puppy love.

cute, cute, cute;
love, love, LOVE.

'coz we just can't resist them..<3

my favorite anatomy lecturer (and some personal thoughts on the subject).^.^

          1. Though I'm a psychology graduate, I didn't have any idea about Anatomy upon  entering med school 'cause we didn't have it in our B.S. curriculum. 

          2. I am not really a Science person, like what other people think I am (hahaha..I'm more on the artsy type, actually) and

          3. taking medicine is not much of a personal choice. 

       I believe that these three are the main reasons why digging into the world of Human Anatomy for me, takes gruesome effort. Four long hours of lecture regarding medical jargon, clinical correlations, etcetera a day (and worst, eight) make me feel lost at times. It's like being a pure Ilocano having a Wernicke's aphasia sitting on a hard-core mandarin class--It's pathetic. I admit that for most of the time, sitting inside an Anatomy class makes me feel really confused/bored..and with instances like that, I can't help but to do either of these two:

1. Just read the topic on my own while completely ignoring the lecturer (for I understand it more that way) or if I haven't get enough sleep the other day, 

2. fall asleep. haha.  

     Learning something is hard when you don't have the intrinsic motivation to learn it (we did a research on this for our Experimental Psychology class but that's another story, hehe). That principle is so true between me and Ana. Boldly and directly speaking, though it's important and I'm curious, I'm just not interested enough.

     However, I said at times, most of the time and in general. This is because there are actually times that I find Ana intriguing..depending primarily on the delivery of the lecture. Not all teaching doctors are meant to be professors, unfortunately. Considering that, I thank God for a few who were efficient enough to rouse my latent interest for the subject..and one of those is Dr. Ramon Ramos III.

     Being the head of Internal Medicine in our school hospital, he said he is more of a clinician and not academician...but on my opinion, he did a greater job than the other lecturers we had who are supposed to be specializing in academics. Whenever he is our lecturer,

I listen intently,

I take notes and

most of all,

I don't sleep (even though I feel sleepy).

    We had our last lecture with him for this school year last week. I admire him so much, that after the session, I connived with my friends so that I can have a picture with him. hahaha. Ridiculous, eh? I consider myself as his stalker, in-the-making.

 

 

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can't take the brain out of my brain.

We are now in our neuroanatomy module and honestly, I’m anxious with our present and upcoming topics because apparently, the entire brain thing is not easy. Even Dr. Julius Caesar (the best dissector of his batch, an anatomist, and one of our highly-esteemed instructors) said that it’s the most difficult topic for him when he was in his first year. Huhu. Having taken the initial topics meninges, venous sinuses, CSF pathway, cerebrum, midbrain and diencephalon make me quite confident that I have fair chance of surviving neuro but when Dr. Ramos started with the complex, cranial hemorrhaging ascending and descending motor and sensory pathways (these explains how the messages from our receptors reaches the corresponding corteses in the brain and how it induce the appropriate reflexes/movements) hours ago, I realized that I was wrong to conclude early. Hehe. Pathways can be really quite confusing and demanding  especially that there is no other option but to memorize (and memorize by heart) loads of ganglia, neurons, etc. because in the brain, all is connected, all has function and all is complementary to each other and essential even the smallest fiber of a neuron!

Anyway, it was on the afternoon session, during our gross lab that I was suddenly shaken by the beauty of the man’s brain. Though it’s not my first time to see and touch one, it’s the first time that I appreciate it and pore over without pressure of an oral exam. Getting a grip of a real brain for hours is really captivating and to realize that it’s that mass of matter and vasculatures that controls and makes us humans is even more enthralling. That moment, all confusion and complications were changed into fascination. I’m just so mesmerized, that after getting familiarized with its sulci, gyri and other structures, I couldn't help but to keep on poking it while saying to myself “God, ang galing mo talaga!” I just can't imagine how He constituted all of those; component and functions in that mass of fibers, white and gray matter in such a way that it works in complete harmony so that we can feel, perceive, realize and act. He is definitely omnipotent and omniscient.

I would like to keep the brains beside me during the rest of the session but the stimuli from the formalin elicited synapses and sent messages to my olfactory center, so I stopped poking it after almost three hours. Haha. Even though studying it triggers migraine, I wouldn't stop admiring one of God’s unparalleled masterpieces—the human brain. It’s a pity we weren't allowed to take one home.             

the price i need to pay.

i do not know whether i'll be morose or if i'll just laugh at my foolishness. i can't negotiate with my emotions..but i decided to settle on remorse.

it's the second time that i missed an anatomy quiz. yes, ANA. the subject that has the majority of our grade's weight---39%. fail this and one is surely 99.9% close to repeating first year. the nastiest thing is, if one will not be able to reconcile another subject aside from it (as in any, though it has only 1% bearing) he/she should be ready to bid De La Salle-HSI goodbye.

the reason why i failed to take the quizzes: tardiness. yes. the most gibberish reason a student can put forward (especially if you are already in graduate school).

