Act 1: Scene 1

Alright, maybe my relationship with A&P is more love than hate, and sometimes being a little more theatrical makes life easier to deal with. In a lot of ways I really do love learning about the body. There is so much to it and yet it all works together in near-perfect harmony- it is an interesting and fascinating creation. Still, A&P is a crazy, in-depth class that is (I think) fairly rapidly teaching many students here at OIT a great deal about the body.

For those of you who are way to brain-fried to even remember what A&P stands for, it has the long and drawn out title of Anatomy and Physiology. The anatomy is part of that represents "gross anatomy," or for some, "memorizing all the parts of the body while leaving no room in one's head for learning how they work together."

Physiology is, of course, how those body parts work together. It's learning how ion channels make muscles and nerves work. It's memorizing laundry lists of chemicals and other microscopic... things and how they interact. Oh, and it's the hard part of A&P.

One of McVay's favorite questions to ask in lecture (lecture=physiology, lab=anatomy) (sorry for bringing math into this...) is, "Why do you give a damn?" -usually when trying to stress the importance of our knowing the current material for future careers. Sometimes though, even after she's explained how this trippy concept works and how it applies to the drugs we will be giving our future patients (just as an example), it is still hard to always care. Not because it isn't interesting, but because there is just so much physiology to have to learn and understand at the end of every day.

Well, that and she keeps quizzing us on some really crap stuff.

Which is why I have created this blog- to help all those (and especially myself!) solidify all the ideas and concepts that we have to know. To give my fellow students & friends another tool in their arsenal for combating the monster. To make sure that nobody (namely me) has to ever say again, "I can't believe she's quizzing us on that paragraph from last weeks material! How am I supposed to remember a week ago?" Because as Gandalf of LOTR could relate, some days (of A&P) feel as long as life of the earth.

Throughout this blog I will mainly be covering McVay's study guide. I will attempt to answer each part in great detail and add as much as possible from what she says in class (and maybe other sources too if we're all lucky).

I would love any additional insight to this joint study guide that anyone has to offer. Please feel free to make comments, correct me on anything, or bring any new insight to the table.

A&P, you're going down.

~Jared