Zach's Blog

We just finished another set of exams focusing on the cardiovascular system. There was some respiratory and neck anatomy pushed in there too but it looks like that will be the focus of the next three weeks. I don't think I've really explained the format for these exams yet so prepared to be wowed. Every three weeks we have four hours of exams. The class is split into two halves. One half does two hours of a physiology exam while the other half is further split into a histology and anatomy sections. Histology is basically an hour of identifying tissue samples on a computer and answering questions about them. Anatomy is held in the cadaver lab with anatomical structures pinned and questions about their clinical significance. These two groups rotate and then trade off with the physiology group. Physiology is just under two hours covering the last three weeks of material. If you thought it was fun reading about it, just imagine how fun it is to do it. Everyone develops their ow...

She loves the swing. I've realized that medical school isn't just about cramming a semester's worth of information in your head over the course of three weeks. It's also about cramming a semester's worth of information in your head over the course of three weeks and still living a balanced life. I'm pretty sure "balanced" isn't the right word though, because it seems somewhat unattainable given the requirements put upon medical students. I've found that having a family makes this all the more noticeable. Everyone love's sleeping on top of mom Over the last three weeks everyone in my family has taken turns being sick. Addie got hand, foot, and mouth disease which completely messed up her already fragile sleeping habits. Poor little Zoey was also sick and may have caught it but was still pretty adorable. Lexi had a sore throat for several days and one day of a really bad fever. She handles it really well but I came home early anyway...

This was originally going to be an anatomical picture of the hand focusing on tendons and palmar muscles, but I ran out of time before we moved on to the dorsal aspect of the hand. I probably won't ever finish it, so I decided to just share it as a very amateurish artistic contribution.

Recently we moved to Rochester New York and brought an entire tribe with us to help us move in (AKA my family and Lexi's family). We went to Niagara falls where Addie was scared of the water and Zoey tried to lick the water. We went to the beach where I fell asleep in the sand and my mom got algae stuck in her swimsuit. We picked fresh berries at a local farm where my brother in law Aaron and I ate a month's worth of blueberries. We went to the Sacred Grove and gave the where my dad and I suggested to the sister missionaries some improved names for their stories ("The Subterfuge"). We visited the Erie Canal where my mother in law serenaded us with her beautiful old-timey song. It was a truly magical time filled with visits to Boston Market and Dunkin' Donuts (did you know America runs on Dunkin'?!). But now we're back to reality and trying to get use to our new life here. Here are some things since that have happened since the tribe left: I laughed ...

     When I was in middle school I shadowed my dad while he went to work one day. He introduced me to his boss who knew how to play clarinet. I met some of the really nice people that worked on the ground floor that put together medical devices. I saw the floor he worked on that was littered with cubicles so tall that no one could see each other. I even went to a meeting where people laughed at a really dumb joke I made (Apparently the smallest taste of humor is hilarious when working in an office). I got to spend a day finding out what it's like to be an engineer manager. You may wonder what kind of engineer he was and what kind of engineers he managed, but I haven't the faintest idea because ever since that day I vowed that I would never end up working in a cubicle.      My vow of "cubicle -lessness" led me to think deeply about who I was and how I could make it in the real world. Even though I was barely twelve years of age, I was no dummy. I realized ...