A day in the life- Pa Student

So today I wiped a strangers ass from the inside... Well correction it wasn't a stranger it was my cadaver's... but still. Good thing for gloves. 

Also, I almost lost faith in God yesterday. I was looking at some pictures from a lecture on fetal neurodevelopment and *all melodramatics aside* I saw the horrific things that can happen when neural tubes don't close or the skull and telecaphalon don't develop. It is sad. sad sad. Y are there things like that in the universe. I was thinking about that on the way to work this morning and it hit me. The frequency of these are like .5-1/1000 births. But it could be much higher... maybe that is God's grace. There have been alot of things about human anatomy and physiology to make me believe we are fearfully and wonderfully made but yesterday was one of those days where the belief was that the universe was just a random collision of shit. (no pun intended!)

Pa School

I was talking with my sig. other last night about Pa school and he said very wisely that he thought the most important thing to learn from it was how to look things up and know where to go for things because no Dr (or PA) could be expected to know everything. He is so wise and very encouraging, however something about this struck me as disharmonious. That is not really what PA school is about. PA school is about orienting to the Medical culture its ethics, rules (which I think we will get more in the fall with our clinical experiences and classes) but also and moreso this summer about learning the basics-- the alphabet or vocab of medicine. If you don't know what the Ventral Medial Thalamic Nucleus is you could go to wiki and look it up in but that would be like a writer looking up the meaning of the word "the" or not understanding basic grammar rules. You have to know the schemas of anatomy and physiology that things fit into so you have a body (metaphorically and actually speaking) to put all your questions on.  

I think that is what PA school is. Learning the big picture of the human body and its inner workings. Yes the little things like the orientation of muscles in the hand and what innervates them can be looked up, but everything must be at least learned and forgotten at one point so that there is an appreciation for material. 

I think my man is sweet, sweet and so wise but I think he got this one a little wrong. 

TOday

Today is my birthday. 23 years ago today I was born. What am I doing? I am sitting in a private study room in a library. I was here about 7 this morning too. I am so tired I want to go to sleep but I am scared if I do I'll miss the test I have been literally cramming for. This is my life now. it is miserable. But why? haha because I spent the whole weekend in Florida while my good, scholarly classmates (who are going to make A's on this test) studied. Here is a picture to cheer myself up. Life isn't about making A's. I just have to keep telling myself that.