This is a far away shot of the face. Yes that is the ear to the bottom right of the screen with the mouth at the top right. This dissection has taken me over 20 hours to do. There are even deeper structures that I have dissected below the anatomy that is visible but it is too hard to show everything. The sick thing is now I can name about 95% of what is seen in this pick and tell you its function. I love this stuff!!! I can sit for hours doing this--and I have. Longest single dissection stint in one sitting, with no breaks, 5.5 hours. My hands get a bit crampy after that though. I hope you all enjoy this pics. 

This is another closeup to show the ansa cervicalis (looping structure at top) and the brachial plexus shown just to the left of midline on the screen. You can see the three tightly packed bundles descending obliquely to the left. They would go to your upper limb, arm and fingers of the left hand. On the far right of the screen you can see a muscle. This muscle is the sternocleidomastoid muscle that has been reflected back to reveal the cervical plexus--those long white strands coming from the mid top of the screen. 

This is a closeup of the neck dissection that I have solely been doing for the last 7 days. The top of the picture is the laryngeal cartilage. Directly below my probe is the external carotid. The ansa cervicalis is also seen the is the looping nerve to the left of the probe. The nerve looping over my probe, however, has never been seen by my professors or the TA's here ever before. One professor stated that I should do a research paper on it and if no one has ever claimed it to name it what I want. Thought that was cool but do I have the time to do that? 

Jace trying to use the boogie board as a skim board. Good thing the sand is soft. 

This is a shot to show the 4-5 foot waves. Look in the background to the left. Another crappy day in the Caribbean. 

Are you feeling Lucky? 

Giant Boy at the beach when he should be in school. 

And you thought gas was expensive?!! That is a half gallon of milk. Drink Beer!!!!! 

That horse was as tall as Jim, but he even make the horses look small. 

OK, just one more pic of Alice Cooper. 

Beached like a whale, but much happier! 

Shakka from the Chicken Wings. 

Angie and Jace boogiein' 

We ventured out on horseback. The trail ride was through a nature reserve along the coast which meandered along the hill side. We tried to ride along the beach and wade the horses in the ocean but that was when the barking wild dogs appeared and spooked the horses and the trainers so we cut that side trip out. 

The water looks so calm in this picture but we had some decent size waves from hurricane Jeanne. 

Adam with his new board. 

Today we bought boogie boards for the kids and Jace learned how to catch a wave.  

Seredipity

Tonight, well now today (its 12:03am), a profound serendipitous evening was bestowed upon me. I was dissecting the face and deep neck of my cadaver, carefully teasing out the white tensile nerve fibers, superficial veins, and mimicry muscles from the connecting fascia to expose the required nerves, veins and muscles. This nice, courteous, young woman, with narrow black rimmed glasses and frizzily tended brown hair was helping me with the names, functions, and innnervations of the arteries, veins, muscles and nerves of my cadavers face. She was extremely knowledgeable about all the required structures; so much so that I asked her if she was a T.A. (Teachers Assistant). She smiled with a glow to her face but just smirked and stated that she had just read a lot before she came to dissect her cadaver that evening.
At about 11:00pm everyone had gone home for the evening and we were the only two living beings left in the cold white, formalin fragranced room. Our small talk had turned to an incident that had happend earlier that day about some student with a very high grade having come to the professors and complain about extra credit being givien on the tests because that washed out the true curve.
Can you believe it, a student with a high score complaining about getting more points and giving themselves a higher grade? The only thing I see in that is someone who is very competitive and would like to see more people do poorly to make themself look better. That's an ASSHOLE if I ever heard of one.
I had relayed to her that I had spoken with the professors about that incident and apparently it was true that some student did come in and complain about that and the professor was now seriously considering doing away withthat I thought it would not be appropriate to take away the points on the test, for that would hurt all of the latter quarter percentile of students the most and that I considered it unfair to take away something that had already been started. I had also made the argument to the professor that he didn't know if someone that got the lowest score on the test had a learning disability or they had a bad day or what and to take away an extra point system after it had already been implemented would discourage those people even more.
An interesting point: if the extra credit points were taken away the class test average would have been 66% and over one third of the class would have failed.
Well I explained to the woman, her name is Brett, that I had had someone earlier in the day accuse me of doing that and that I got pretty pissed off about the accusation. So I explained to her that I got the highest score on the test. She was very congragulatory, but as was talked she revealed to me she got the lowest score on the test a 35%. I was shocked, how could it be that this knowledgeable, seemingly intelligent woman who had been so helpful and informative got the lowest grade? I tole her that I felt very bad for her and then asked if she had Dyslexia. She did. And she did just a poorly in her biochemistry exam--the lowest score. I felt bad for her. But I told her that she had one of the best personalities I had met and that we need more doctors who can communicate and be helpful just as she had been to me. You see ever since school has started a lot of the students, I have noticed, have been very cocky, rude and condescending to many of the other students and faculty. Blows my mind that a lot of these kids are going to be doctors.
Serendipitous I must say that the person with the highest and lowest grades on the Anatomy exam were in the room alone with their cadavers talking with each other coherently about the legitimate problems that face the medical community. I hope that our serendipitous was encouraging to her and that she is able to persue her dreams of becoming a doctor, for what a waste it would be to not have such a wonderful person, who would treat her patients with respect and dignity to not become the much needed doctor that society is lacking.

