(Pieter Bruegel's The Tower of Babel. Courtesy of web.njit.edu/~turoff)

In which Josh discusses the effects of medical school on communication, classes, a MSLG discussion of group dynamics, cadavers, funny quotes from lectures and the Highlight of the Week: performing a musculoskeletal exam.

Med school: where communication goes to die.

 ”You can all speak English right now,” Dr. Macauley learned. “That will change significantly once you’re done.” I didn’t realize he was being more than  half-serious. Now instead of “left”, “right”, or “twist”, we use terms like “medial”, “adduct” and “supinate”. It’s like an inside joke we doctors know.

More significant is the limit in topics of conversation. So much of what we med students do is tied into our learning that we don’t necessarily have much to talk about with the outside world. 

It’s not just that we have little free time or commonalities. What we do is so specific that, even though I have a reasonable grasp of the English language, I don’t feel I can (yet) articulate to people outside of medicine why what I do each week is so cool. I feel like the adults in Peanuts specials, who only make “wa wa wa” sounds.  Yes, I can go into generalities that people find fascinating, but I can’t reuse those same generalities each week when people you see regularly ask whatI’ve been up to.

I’m sure eventually I will learn how to discuss what I do in a more accessible way. But it is a struggle at the moment. So much so that as it comes time to write this blog entry, I am not even sure what to mention about this week.

But let’s push through and give it a go.

***

For the science nerds: Lectures covered cartilage, bones, skin, the brachial plexus, joints and an embryology lecture on the development of the musculoskeletal system.

If this seems like a significantly fewer amount of lectures, it was. Between gross dissection, histology and Doctoring Skills, most of our activities tend to be small group-based. What’s great about that approach is that we see each part from multiple angles.

Take bones. As we’re looking at the spine our cadavers, we’re also learning about what the bones look like under a microscope via Histology, different types of spinal imaging in Imaging, facts about bones and the nervous system from lecture, and in Doctoring Skills…but we’ll save that for later.

***

In MSLG, we discussed group dynamics,  about the different types of people you find in groups, as well as how conflict might arise. This also gave us an opportunity to talk about how things were going in our dissection groups to help us troubleshoot potential problems.

As part of it, we watched a short video made by med school residents about problems that come up in groups doing cadaver dissections.  I imagine the experience was akin to what the “The Office” might be like for someone who works in the corporate world. Funny, but painful since you have first-hand experience with what you see. 

***

At this point in our cadaver dissection, we’ve dissected the back, neck, arm, forearm and hand. I now know what each of these normally looks like in terms of bones, muscles, arteries, veins and nerves, and I know the names of most of these. Wow.

*** 

Fun Times with Lectures:

One of our lecturers after giving us a multiple-choice question: “This is not a proper sort of exam question because I’m not sure what the right answer is. Hold on.”

(Actually, I think it was a fair question.)

“Does anyone want to admit that they have syndactyly?” Dr. Waters during embryology

Before each lecture, the Powerpoints get posted online for us to use. So at the beginning of Friday’s lecture, one student yells, “There is no Powerpoint on COMET!”

Dr. Szilva immediately respods, “Ok guys, listen…there…is…nothing…on…this…lecture…that…will…be…on…this..exam.”

A student immediately responds, “Close your laptops!”

Later on, Dr. Szilva admits that since some ligaments are part of the capsule, when the faculty and TAs do the prosection, they get to those ligaments, look at the Netter’s atlas and then make the ligament look like Netter’s. Scandalous.

The best one, however, was during Friday’s joint lecture. A student asked why your sternum can pop. The faculty and everyone else look puzzled, since that’s not something that normally happens.

We find out he did this when he was doing a chest press. Another student then comments, “You should lift just the bar next time.” 

The whole class breaks out into laughter. 

 ***

Highlight of the Week: Giving a Musculoskeletal Exam

In Doctoring Skills, we learned how to give a GALS screening to screen for musculoskeletal problems, as well as how to give a patient a complete musculoskeletal exam.

We didn’t just learn this in theory. No, we actually practiced this on our Standardized Patients. Because no matter how much you’re trained, you still have to get used to observing and touching a patient’s body. (Asking permission before doing everything helps.) Thankfully our Standardized Patients that train us are very helpful and gracious.

It’s that kind of training that helps you feel like you’re actually learning to be a doctor.

Josh Pothen (UVM’s Meager Med Student)

Donate $1 to The Meager Med Student!

Today’s post is on vainglory. In my previous posts, we’ve discussed how vanity is driven by the praise of others and how the vain individual requires recognition from his peers in order to feel secure in himself.

Today, I’d like to explore the notion of how vainglorious individuals never really achieve virtue, but merely copy the virtuous.

