Studying...

Anatomy & Physiology lecture final exam is tonight.

Be back soon...

Update:

The test is over. I think I did pretty well, though there were a few questions that I had no idea which answer to pick.

She had a mistake on the test that made me stare at a question for a while. It was a question about the reproductive system, so pardon me if I don't go into detail. Suffice it to say that in class she said it takes two weeks, but the test had choices of : a. 1 week, b. 3 weeks, c. 2 months, d. 3 years, e. 23 years. I picked "a." Afterward, when I was handing my test in, she said she'd mark either a or b as being correct. Whew!

The extra credit question was a good one for getting points. She asked us what was the most interesting CLASS-RELATED fact we learned this semester. I picked a question I had asked her after class, when we were studying the endocrine system: How do people get goiders? (My great-grandmother had one). So she explained it. The thyroid gland needs iodine to finish making its T3 and T4 hormones, but if there isn't any iodine in the diet, it can't finish, so it keeps what it has produced so far. Then the pituitary gland, not detecting any T3/T4 in the blood, sends out more Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), making the thyroid start making more T3/T4, which it can't finish. And it just builds and builds in the thyroid gland, never getting released, until your great-grandmother's neck gets really fat in the front.

It's not a harmful condition, and if iodine is ever introduced into the diet, then the thyroid will finish making the T3/T4, and eventually all the almost-finished hormones get finished and released, and the thyroid gland gets back to normal size.

Anyway, I think it's cool to know what was happening to my great-grandmother on the inside when I look at her picture. And I get 4 points for that (and 1 more point for saying what my major is). Not too shabby!

Now the hard studying starts, because our Lab final exam is Thursday, and we have to be able to look at the models (or the sheep heart) and identify the part they point to and spell it correctly. Circulatory system, respiratory system, digestive system, urinary system, and male and female reproductive systems. After that we'll be truly, finally finished with class.