The Key.

I had it in my hand.

Literally. Or so I thought.

There I was, standing at question 15, casually minding my own business answering one of seventy bagillion questions on our anatomy lab exam, when my gaze fell upon some papers sitting on the windowsill. Papers with red writing. Papers that looked remarkably like my test form. Red writing that looked remarkably like my professor's.

The page was obscured by a sheet above it that documented what specimens should be laid out for the exam. Our exam. The one we were taking.

I might not be able to summon up the names of the muscles innervated by the Left Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve (duh, totally answered that after the exam with no problem) or the proper term used to describe that auditory cavity thingie in the half head specimen (seriously?)....but I can put 2 and 2 together and folks, this time they equal Exam Key. Sitting on the windowsill. Plain as day.

What's a girl to do?

I will admit, I probably spent at least one minute of my precious 120 minutes allotted for the exam (which in reality should be more like 500 minutes, but whatev) debating my next move. Do I gently shove the top sheet over and make sure that I get at least some of the questions on this exam correct? Do I leave it there and move on like I saw nothing? Do I turn it in to the profs, wasting another minute or two of my precious time?

Kinda climactic, isn't it? Sort of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book (God I loved those).

In the end, I turned to page 52 and turned in the sheets. Without even a tiny peek. What can I say? I want to earn my own grades, even if they aren't fantastic. Or even passing.

Course, this story would have been a lot better if I hadn't been told by Dr. Moffatt later that it ended up not being the key but actually just a list of specimens to be laid out for Dr. Berg's section (he hand wrote them vs. typing like the rest of the profs). Maybe I should just keep that little tidbit to myself. Course, she reads my blog so all of the points I might have won for being honest with what I thought was the key will be lost with lying.... ;)

Random Large Pink Bull's Penis.

Catchy title, huh?

Tonight was a madhouse in the anat lab. They have us put out all of the specimens that will be used on the exam the evening before so we can work off of them (and also help arrange things, manual labor I believe it is called). And what do our wandering eyes behold?

A random large pink bull's penis lying on one of the exam tables. With a matching pair of pink testicles.

Did I say pink? As in MAGENTA? Yes.

Apperantly someone in a previous semester wrapped one of the reproduction speciments with a burgundy towel.

Unwashed burgundy towel + tupperware with formalin = all specimens within dyed MAGENTA.

I would have promptly taken pictures for all of you to enjoy, however I'm pretty sure that would get me kicked out of school, or at the very least slapped on the hand pretty hard. So you'll just have to live with the terrible version I made for you in...yup, you guessed it: Microsoft Paint.

Okay...so this is actually a pic of a fossilized walrus penis that I painted pink. But you get the drift.

This is about as exact I can get you without actually photographing the Real Deal. Mind you, it would have been a whole lot funnier if I had actually been able to get a shot with Cristin holding it...she was quite befuddled by the entire experience.

Good night my friends, I am back to the Land of Dead Carcasses until 8AM tomorrow during which I will hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) be taking my very last anatomy lab exam ever. And after that....blissful naptime. Cannot wait.

Sunrise.

I realize the last few blogs have been.....well.....a bit off.

To make up for it, I thought I would share a little story that made me laugh today.

Pre-Story Build Up: As part of our anatomy course, we have 'Palpation's' out at the barn with the horses (live ones, yay!). There we learn how to palpate the bits and pieces we've been cutting up in the lab. We also get tested on this material, typically by pieces of tape placed on the spot in question. The exam we have tomorrow is covering the thoracic and pelvic limbs, thorax, abdomen, and genitalia. A tall order, I know, but it'll be a breeze as compared to today's lab exam (which I think I may have done better on than I feel, but we'll see).

On to The Point: Anyhow, a group of us met with our tutor today at the barn to review all of the points. We left the repro organs for last, and as our horse Ricky was in full-on Kick Mode (even roundhouse side kicks, he's talented) we chose to just 'discuss' the genitalia instead of trying to poke around. We were curious about what they would ask, saying to our tutor that they really could only tag external parts at best.

