So we learned how to flip each other's eyelids inside out...

Another week come and gone. And just another week until we get our second Christmas break. I'm already ready for it, haha.

My exam on Tuesday for basic sciences went fairly well, especially considering how hard it was. We had to know all of the muscles of the hand, the forearm, the upper arm, and the back including 4 different things about each muscle: the origin, the insertion, what nerve it is innervated by, and its action. So for example:

The Deltoid Muscle
It originates (where it starts) on the spine of the scapula (shoulder blade), the acromion (a part of the shoulder blade), and the lateral third of the clavicle (collar bone). It inserts into the deltoid tuberosity of the humerus. It is innervated by the axillary nerve. And it's action is to extend, flex, or abduct (move outward) the arm.

That's for one of the muscles. Did I mention there was a total of 47 of them we had to know for this test? Oh, and that only accounted for a little over 1/3 of our test. We were lectured on other material besides this that we were also accountable for. I think it's safe to say the majority of us would have rather been shot in the foot than study and take and pass this exam. It was rough. But hey! I passed and did okay, so I'm not complaining. We just have to retain that material for the next exam as well...Ugh

And I know, I'm in optometry school, right? So why do have to learn so much extraneous information that has nothing to do with the eye? We've all been asking ourselves the same thing. While one part of our boards are based on basic sciences, they will not be testing us to this detail. So...right now we're all kind of having to endure it and stick it out. If anything, we stay sane by venting to each other about it :)

On a more optometry related portion of optometry school...

Our optics class is really starting to pick up. Because we only have 3 hours of lecture a week, we are kind of forced to move really fast through the material to ensure we cover it all. Unfortunately, this means going over concepts I'm not quite able to grasp in class because of how fast we're going. I find myself having to figure stuff out later at home, when I'm going at my own pace. We already have our first midterm on Thursday morning at 7 AM for that class. So lots of studying for me in the next week between our two exams.

Methods was slightly terrifying today (see: title of this post), but still somewhat fun. We were still working on the slit lamp, but learning how to examine all the parts of the eyes including the eyelids, eyelashes, sclera (white part of the eye), and the conjunctiva (stuff that lines the inside of the lids and part of the sclera). But in order to examine all, we have to look underneath the eyelids as well. Not such a big deal for the bottom lid...you just kind of pull it down and push up. But for the upper eyelid...it requires you to flip the lids inside out to really be able to see that part of the conjunctiva. Here - have a picture.

Sorry to those of you that are squeamish about eye stuff. It honestly doesn't hurt...it just feels really strange. I think I was more scared to do it on someone though. I did manage to do it on 2 different people. It involves pulling their eyelashes out and using a cotton swab to kind of push the lid down to flip back up and over.

Apparently my eyes are extremely easy to do this on because of 2 reasons: 1) I have really big eyes and 2) I have really long eyelashes (good for grasping). So hey, whatever works.

We also learned how to measure the palpebral aperture of the eye, which is just the widest portion of the eye going up and down. Apparently I got pretty big readings (surprise, surprise). Because we're so used to classifying tests being normal or abnormal, one of my partners asked "...so are your eyes not normal if they're way bigger than what they're supposed to be?" I laughed.

Anyways, that was about it for school stuff. The dean of the optometry college had a big Christmas party over at his house last Saturday, which was super fun. Every inch of their huge house was decorated in Christmas decorations and they had tons of good food (and deserts). Here's some pictures from that.

Our Dean dressed as Santa :)

This ferris wheel was moving on their coffee table. Their house was beautiful.

And we took a class picture this morning while we were all in our scrubs. I liked it so much, I set it as our cover photo on facebook, but here's the full thing :)

And that's about it. Until next week! I'm excited for our break...

Back in the saddle and Busier than EVER! :)

Hello all! So, as you probably noticed, I took a break from blogging while we were on Thanksgiving break, (which was since November 6th). We were out a whole 3 and a half weeks and we just started back this Monday. It's a new quarter, new schedule, and just new everything pretty much. Lots going on and I'll be plenty busy this quarter until mid February or so.

So here we go! Here's a brief idea of what my schedule is like this quarter.

So...it's a little intense. We're taking about 25 credits this quarter and our BASI classes (all the blue ones) account for 15 of those alone. On top of that, I'm taking Ocular anatomy (lots of memorization), Geometric and Physical Optics (lots of math/physics), and our continued Clinical Service class and lab that I took last quarter. We also have more exams in these other classes and more practicals. The two weeks after we come back from Christmas break in a few weeks has four exams and two practicals alone. Which brings me to my next point.

We just started back, but we only have 2 more weeks until they let us off for Christmas and New Years, which is slightly exciting. We get the 21st of December off through the 2nd of January and then we have one day of class that Friday the 3rd before the weekend again. So if we can make it through these next few weeks, we get a short break again here soon. I'm more than okay with it.

This week definitely felt a little long (we have longer days now) and busy. We've already had an entire week of our BASI (basic science) lectures and have an exam this upcoming Tuesday again, as usual. We're starting to get into the anatomy systems more and more and actually Tuesday after our exam we have a 3 hour lab where we will be working on actual cadavers. This will be a first for me (I've only ever dissected a rabbit/frogs/etc. in college biology). I think I'll be okay, but it's more the smell of formaldehyde that bothers me and tends to give me a bad headache. So 3 hours of that should be great fun. 

This week we ended in our clinical services class and lab getting into the basics of the slit lamp (above). It's basically a glorified microscope that we can move around and see pretty minute details of the eye/lids/retina with a few different colored lights. My partner for lab today snapped this picture of my eye while she was practicing on me.

My iris up and close! 

We will be spending the next few weeks getting more familiar with this instrument since its a huge part of what we will be doing in the future, so for now we just barely got our feet wet today and learned what the different knobs and levers did and proper technique. The rest of the time today we spent doing full exams on our partners with the skills that we learned last quarter, so we can keep it fresh and because our instructor told us to. :)

And that was about it for this week. I rewarded myself with burger king chicken strips and a milkshake on my way home tonight after a long day/week at school (I know, healthy, right?) Which reminds me. Back a while ago I said I was going to be getting myself back into shape and working on losing some weight simultaneously (somewhere around mid September). Thus far I have lost a little over 12 pounds total, which I am pretty happy with considering I haven't done a whole lot different. That was just from running a few times a week and eating smaller portions of food. I stopped buying "junk" from the grocery store and stopped my soda drinking (almost entirely) and that's what's done it. I do occasionally allow myself a soda if I go out to eat with friends or family though, but that's about it. Before, I was drinking at least a couple every day.

So I'm happy with my progress AND I managed not to gain back anything while I was home over break and over Thanksgiving (which is an accomplishment...having all those good homemade meals that my Mom made :) ) And I'm still going at it, slowly but surely. Once I get into the swing of this quarter, I will probably work out a better exercise routine for myself so that I don't plateau at this weight  :P .

Until next week, that's about it! This weekend will be filled with studying and homework, and a little bit of extra sleep of course. I've slept probably around 12 hours total over the last 3 nights. Good times.

Hope you all have a wonderful next week!

P.S. Oh, and how could I forget? Here's my wonderful Christmas tree that is in my living room. :)

Decorating

Eyes a little crazy, but the tree is pretty at least! :)