First Few Days of School

Wow!  I blinked and it's Wednesday afternoon.

K started his graduate classes yesterday.  He had four chapters of very dense reading to do, summaries and discussions of these readings, and had to watch a few lectures.  He completed it all while watching E.  I asked him about his classes when I got home and got to look at what he put together for the summaries/discussion pieces.  What he wrote was so very academic; my husband is a quick learner with a propensity to excel.  He just blows me away with his abilities!

I am quickly learning what t,he phrase, "drinking from a fire hose" means.  What we would cover in two or three lectures during undergrad is discussed in about 10 minutes in our lectures. For example, yesterday, we covered glycolysis, the link reaction, the Kreb's Cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and the pentose phosphate pathway.  While I am doing well in keeping up with anatomy, cell biology, and clinical medicine, I am struggling in biochemistry.  Luckily, Ross provides tutors free-of-charge, so I've signed up for a tutor.  For me, its much better to get a tutor now, than to suffer and fall further behind.

This afternoon, I also had the privilege of studying anatomy in the anatomy lab with a cadaver.  Ross divides the class into three groups which take turns dissecting then teaching each other.  Group A dissected yesterday and will explain the dissection tomorrow.  Two of my friends happened to be in Group A and they kindly allowed me to tag along and listen to them practice their demonstrations.  After listening to them, I was able to find the following: (its about to get terminology heavy, so if that kind of thing bores you, feel free to skip on ahead for updates with E....) trapezius (and its blood supply, the transverse cervical artery and its innervation [what nerve goes in it], the accessory nerve/cranial nerve 11), the levator scapulae, rhomboid major, rhomboid minor (their blood supply is the dorsal scapular artery and their innervation is the dorsal scapular nerve), the latissimus dorsi (its blood supply is the thoracodorsal artery and its innervation is the thoracodorsal nerve), the serratus posterior superior and the serratus posterior inferior, the thoracolumbar fascia, and the erector spinae.   I enjoy memorizing the anatomy, though the experience is improved when you can actually see it first hand.  (Another post on the gift of our donors is forthcoming.)

E is doing very well.  It seems as though he has adjusted to being in a tropical climate.  He loves his daddy and I enjoy watching them play together.  He is growing so quickly that some things we brought don't fit him anymore, but there are some smaller babies here (my classmates' children) and so we'll see if they would like some clothes.

Please continue to pray for us as we study to show ourselves approved.

We love you!
KCE