In my first post on vainglory, I discussed how the virtuous soul’s actions are iconic. I take iconic to mean that their actions point not to themselves (that would be idolatrous) but to something greater than themselves.

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle sketches the requirements for an act to be virtuous. In order for an act to be called virtuous, the agent must know what he’s doing, for its own sake, take pleasure in it and perform this act out of an unshakable character.

While an ideal portrayal of virtue, what I want to focus on is the second requirement of virtue: that it’s done for its sake.

It is here that the vainglorious soul falters. Rather than doing good for goodness sake, the vain individual does it for attention, glory and/or honor. When what he does outwardly appears virtuous, internally it is but an act—a clone rather than the original.

The vainglorious soul merely imitates virtue, but can never copy it. His own thirst for attention prohibits him from attaining the good and living a good life. This desire for attention usurps his efforts to truly attain virtue, regardless of external appearance.

In order to do justly and to love mercy, we must walk humbly. We must lower our view of ourselves; lower our regard for how others view us. We must walk humbly before the Lord.

WP3

Today’s post is on gluttony.

In my previous posts, I’ve discussed how gluttony can manifest itself through excess and can be motivated by either an attitude of discontentment or an attitude of pride.

Tonight, I’d like to specifically explore a particular solution to gluttony: fasting

Why fast? Fasting involves a denial of self and incurs the development of self-control. This self control fosters the moderation and control over desires. Further, fasting demonstrates are willingness to forego the satiation of desires—an outward denial of the self.

Just as gluttony is an outward manifestation of inner chaos, so fasting is an external manifestation of internal order. Whereas in the gluttonous soul the desires run amok and subdue the individual, the temperate individual subdues his desires and instills order.

WP3

Today, I reflect on anger.

In my previous posts I’ve explored how anger poisons the soul, how outbursts of anger at small annoyances is a manifestation of deep rooted wrath, and how anger can not only take the form of violent outburst but icy loathing. Today, I’d like to explore how anger can imprison us when left unrestrained.

Unrestrained anger consumes our focus. It’s all we ever think about. The angry individual cannot move beyond the past but seethingly harbors his anger. This continual recalling of the past prohibits him from living life; he is caught in limbo between hurt and closure. Rather than moving on, this individual has succumbed to his anger and in turn has forfeited his freedom. Anger has become his master, malice his superior. In my previous post I discussed how anger directed towards others can stem from a lack of grace. However, this grace is what the angry individual must attain in order to be set free from his imprisonment.

We must learn to let go of other’s faults and respond in grace. We must learn to move beyond our past mistakes and embrace grace

We cannot change or affect the past. We can, however, choose how we respond to our past.

WP3

Today, I reflect on sloth.

We’ve discussed how sloth engenders a sense of apathy or despair. We’ve also discussed how sloth can manifest itself either through a deficiency or excess of activity. Finally, we’ve discussed what drives an individual towards sloth.

Tonight, I’d like to conclude my reflections on sloth by exploring how this vice fosters a spirit of ungratefulness and reticence to achieve one’s purpose. Both of these spirits are consequences of spiritual apathy.

In the first spirit, the lack of desire to face oneself and cultivate virtue can result in two ways. In the first way, spiritual apathy results in an attitude of inner restlessness that drives the individual to either confront himself or to ignore himself through an excess of activity. This excess activity temporarily distracts the soul from coming to terms with itself. Conversely, the second attitude outwardly manifests itself through a deficiency of activity. This deficiency of activity depicts the inner apathy of the sloth.

Both attitudes reflect an individual missing his purpose and put bluntly are indicative of the individual wasting their time. Both attitudes waste time—the first by being busy at being busy while the second by complete laziness. Both attitudes are bereft of purpose, the first by being busy for business’s sake and the second by passively coasting through life.

There is no telos, or ultimate end/vision that directs or guides the sloth. This telos is what is required in order to live a fulfilling life.

WP3

Today, I reflect on envy. We’ve discussed how envy multiplies desires for external things to an excessive amount, distracting an individual from his priorities. We’ve discussed how envy isolates an individual from community because the envious soul despises the good in his brother. Finally, we’ve explored how our culture can esteem envy as a virtue, exalting us for what we have be esteemed for our virtue.

Tonight, I’d like to examine how envy robs the soul of its identity. I’ve touched on how envy paralyzes the individual from attaining the good through the hatred of his brother. But not only does envy divert this individual’s gaze from himself to another, it also demeans his identity.

he envious person defines himself on the successes/failures of others. Where others come up shorter than he, the envious person deems himself a better person. Likewise, where others excel more than he, the envious person believes his is worse than the other. Not to say that there aren’t things that some people do better than others, but through continually comparing himself with others, the envious person loses his identity.

