (w/c come out in the boards and all the tests; is very important and you're supposed to memorize it): RoTonDa CuBao.

Now, there's no rotonda in Cubao and I'm not sure who came up with it, but it sure helps. I used capitalized letters for the mnemonic needed. Roots (spinal nerves c5-c8 & t1), Trunks (superior, medial, inferior), Divisions (anterior & posterior), Cords (lateral, middle, posterior), and Branches (musculocutaneous, radial, axilla, ulnar... did i miss one? um... oh, median). And I always figure that if some maniac were to try and accost me and I had a knife handy, I'd shove it up his armpit and wreck his brachial plexus to render his entire arm useless.

Eto na. For the green-minded, you have more than one, but I'll only write down one, the latest I've (we've?) learned: the carpal bones of your hand (layman's: wrist bones). It's Sexy Lovers Try Positions That They Can't Handle, dubbed the "Kama Sutra Mnemonic of the Hand" as said by our classmate, Omar, who recited (who's cute and has got a sexy American accent - dear God, did I just write that?!?). But Judy said that last year it was Sorry Lovers Try Positions That They Cannot Handle, which I only heard about now. But "sexy" has a nicer ring to it, don't it? But then Kem and I talked about it... and 'sorry' doesn't seem right and neither does 'sexy'. Because if you're a "sexy lover" then you should be able to do all positions, yes? So we came up with our own, politically correct, mnemonics: Stupid Lovers Try Positions That They Can't Handle. As for what they stand for, from the thumb towards the pinky-side: Scaphoid, Lunate, Triquetrium, Pisiform. Second level, nearer the fingers, from thumb to pinky-side: Trapezium, Trapezoid, Capitate (w/c I sometimes mistake for caudate - completely wrong!) and Hamate.

Again, more useless trivia: scaphoid is the one usually fractured, capitate has a portion called 'hook' and hamate has a 'head' portion.

And, really, learning about the body and the way it works just makes me marvel at the beauty of God's creation. Also, when we studied muscles, I actually began to feel each and every single movement every single muscle cell (myocyte) underwent just to do a simple movement.