Angie and Adam at the zoo. 

Barefoot construction worker next door. 

An evening on the beach. 

Look at that smile, Adam loves the girls! 

Jace with his new friends. 

I love this picture taken right outside our door. The island is Saba, only 24 miles from St. Maarten and part of the Netherland Antilles. 

Question of the Day

There is a foramen ovale in the human heart that is used to shunt blood from the right atrium to the left atrium in the fetus. Where is the location of the other foramen ovale and what is it used for?

Anatomy Test Results Are In

Well the class did interestingly? The class percentage average was a 72% and that was out of 160 students. Remember 70% is passing. Ooouucchhh!! I thought everyone would do much better. In fact I thought the average would be higher for anatomy than biochemistry, but then what do I know (Remember the average for Biochem was approx. 80%)
Well I feel really good because I ended up with a 96% and it happened to be the highest grade in the class. HOLY SHIT!!!!!! If you only could have seen my face when I saw that grade! I never in my whole life, even for one minute thought that I would ever do that. I remember looking for my personal grade code and I couldn't find it, but then I looked at the top of the list and there it was, my personal grade code at the top of the list. Let me repeat myself, "HOLY SHIT!!!!" I kept looking and looking at that grade and my number, and when it sunk in I about initiated an anxiety attack. My heart rate got faster and faster, my skin started to flush and sweat and a rush of adrenaline started coursing through my veins. I really had to stop and consciously take a deep breath or I would have probably passed out.
Well all I can really say is thanks to my family for all the support but especially my wife Angie. She let me study all weekend; of course I spent time with the family, but I was really able to focus on the enourmous amount of material (well the Mountain Dew really helped also) because Angie took the kids pretty much all day both Saturday and Sunday. I can't thank her enough!!!! The kids also were very supportive and let me study, but they did kept asking, "Why do you have to study so much?". Everyone was really good to me about my need to study. They deserve just as much credit if not more. Angie does all the cleaning, laundry, most of the cooking and taking care of the kids--a job that is much more tough and demanding than studying all weekend!!!! I mean that without a doubt!!

Answer to Stump the Chump

Well some anonymous person who goes by daChump correctly answered, the Thebesian veins and Anterior Cardiac veins. Unbelievable, I thought that one would be hard. Good job!

General Question of the Evening

In the musical, "Sound of Music", how many children did the Captain have?

Stump the Chump

What are the two types (names) of cardiac veins which do not drain into the right atrium via the coronary sinus?

Aftermath of Anatomy

Well to let everyone know, I studied a lot more and got a decent nights sleep before the Anatomy Exam. I feel like I did very well, but let me not count my chicken embryo's before the chick has taken a breath of fresh air.
We went to the Mullet Beach and played some volleyball, snorkled and got rambunctious with the kids. It was a great time. We then took a trip over to the French side for some awesome Greek Gyros. Five dollars and you are almost sick full on one Gyros. But get this, the cokes (from a can) are two dollars--go figure!?!
Gotta go. Caio

Answer to "Question of the Day"

Well a couple of the people got the answer correct to my question. It was Spina Bifida. Someone, however, stated anonymously, " Any idiot knows it is Spina Bifida." We can play, "Stump the Chump", however.

Question of Today: Embryology

What common neural tube defect (take your folic acid)is present in 24% of the population and can be indicated with a small tuft of hair over the vertebral column? Usually over L5-S1. (L=Lumbar Vertebrae; S=Sacrum Vertebrae)

Answer tomorrow.

Wait 'Till the High Noon Hour

The first Anatomy/Embryology Exam Today. With 144 student plus about 15 repeaters our grades won't be posted after our exam for probably about 1 week--lots to grade. At least it's not like the MCAT where I had to wait 6 weeks.
So I will post after the exam to keep a log of how I felt and inform those whom are of interest. Was that correct English? (Whom or who?) Who knows?!
I have also thought of posting a "Question of the Day" sort of thing relating to anatomy, embryology and biochemistry. What does everyone think?
Au revior, mon frere's.

Another beach day. 

Jace and Adam in a glass elevator overlooking the beautiful and very expensive mall in Marigot.