Well, kids, seems that's not the case. Apparently, Dr. Berg's favorite part to tag is the Glans Clitoris. Which, for those of you non-equine anatomists, happens to be tucked pretty well in there.

Seriously. Every semester. Poor horse. Or maybe...happy horse?

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Funny Dr. Berg Story #2. A first semester student asked him what nerve innervates the glans clitoris....and he responded with Hypoglossal (look that one up if you don't know it, otherwise the joke is just not as funny). Anatomists are Dirty Dirty Dirty.

Lesson of the Week #3.

I know it's been a while, please forgive me.

Tomorrow we have what I feel is the biggest exam thus far (anatomy). There is both a lecture and lab portion (all of you vets out there can just skip over this part, you've been there/done that):

Lecture
cranial nerves
spinal nerves
male and female reproductive systems (functions, organs, innervations, blood supply, etc)
urinary system (functions, organs, innervations, blood supply, etc)
plus 10 questions reviewing all previous material
Lab
pelvic limb (all muscles, blood supply, nerves, lymphatics, and bones)
spinal cord/nerves/muscles
neck (all muscles, blood supply, nerves, lymphatics, and bones)
face (all muscles, blood supply, nerves, lymphatics, and bones)
skull (all bones, holes, etc.)

Why am I telling you all this during my lesson of the week? Well, because during review last week in lab Dr. Horowitz was going through the muscles along the spine and he told us about a nifty little muscle tucked in there who's job it is to lift the tail. Of course, that muscle won't be on our exam. And inevitably, that was the first muscle I memorized.

Sacrocaudalis dorsalis lateralis.

It just rolls off the tongue so easily. Very fun.

The second muscle I memorized, also NOT on the exam:

Levator labii superioris muscle.

That one is nicknamed "The Elvis Muscle", given that Elvis used it to make his funny face. I think it should be the "F-ing Chow Tried To Bite My Face" muscle.

So that's it folks, enjoy your new-found knowledge of canine anatomy and I'll talk to you later if I haven't drowned myself in formalin first.

Toodles!

It was truly an omen...but of good or bad things to come?

On our way out to the anatomy lab Tuesday night, we were distracted by an amazingly bright orange sliver of light emanating from across the ocean in the direction of Nevis. Initial thoughts were that we were seeing some sort of nuclear explosion or supernatural rift in the time-space continuum. Upon further observance, however, we were totally psyched to watch a gorgeous, large, orange, full moon make it's way out of the clouds and crest over the peninsula between St. Kitts and Nevis!

It was incredibly distracting (anything is, really, when you're only alternative is the smell of formalin). We just stood and watched as the moon slowly rose to spread it's light across the ocean.

A welcomed distraction.

Just to the right are the lights of Nevis.

Brighter and brighter as it rose higher and higher.

Gorgeous!!

You could even see the Man on the Moon!

The lights of Nevis. Looks a lot bigger at night...

A lot of trees died to torture us with notes.

Had a fabulous lecture in animal nutrition today. Not a particularly scintillating topic, however the lecturer is very invigorating - and he has to be at 8 am.
Today was the first day of anatomy. I really cannot take that smell (vicks vapo is in my future). It was so much nauseating as it was brain & eye burning. We were assigned our dogs (mine does not resemble anyone we've owned in the past so I'm good), and a box of bones to study. Yikes. We start cutting tomorrow, should be interesting as the bodies are frozen.
My lab group is comprised of the two (C/K)ristins another girl and two guys. One of the two guys didn't show to class, seems the evening's festivities were too much for him to respect his fellow classmates by showing up. Not a good start.
I can still taste the smell of the formalin. Ick.
So far classes are going pretty well, but I just simply cannot believe how much material we cover each day. It's all interesting, and I know now why I had to take those organic chem and biochem courses, but it's a lot.

This is the stack of notes we were handed on the first day in classes. Yes, it's equal to about a ream and a half of paper in the states.

Since luggage space was at a premium, I decided to leave the binders to buy at the "school" bookstore. After spending a small fortune, my papers are now hole punched, organized, and even divided into sections.

This is what a small fortune looks like. I believe the St. Kitts Mafia runs the store.