The anatomy lab final is over! Huzzah! Now you'd think that after the final, we'd be done with lab. But no, the next two lab periods we're looking at the head and have a test over it on the 28th. Grr... I ended up studying in the lab last Friday and yesterday, and just reading over things on Saturday. I worked with a girl in my biochemistry class on Sunday, looking at her dog, Flappy. It was good to get some more experience looking at other dogs, because up to that point, I'd only really studied with Sparky and Lucky. The lab final itself went pretty well. Only a few questions (out of 68) had me completely stumped. But I honestly have no idea how I did...anything in the A-C range wouldn't totally surprise me. We'll see. Sparky was the demo dog for two of the questions, and his forearm was in the small lab with another. I'll kick myself if I miss a question that was tagged on him. The questions ranged anywhere from "identify this structure" (muscle, artery, nerve, vein, part of an organ, bony prominence, ligament etc) to "what deficits would be shown if this nerve were damaged at this location" to "what is the function of this." It was pretty fair, overall. And I am SO glad to have it done, no matter what grade I end up getting.

Now I only have 5 more tests to get through before finals start (doesn't that sound wrong?). There's my anatomy case study exam due next Monday. Then comes the real fun: anatomy head test and microbiology lab test April 28, genetics test April 29, biochemistry test April 30. Ugh.

I finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the second time on Sunday. After that, I went out at bought The Hobbit (read it once, but didn't own it) and The Silmarillion to add to my collection. I also went ahead and got The Left Hand of Darkness since someone seems to have stolen the library's copy. I'm reading the two LOTR books right now (The Hobbit goes in the backpack to school, The Silmarillion is for nighttime reading). I am also chugging through the LOTR appendices. So it's good times for the happy reader. :)

Okay, now I feel compelled to explain why I think erectile tissue is neat. I didn't really give my reasons before when I stated that it was cool. So here goes. I apologize for making people uncomfortable - I know that my lab partners Kyle and David were very uneasy when we had to cross-section the penis and take the testicle out of the scrotum. But I must say, I've been talking about penises for the last two weeks in anatomy lab, and the compulsion to giggle when I say or type anything male-reproductive-system-related is pretty much gone by now. So, I give you, "Why Penises are Interesting": First, the canine (and lots of other animals) penis has a bone in it, the os penis. That right there is pretty neat. It does, however, make the penis a lot less flexible. Secondly, erectile tissue, specifically corpus cavernosum and corpus spongiosum, is cool-looking [good diagram here]. It is very porous and can fill with lots of blood. When the glans of the penis expands and that combines with the female system also filling with blood, that results in dogs being "tied together" and they can't physically separate themselves no matter whether you spray them with water or how much you want them to get off your lawn so the neighbors won't stare. Finally, dogs (and others, not humans) have a little muscle called the retractor penis muscle to pull the penis back into the prepuce (what you see of the penis normally from the outside, the sheath). It is a neat little muscle branching off the abdominal obliques that keeps the penis from going too far out and helps it come back in. Some drugs you can give livestock can permanently disable this muscle, which is not a good thing at all. Okay, I think that's enough reasons why penises are interesting (female reproductive anatomy is much more bland). Maybe I should take a repro class...(well, I'm sure I'll get lots of it in vet school).

I'm in a good mood. And this weekend is Matt's 22nd birthday! Yay! Well, Trauma: Life in the ER is about to come on TLC...