While there is a sense in which others/circumstances do help shape who we are, we still maintain strong sense of autonomy regarding our identity. We are not simply a product of our environment (those who are have willfully forfeited their autonomy/freedom). Rather, it is how we respond to our environment or to our interactions with others that shape who we are. The envious soul has lost his autonomy through the haze and fog of comparisons.

This loss of autonomy robs the envious soul of his ability to appreciate his fearfully and wonderfully made self. He cannot realize or grasp the Divine Love that graciously accepts him as he is. Instead, he sees himself as man sees him. He views himself through critical, natural eyes. He weighs and measures himself, but finds himself wanting. Instead, the eyes of his heart must be opened, and the envious soul must come to know how God sees him.

WP3

Martes, día 22 de septiembre 2009, a las 23.19 horas: Inicio del Otoño. (en el Hemisferio Norte)

Today, I conclude my reflections on avarice.

We’ve discussed how avarice proposes freedom yet ultimately enslaves. We’ve discussed how avarice can usurp the order of our priorities and consume our souls. Tonight, I’d like to further examine the effects of avarice on our society.

First a disclaimer: I love the Dallas Cowboys. Football season begins and ends according to their schedule. However, I must admit that their new stadium (that I would absolutely love to go to) is a blatant example of avarice and excess.

Seriously, this building is a behemoth, a shrine dedicated to sports. Sports are good. Competition is good. But is it really necessary for a stadium to be able to fit the Statue of Liberty inside it and still be able to close the roof? All that money for what?

I know, everything is bigger in Texas. But still. This stadium stands as a monument to our misplaced (degenerate) priorities—a palpable account of our avarice and disposition towards excess.

In the end, football will fade. All the stadiums, teams, franchises and dynasties, all the Super Bowl titles, all the DVDs, analysis and commentaries, all of this will crumble. This transience doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t enjoy or participate in these pursuits, but we must be mindful that we not only live in this world but must also look for the Resurrection of the Dead and the life of the Age to come.

WP3

I am vain enough that I check my stats now and then, and while I typically have just enough visitors to pretend that I’m not writing to myself, I was surprised to find that the blog had a wee readership spike in the past week. Is my excellent writing finally garnering the attention it deserves? Have I been linked and praised by one of the greats? Have I been linked and pilloried by one of the greats? Did I make such an insightful comment on another blog that people can’t help but click over to see who I am? Nope. Turns out the culprit is the post the fall of icarus and resurrection, and most of the people getting there are google searching the Bruegel painting embedded in it, a stat that I can only assume is caused by a bunch of art history majors suddenly having their first paper of the semester come due. As a university campus minister, let me extend a heartfelt welcome to you all, and invite you to look around. Though I doubt I’ll be any help to your paper, you might just find something of use on the intersection of faith and university life. Who knows, it might even inspire a painting or a decorative pot or something.

Não, anarquia não é o fim de tudo, o Apocalipse social, Cérbero dilacerando as instituições :-/

O Triunfo da Morte - Pieter Bruegel

A estes, recomendo Proudhon, Bakunin, Tolstoi, Chomsky. Eles não foram anticristos, apenas pensa(va)m diferente (mas pensar diferente é arriscado, né Torquemada?).

Eu gosto da anarquia. A anarquia como organização social sem intervenção externa, que define gradualmente regras/leis de acordo com os interesses locais, a sua cultura. A anarquia como um instrumento para a cooperação, o bem comum.

Sim, sim… muito bonito isso. No papel.

Mas será que a Internet não é isso? Se por um lado, há órgãos reguladores como ICANN, IANA e outros (cuidado com teorias de conspiração!), o que define em parte a forma da rede, por outro temos grande liberdade com o conteúdo por ela veiculado. Ou melhor, o conteúdo hoje define a Internet. Afinal, o meio é a mensagem! Ela hoje é uma construção coletiva de conhecimento, QUASE uma inteligência coletiva…

A Torre de Babel - Pieter Bruegel

Enquanto isso… O que está contecendo no Brasil é uma discussão construtiva sobre a Internet, ou justamente a intervenção do Estado? Anarquia já!

“- Mas a Grobo disse que isso é bom…”

Bom, para quem prefere o Bonner a toda uma revolução digital, dê uma olhada nesses números. Não preciso nem pedir para olhar, depois, a confiança nos políticos…

Na passagem do 440º aniversário da morte de Pieter Bruegel, a representação dos “Provérbios Holandeses”.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559

]]> http://nickmelazzo.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/icarus/ Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:49:28 +0000 nick http://nickmelazzo.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/icarus/

I had a great time out in Bragg Creek with the crew at BCCC, where we looked at the story of the walk to Emmaus, and just how significant the resurrection of Jesus was and is to Christian faith. One of my favorite paintings served as an object lesson, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, painted in 1555 by Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. At first glance, it’s merely a landscape of the everyday, but once you spot the wee little legs sticking out of the water, and know the title, that one significant detail unlocks everything else. The painting takes on a whole new meaning and tells a completely different story, one in some ways antithetical to the actual myth of Icarus.

