bony thorax

Manubrium. Xiphisternal joint. Auricle. Rami communicantes.

I’m slowly going through my deck of anatomy flashcards in an attempt to get a jump of the immense amount of memorization I’m going to have to do this coming year. And really, with each passing card, I become more and more… content. A strange kind of peace fills me as I’m looking at these beautiful, familiar-yet-foreign words, words that bring a lovely order to the swooping lines and compartments and, well, parts of the human body. Some of them sound like spells - levator costarum. Some of them suggest music – clavicle. Others describe structures that I didn’t even know were structures, a line here, a ridge there – points of connection like the serratus anterior tubercule, or homages to evolution like the lingula. As I read them in my head and taste them in my mouth, my fingers try to find the pieces on my own body, touching the tip of my scapula, tracing my sides as if I could feel the intercostal muscles through layers and skin and fat and fascia. It’s calming and meditative and right.

As I become more and more accustomed to the idea of moving to Dallas in the fall, I’m also becoming more and more excited for medical school.

europe

Edit: I FINALLY uploaded pictures to my Flickr account. A lot of pictures. Some dating back almost a year ago. With those online now, I went back and updated a couple of entries, including this one, with some graphics.

Back from Europe! Well, actually Sqm and I got back Sunday evening. Our  flight from Munich was supposed to arrive at O’Hare at 3 in the afternoon, but there was a five and a half hour delay due to a missing airplane part (we got in around 9:30 PM). Did I mention I really don’t like United Airlines?

In any event, Europe itself was lovely! Expensive, but lovely and a lot of fun. I met (slash nearly missed) Sqm in Munich at the central subway station (Hauptbahnhof), we found a place to live, and then he proceeded to give me a three hour walking tour of old town, which is gorgeous and filled with grand old churches and plenty of tasty looking/smelling food. We had Munich’s famous white sausage, made from veal, and pretty much chilled out for a day and a half before hopping over to Paris.

good luck topping this next year

Perhaps you have already heard the news (especially if you keep up with the much-more-oft-updated Coster3 blog) – the Boy is back! I can’t even tell you how ecstatic that makes me. Part of me scarcely believes he’s actually Stateside again; it’s all very surreal – kind of like when he left for Uganda in the first place.

The reasons for his leaving the Peace Corps are many and varied and have to do with administration and some personal angst, but you can read about it here (at least the first part so far). It’s probably better to get his perspective instead of hearing my extremely biased speculation. All that really matters to me is that he got himself out of a mentally-damaging situation that would have made him miserable for two years. I’m disappointed that the Peace Corps didn’t turn out to be what he thought it would be, but I can’t really articulate how amazingly happy it makes me that he’s close by now.

down on the farm

This past weekend LotR and I took the train over to IA to visit the Boy’s fam. Well, that was my primary motivation for making the trip. LotR, who wants to be a large-animal vet in the future, wanted to spend some time following Tom around to various farms during calving season. We were both introduced to Tom back in February (during my long IA stint) by the Boy’s G’pa, Howard, who owns and runs, in my opinion, quite a large operation himself, with plenty of cows and pigs and all sorts of other things to see. In any event, Tom primarily (only?) practices large-animal medicine and, as an added bonus, already loves LotR (he has a couple pretty hilarious pictures of her from the last visit – one with her arm inside a cow’s butt and one with the classic double-thumbs-up-silly-enthusiastic-smile pose).

somewhat update

Figured it was about time for a life update, since it’s been a month or so…

First and foremost, I’m back in Chicago! I’m extremely happy about this state-of-being, because the south just doesn’t seem that natural and homey anymore. I mean, why on earth is it eighty-something degrees in March? That just doesn’t make any sense. Give me the good ol’ changing seasons (even the bitterly cold winters about which I will lovingly gripe) anyday. I prefer it to the absurd three month “winter” followed by nine months of ridiculously hot summer. I’ve basically come to the mental conclusion that I’ll ultimately end up settling somewhere in the north.

Thus far Chicago has been fun and welcoming. We had a few slushy/snowy days, but all of the slush/snow melted before it could really annoy anyone. My place is as I remembered it, although it is a bit strange living here by myself now. Stranger still since some of the Boy’s stuff was still here when I got back.

I’m trying to make it so that I don’t have too much time to dwell on that though. I’m TAing four classes this quarter to that end – I’ll be busy, but not crazy busy like I was when I was actually going to school. My schedule is pretty consistent and leaves plenty of time for hanging out with LotR and anyone else who might be around. I imagine there will be a lot of “team building” with MJ and AH too. LotR and Em and I are also making crazy ambitious weekly dinner plans. So we’ll see about all that…

In addition to a roaring social life (haha), I have pretty high aspirations this quarter. I want to try to brush up on my Russian and Spanish, as well as pick up some French. And practice piano. And probably a whole host of other things. We’ll see how many things actually get done, but I certainly can’t complain of boredom or not having enough to do since I’m giving myself so many options. Theoretically, at least.

No word yet from the med schools. I have no idea what’s going on there, but it reassures me a lot to have so many wonderful people on my side providing plenty of emotional and professional support. It also helps that I have a pretty solid back-up plan in place – I don’t necessarily want it to come to that, but it’s always nice to know it’s there.

And finally, to round out this huge and rambling update, I wish I could say it was getting easier. But it’s not.

I’ll try to make an honest effort to update a little more regularly. My previous efforts, while not mendacious in nature, were pretty half-assed. So this time, it’ll be honest and full moon (snrk). Or something like that.

kit kat, redux

Today, I finally got my boot off! I was prescribed this (much smaller and more manageable) ankle brace, but also told that I probably didn’t really need to use it unless I was doing something that required my ankle to have some extra support. My x-ray films are clean – no more apparent fracture on the film, although you can see some scar tissue. The doctor said that was expected. He also said that it actually takes 4-6 months from the time of injury for the area to fully heal up i.e. full on collagen cross-linking and scar adhesion dissolution. But even before then, with regular exercise, I should see vast improvements in mobility and flexibility. Right now, my biggest issue is really that my ankle is stiff. Now that I have the go ahead though, I’ll have to start working out so my right leg can stop being so absurdly puny. I can also start wearing right-footed shoes again.

Not much else is going on here. I was mostly awaiting this day and killing some time until it came. I’ve been talking to the Boy regularly, which is really such a nice luxury. Training is going rather too slowly for his liking. There seems to be a lot of frustration and inefficiency with how the training system is set up. But knowing the Boy, I’m sure that he’ll revolutionize it or something equally as dramatic before he leaves. He’s gotten to teach a bit already, to test the waters while supervised, and it sounds like he’s had very rewarding experiences. I still find it amazing that so many other countries (I would venture to say most), including Uganda, still teach by rote instead of by critical thinking. So the cultural barrier is the hardest one to overcome, since we expect our students in the states to participate and speak up in class. This kind of behavior isn’t usually encouraged in many other countries, so some of the children the Boy was working with were intimidated by the idea of having to respond in class. Sounds like he’s enthusiastic about tackling this challenge though.