Science, You're destroying my childhood!

First it was the caviler dismissal of our dear beloved ninth planet, Pluto.

Then it was the horrifyingly shocking deletion of the triceratops from the dinosaur handbook.

Now, you're messing with the five senses?!?

When will the madness end!

According to Saladin's Anatomy & Physiology The UNITY of FORM and FUNCTION touch is no longer one of the five senses. It's position of power has been usurped by a pretender to the throne! Equilibrium, newest of the special senses.

My dear, dear friends, it seems as if fourth grade was a complete and total waste of time!

Have you lost your mind?

The push to the end of the semester has begun, finals are next week, and I still have a 95 average in A&P. Hopefully with enough studying this weekend, I can manage to pull off straight A's this semester.

Anecdote:

While sitting at the dinner table eating breakfast with the family, my wife notices older son putting biscuit crumbs into the straw of his orange juice, and tells him to stop. I say "Stop that, have you lost your mind?"

He stops and goes about breakfast, and several minutes later he looks up and says, "Sorry, my mind is back now." Oy, comedy from a three year old.

A&P Books

In my A&P Class we currently use the two semester Holes Anatomy and Physiology textbook. I personally dislike the book, the graphics do not give very good detail and the information is presented in the most boring and dry fashion.

Fortunately my teacher agrees with me and sources all of her graphics from the Saladin Anatomy & Physiology book.

I have heard about this text book dozens of times from my teacher over the course of this semester, how much better it is, how much more comprehendible it is etc. So... I purchased the 6th edition last week and got it in the mail yesterday.

I figure since I have another semester of anatomy it wasn't too much of a waste of money.

After looking over the book and comparing it with my Holes book, I have to agree that the information seems to be presented in a more conversational manner instead of fact after fact ad nauseum.

Test updates

Several tests have taken place since I last updated. Bones lecture, practical, and muscles lab. Bones lecture and lab test took place shortly after the baby was born so I did not really study for them that well. Compared to the class I still did well, but when compared to my other grades I tanked the tests. I had a 70 on the lecture test and an 80 on the lab.

I had intended to use my one drop that we get in the class on the 70 and then pray I got really good grades on the Nerve tests we have coming up. But then, the amazing happened, all of my classmates checked out and gave me a nice fat curve on the muscle lab, taking my grade all the way to a 123. (Which btw, was the highest score of any student taking A&P I this semester!) Current average in A&P is now a 95.5. With only three tests (plus a cumulative final) I hope that I can maintain the A.

The level of work required to memorize all the muscle locations required was more than I

anticipated. If it wasn't for my wonderful wife being willing to drill me on the 30+ muscle

plates I had created I don't think I would have gotten it done.

I wish I could put my finger on my style of learning. With muscles for instance, I could stare at the muscle plate with all the labels trying to learn each muscle for an hour, and not learn it. But give the labeled plate to my wife, and give me a blank one, and have her tell me which was which two, maybe three times and I have the entire plate memorized. That entire process might take twenty minutes. Which is sorta frustrating when I want to be able to do it myself, and not bother the woman who has VERY little time to her self right now with the newborn.

I've been super busy and have not posted in a few weeks, so I'm way past time for an update. On March 12th around 22:00 my wife was in bed reading and felt a slight pop, she described it as a rubber band popping. She jumped out of bed thinking her water had broken, but no fluid came gushing out. Shortly after that she started having pretty bad cramps, and what she felt like were two intense contractions appx 5-6 min apart.

After those two contractions however she didn't have any more, her pain was constant across her lower abdomen. We decided to head on in to the hospital and not take any chances since we live 30 min away. My mother arrived at our house at approximately 23:00 to take our three year old back to her house so we didn't have to deal with him if she was indeed in labor. By the time she got there my wife was in nearly unbearable pain, and could not sit down when it came time to get into the van.

Into the back of the van she went, sort of half laying on, and kneeling infront of the back seat. We arrived at the hospital at 23:25, without her shoes I might add, because I had forgotten them in the dash to get everything into the van. So here I am standing in the parking lot berating myself for forgetting her shoes, and I turn to my wife to apologize again, and see her walking across the parking lot barefoot pointing at the ER entrance saying "Epidural".

I wheel her up to the L&D floor and tell one of the nurses she is in labor and they get her setup in a room. The time is now 23:35 and my wife is in so much pain, I'm worried for her and frustrated people seem to be moving at a snails pace. 23:40, The midwife finally shows up, says they're going to start her antibiotics (she was group b strep positive), then does an internal check and says "Oh... you're 10 cm dilated. But don't push yet."

23:45, I'm watching the midwife attempt to do another internal check and she pulls back and says, "I can see the head, if you feel a desire to push, you can."

00:16, My wife gives birth to a 9lb 8oz 21 inch baby boy.

Time elapsed from entering the ER, to cutting the cord was 46 minutes.

I am still horrified at how close we came to having this baby in the car, or at home. Everything is all good though, baby is half a pound over his birth weight, and has already gained half an inch!