Well friends....sorry it's been so long since the last post.  I am on to second semester and truly the glory goes to God for that.  I am so grateful.  He was there to help when I was exhausted or unfocused.  When I was discouraged there would be a good chat with someone or a verse that was aimed directly at where I was.  

     So now I am one month into 2nd semester.  Wow! is it so much better than first.  The classes are so well  put together and in synch with each other, overlapping and interweaving in many places.  That alone has made learning all of this stuff easier.  

     This semester we have an additional class -Neuroscience- along with Gross Anatomy, Biochem, Physiology, Histology and Doctor, Patient and Society.  Time is in shorter supply as many days we have class from 8am-4pm, and all that before studying time.  It is forcing me to be intentional and strategic in how I utilize my time.  Still need some prayer in that department.

     Neuroscience is a challenge.  Before this semester started I was really dreading it.  I'm not sure why but I decided a long time ago that I didn't like it.  I don't know if it is just the complexity of it or what, but the semester started out with  me in a bad mood about it.  As the semester has gone on and with the help of one teacher in particular (Dr. Welke) who teaches us almost all our neuroscience classes, I have found myself really beginning to enjoy neuro.  It is definitely tough, there's a lot to know and a lot of it is fairly ambiguous at first or counterintuitive, but it is also fascinating and miraculous how the brain and central nervous system work.  

     Here's a picture of one of the slides we're learning.  Imagine that we not only have to identify the different sections and the different gyri, but we also need to know what they do, where they travel and where they cross (because many of the fibers cross in the brain, pons, medulla or spinal cord).  Once you start getting it though, it becomes really fun.  Anyway that's all for now.  I'm about to go take my first neuro practical now.  Thanks for reading!

   John

Here a couple of pictures that illustrate well the extremes of the past couple of weeks.  Thanksgiving was a low point for me; probably the lowest of the semester.  I was feeling discouraged about the amount of material and my lack of understanding in biochem for that week.   A lot of this is due to unrealistic expectations on my own part (expecting myself to know it right off the bat) and also ... it's just med school!  

     I had a dream that I was trying to merge onto the highway and I was waiting for this huge semi to pass.  It took forever before I finally saw the end of it.  Analyze that one all you psych majors.  

    So (as you may well have guessed from the picture) there have been a lot of late nights.  I think I took that photo around 12am.  "Sweatshirt on a tropical island," you ask.  Well let me say that the classrooms are kept at near polar conditions which necessitates the use of a large (preferably hooded) sweatshirt.  Anyways, I digress...

    This semester has been all about learning.  "Duh" you might say, but let me expound upon this idea.  Sure there is a ton, and I do mean a ton of information thrown at you.  Not only are you learning about all things medical, but you are learning to funnel and strain all that information into what is important and what is testable.  That's really only the platform.  This semester has also been about learning how to study, how to manage your time, how to persevere and also figuring out the maximum amount of caffeine your body can take without going into some kind of cardiac arrhythmia.

     There's also the part about having to face your weaknesses and learning how to combat and even change them.  That one has personally been a raging battle.

     Thought I was done....but no:  spiritually it is also a learning process.  Will I really trust in God or abandon Him or accuse Him at the first sign of trouble?  Will I stay in the fight on a daily basis and will I continue to move, especially when I least feel like it?  Will I make time for God or will I attempt all this on my own?  These are daily, even hourly questions for me.  That is the difficulty and also the beauty of going through an experience like this.  

     The last picture is of a hummingbird I rescued.  I believe it was a gift from Jesus.  I rescued him from inside a building.  He was exhausted and he just perched on my thumb like that for about 3 or 4 minutes before buzzing off like a miniature fighter plane.  Amazing experience. Beyond words really.  

     I would ask you to really be praying for me in these last couple of weeks.  Our 3rd mini is on the 11th and the final (yes it's cumulative) is on the 16th.  Pray for my preperation time beforehand, and for the tests themselves.  Thanks for reading.

     John 

Picture yourself in a long, rectangular room; windows on the long sides; the smell of formaldehyde in the air and what sounds like a large social gathering in full swing.  Now picture 14 cadavers scattering around the room on tables and yourself standing over one of these cadavers.  In your right hand you hold a scalpel and in your left...a human heart.  If you can picture this you will have some idea of how my 1pm anatomy dissection went today.

     Some might feel weak in the knees at the thought of this.  Some might be less than impressed, and some (like myself) were in awe.  Visualizing the human heart out of the chest, and also holding it in your hand is a thing of beauty.  Strange to say so?  Maybe, but when you begin to think about how the heart works and  how it is a an exquisitely designed piece of machinery that beats for 70-80-90..yes even 100 years in some people, you begin to see and appreciate the miracle that it is.  

     I have been interested in the heart for some time.  I developed a passion for EKGs while working in the E.D.  I've done chest compressions on people and literally watched a man's vessel close off (on an EKG) just minutes before he was whisked off to the cath lab.  

     This past week we have learned about the physiology behind circulation and heart pumping and today we began again with something called "baroreceptors."  Baroreceptors are what help your heart adjust to changes in blood pressure.  They are what keep our hearts in homeostasis and with every beat they are tweaking blood pressure up or down, depending on what the body needs.  

     We split up the dissection and my turn was in opening the left atrium.  After making a small hook-like incision, I reflected back the sides of the atrium and put my finger into the chamber,  through the mitral valve and into the left ventricle.  Incredible!!!!  The man to whom this heart belonged to died at a fairly young age and he had something called Left Ventricular Hypertrophy ( a thickening of the muscular wall of the left ventricle.  I also reached in to the aorta down to the aortic valve.  Now, the mitral valve opened without a whole lot of resistance.  The aortic valve, however, was almost like cartilage from the knee or shoulder - hard and resistant to my finger going through.  "Aortic stenosis!" I announced to my group, and then one by one they each felt the valve.  We had figured out the pathology (at least at our present knowledge) of this man's LVH.  

     My time in 1st semester is drawing to a close.  There are little more than 3 weeks of class left, followed by Mini 3 and the final.  Please be praying for focus, stamina and drive for me in the coming weeks.  Thanks for reading.  

     John