Day 137 - Almost There

One of my classmates said that whenever I mention anything lately, it's about the time off we have. Yeah, I'm a bit (a lot) excited about it. One more final tomorrow night.
Anyway, about tonight. I have been studying for this pathology quiz we had tonight for the last couple days. I think I did ok. I won't know the results until probably the new year. I may have actually gotten my first "B" out of this class. Wow. I'm just preparing myself for the possibility.
One thing I wish: I wish that when our Pathology "Textbook" talks about an abnormality, it would talk not only about what it is, where it came from, the functional significance, and the stuff it has in it now, but also how the Massage Therapist handles it - do we work on it or not?
After the quiz on the nervous system, we began learning about pathologies of the endocrine system. By the way, our "regular" teacher (still trying to figure out who our regular teacher is) was out sick so we had a TA teaching us the material. Since we aren't being quizzed or tested on this, and I was/am tired as an old coot, I left at the last break.
I'll have to make sure that I study endocrine pathologies before I take the national certification exam.

Day 33 - What a Heart...and other Cardiovascular Parts

Prior to my arrival to day 33 of the program, I was returning from a long weekend in Cape May, NJ with my sisters - a Girls' Weekend, if you will. I had a little bit of time to study when I wasn't sitting on the front porch, sipping cawfie, shopping down at the promenade, or checking out the (yuck) sites in Atlantic City. I thought Atlantic City was a dirty place and I don't really care to go back. I felt like I needed to bathe myself in hand sanitizer after leaving. On my way back today, I had actually taken the Lewes-Cape May Ferry, and definitely enjoyed the ride and the drive back to school. Much better than going up close to Philly and down I-95. Ugh! No way!!!!
Anyway, back to class.
First thing in class...you guessed it - another quiz on anatomy! This time it was the Endocrine System. I aced it, getting 10 points out of 10 points. My sister, Nita, helped me study a little bit by doing flashcards with me. Thanks, Nita!
After the quiz, we began learning about the Cardiovascular System. No, I did not want to go do aerobics after the class. Although it did help me learn why it's good to keep the heart healthy, despite my laziness/inability to do anything about it right now due to my schedule.
We learned all about how blood flows through the left and right atrials, the valves, and the ventricles. We got to color in pictures of the heart to understand all of its parts and how they work.
Interesting, though...the heart isn't really all that heart-shaped.

Day 31 - Thai-ing the Knot

I forgot to add something to last night's entry. One of our TA's for last night's class is currently taking a Continuing Education class in Thai massage. From the little bit I've learned about it, it's like Yoga for lazy people because somebody else is doing the stretching for you, using your body. Our TA was demonstrating a few moves to a few of us using a classmate as the guinea pig. He had her upside down with him on the floor and her glutes on his knees. She was almost in a backbend position with him supporting her. In another move, she was lying on the floor, on her back, and he picked up her legs by the ankles, crossed them around his legs and he did a squat, stretching her quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, and goodness knows what else. It fascinated me, seeing as how she was pretty much a pretzel. I think I'll have to be in better shape to try that. From either end...giving or receiving!
As far as tonight's class goes, we had another quiz on the nervous system. Despite not having the luxury of being able to study like I did over the weekend, between work and school and driving to or from, I managed to earn a 9.5 out of 10.
After the quiz, we learned about the Endocrine System and the basics about all the glands that make up this system. We learned about how the endocrine system uses positive feedback and negative feedback to control its systems and the hormones the glands release. To sum it all up with an example, we went over the system's role in the female menstrual cycle. One of the classmates declared that he was glad he was a guy.
In learning this, I also discovered that I am looking forward to learning pathology in regards to the endocrine system. For those of you like me, who don't (or didn't) know what "pathology" is, it's the study of why certain systems don't work the way they're supposed to. Or at least, that's my understanding of what it is now. Check back with me next week...well, how about tomorrow?