test days

We took a really horrible neuro exam the other day that left most of us in depression.

I had dinner with Monika at When Pigs Fly (probably one of my favorite restaurants here :D ). We quizzed each other in neuro and managed to learn everything we needed to about the basal ganglia, dyskinesias and ataxias.

Here are a couple notes, in case you ever want to know a tiny bit more about any of that goodness:

Deep Cerebellar Nuclei (“Don’t Eat Greasy Food”)

• Dentate
  • Largest + receives projections from lateral cerebellar hemispheres

• Emboliform + Globose
  • Receive input from intermediate part of cerebellar hemispheres
  • Collectively known as the interposed nuclei; they’re the inner part of the “sandwich,” so they’re associated with the intermediate hemispheres!

• Fastigial*
  • Receives input from vermis + small input from flocculonodular lobe

*Reminds me of the vermiform appendix, which is a vestigial organ, which sounds kinda like fastigial?

Ataxias

• Truncal
  • Lesions confined to cerebellar varmis + affect mainly medial motor systems
  • Pts w/ lesions of vermis have a wide-based, unsteady drunk-like gait

• Appendicular
  • Lesions in intermediate + lateral cerebellar hemispheres + affect lateral motor systems
  • Ataxia on movement of extremities (e.g. finger-nose-finger test)

• Sensory
  • Occurs when dorsal column/medial lemniscal pathway disrupted
    • Loss of joint position sense
    • Overshooting limb movements, wide-based unsteady gait (~cerebellar lesion)
      • Impaired joint position sense
      • Ataxia worse when eyes are closed or in the dark

Beef brisket special w/ steamed kale, a baked sweet potato with cinnamon, horseradish sauce, and a roll.

I got to school super-early the next morning to stake out our usual room so Mike and I could have a mass study-quizzing session. Other than when we had to go into lab, we stayed there for pretty much the entire day. Our lives are really exciting as med students. Sean kidnapped me afterward to make us protein smoothies and deposited us back into our study-home (the catacombs). I came back to find that Mike had come back and left me a message.

He tried to be all sneaky/call my phone so he could get onto it and change my background into a picture of himself, but failed miserably because he didn’t know my passcode. He was a little upset.

We got free breakfast before our exam the next morning, so that was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dreary morning…

I love the spouse/significant other club. They make/feed us breakfast on exam days. <3

…because despite all the above awesomeness, the exam was horribly demoralizing and I spiraled into a mild depression, so I went to the dog shelter and took several of them on walks to cheer myself up and give em’ some exercise. I had dinner with my study buddies, hung out at their place for a while and ran off to the bike shop to hand out bags to the pre-registered runners for the Zombie Run. Another girl in my class was helping out and we talked whenever there was a lull; I’ve never really interacted with her much, but she’s super nice, so it was cool that I got to know her. She said she thought she might have synesthesia in the sense that she associates different people with animals. To her, I’m apparently a cat!

Tis only fitting, because look at this:

It was impossible to be depressed after this. <3

She looks so content. :]

She brought that up only because a long time ago (she has really good memory o_o), she overheard me saying that someone told me I had a “pouty face” (or that my concentration looked really unhappy) and I responded with, “I can’t help the way my face looks! That’s the way I was born! D:” just to be snarky.