reason of negligence: i gave in to my morning weakness. again. i didn't wake up on time..hence, late attendance. since i entered med school, i don't usually go to school behind schedule since (unlike college, hehe) and for incidences i cannot fathom, i happened to be late on the two days where the doctors delegated a "surprise quiz". a dire twist of fate. grim.

the consequences of my ill-fate: for the first missed quiz, reporting on CNS embryology [clinical correlations on spinal cord] which is due three days ahead with no assurance if it will be credited as 75% quiz grade. for the second one, 0% quiz grade with no expressed intentions from the professors whatsoever for a chance of compensation. helpless misery.

what i even don't want to think of but must accept and expect: a great downward pull on my grades..and on the given 5% attitude. ouch.

a pledge i have to keep from now on: wake up early and be on time. by all means, i should be in the room at least 10 minutes before class time. that's the goal.

help me God. please do.   

verse of the day: Sleep a little. Doze a little. Fold your hands and twiddle your thumbs. Suddenly poverty hits you and everything is gone! -Proverbs 24:33-34

pre-christmas sadness.

two days before christmas, and i'm .

..i lost my phone, for the third time. wah.

i'm so careless, i want to blame myself but i know it wouldn't do any good.

it would still be lost.  

i didn't cry (i didn't also when i lost the previous two. i'm just a lil bit shocked.) 

..and like my past cel misfortunes, i do not know how and where i lost it. (this makes the loss tormenting, actually.)

we tried to contact it several times, but alas, it just kept on ringing..

we searched the probable places where i might have dropped it, (according to my poor memory, i put it on my jeans' back pocket) but there was no trace.

it could have been easier to accept that i wouldn't retrieve it anymore, if i didn't lost it at church..but i did.

hay. it would be a not so merry christmas indeed...

chair twist.

hours ago, i was so excited for our cadaver session to end...because of yoga! haha.

it's been a long time after our last session..and even though traeni and i made a vow to make it a routine every after evals, we realized that it's not that convenient for us. anyway, whenever we had a chance, we grab it, like kanina! (though we still have a long biochem quiz tomorrow and another long anatomy quiz on friday) hehehe..

it's a little bit lonely, there were only three of us...(plus our instructor, doc simbulan). nevertheless, it's a pro...personally, i can relax better and be more comfortable if we are just few. it's been a tough week for us due to the major exams and it's really a great opportunity to loosen up all the tightness that we have, physically and mentally.  

we expected the usual viñasas (yoga routine) like what we did in our past two sessions but to our surprise, tonight's session was chair yoga! it was my first time to observe how it is done...and i find it incredibly simple (kids can do it, i promise).  dr. taught us a lot of easy and practical asanas (postures) that we can do even if we are inside the classroom (there are several that is just fitting to be done at home, of course). some of my muscles including my hamstrings, biceps brachii and trapezius ached since some moves are extremely twisty and i'm not used to stretching..maybe my muscle fibers atrophied already coz i'm too lethargic to exercise. haha.   

my favorites for this night's session are chest, heart-knot asanas and neck rotation. paramaiana (relaxed breathing) while sitting in gissuts (not sure if i remembered it right) position is notably calming.

after the two-hour recreation, we bid each other namaste! (may the best in me, be the best in you).

2012 or new moon?

no. this is not a film review and i do not consider myself as a film critic (though i do make a lot of oral disapprovals on some movies specifically those of happy madison's production). 

i was so glad that last weekend, at last, i had the chance to go malling again. finding an opportunity to spend and enjoy life 'in the outside world' is hard since i entered med school...even the weekends are loaded with school works. i'm just so happy that though seldom, precious breaks happen on weekdays (thank you manong bonifacio for making, or for being a reason rather, of a holiday. )

and so i spent sunday with my favorite person in the world..Ian David. since we already had our weekly church ritual on saturday night, we had the whole day spent at moa..and its surprisingly, unusually overcrowded that day (maybe a significant event was scheduled there perhaps?) when it was time to decide what to watch, we were torn between 2012 and new moon. Ian and i watched twilight together and though i'm not so gaga about it, i find it good and interesting..but, i'm a fan of "end of the world" movies because it's breath-holding and scary. haha. the tickets were running out and i was still indecisive. Ian suggested to watch  both, 2012 first then new moon. i agreed. 

though we barely had good seats inside the cinema for it is jam-packed already (both premiere and de luxe) ten minutes before the showing time, we enjoyed 2012 a lot. it even made me cry! (iyakin talaga. haha) like i am legend and titanic, it's cruelly melancholic..but like armageddon, hope spring at the end. i was excited for new moon but unfortunately, i remembered that i have a looooong transcription to do which is due the next day. boo. and so the sensational new moon was postponed until next weekend (which i doubt, there's biochem evals).  even though that happened, i didn't regret watching 2012 first. well, new moon can wait naman..i just hope there would be another favorable break before new moon signs off the cinemas.