This is exactly what’s going on in the final chapter of Luke. Luke wants us to get how paradigm-shifting Jesus’ resurrection really was, and he goes out of his way in the 24th chapter to point out that the resurrected Jesus makes known to the disciples the purpose and meaning of all the scriptures, from Moses through the prophets. Jesus changed the way they saw everything. It’s the only way to explain why so many of His followers sacrificed, suffered, and died for His sake. In Luke 24 the disciples had given up on His being the Messiah: something happened that changed their minds, something as significant as resurrection.

The resurrected Jesus changes things for us today just as much as He did for the early disciples. Our answer for the way we live should be the same as theirs: He was dead, but now He is alive. If you’re like me, it’s easy to forget, buried in the minutiae of day to day living. Therefore, our practice at the end of the service was the modified version of The Jesus Prayer that the crew at uCalgary practices. It’s an old prayer that has been prayed by Christian disciples for hundreds of years. Our version goes like this:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, your servant.

It’s a great prayer for a meditation like we practiced on Sunday, but it’s also a great way to stay focused throughout the day, which is why we say this prayer at least four times everyday. It helps us; I hope that it will help you.

Is there a visual echo here?  (Click to enlarge.)

1. The Hunters in the Snow, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (from here)

2. Oceans Don’t Freeze, Jen Corace (and here)

One (strange) thing about me is that when I like a song or album, I REALLY like it. I go all out. Over the years I have gone for extended periods listening to only one album in my car for months at a time (most notably Life by the Cardigans at sporadic times between 1997-2000… I kept coming back to that album, I still do).

Here are the songs and albums I can’t stop listening to lately (the past few weeks). This may give you an idea of just how eclectic my taste in music is:

Fleet Foxes - s/t CDs 1 and 2 and Sun Giant EP (love especially the original version of Mykonos). These albums have become a regular part of my morning routine. Very soothing. Fleet Foxes is my pick for best album of 2008 right now. I owned this album in 2008 but did not truly LOVE it until the past few months. Also, Pieter Bruegel (the Elder) has been one of Jared’s and my favorite painters for years now (a print of the Tower of Babel hung in our office for years), and one of his paintings being on the cover of the Fleet Foxes album just about makes me want to dance a little jig of joy.

George Michael – EVERYTHING (especially Freedom 90, Too Funky, Shoot the Dog, Freeek!, and the more ridiculous songs in his collection). GM is without question the best living male vocalist, and if you dare challenge this assertion I will challenge you to a duel to the death!

Jenny Lewis - Rabbit Fur Coat. This is a stunning album.

Rilo Kiley – More Adventurous (though largely co-written with Blake Sennett, I think this may actually be more Jenny Lewis’ masterpiece than Rabbit Fur Coat). This album is about (the absence of) God and death and deep heartfelt emotion. I listened to it in its entirety the other day and had a hard time not crying multiple times. I love Jenny Lewis’ writing.

Talking Heads – many songs, but especially Once in a Lifetime. This song is amazing on so many levels. It’s ridiculously catchy, but not only that, it’s an existential crisis in song. “Same as it ever was… Same as it ever was…” The lyrics are extremely deep. LOVE. IT.

William Orbit – Hello Waveforms and Pieces in a Modern Style. Simply beautiful music to relax, sleep, or study to. As soon as they let me bring my own music when I get a massage, this is what I’m bringing. To heck with that cheap knockoff Enya wannabe crap.

Peter Schilling – Major Tom (song). I loves me some 80s German electro-pop.

My running playlist – I won’t give too much away so as to betray my apparently ‘good’ taste in music, but let’s just say that it might include songs about putting a ring on it, bringing some sexy back, and/or being fergalicious. What?!?! I said might include, might! A girl’s got to have a good, fast beat to run to! (I be up in the gym just working on my fitness).

At some point maybe I’ll write about the albums/songs I keep coming back to over the years (for example, the Cardigans’ Life and the Magnolia soundtrack), but not today. Today I just can’t get enough of Fleet Foxes!!!

Here is a good version of Once in a Lifetime:

» There’s a hand-sanitizer dispenser in the 19th floor bathroom now.  Sure you can sanitize your hands after turning off the tap but you still need to touch two sets of door handles to exit. I wonder if eventually the doors will be automated or a decontamination chamber will be installed. I wonder if the decontamination chamber will cause cancer.

» Yesterday I picked up two excellent books on the art of Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch. I’ve been seeking a few good volumes on these guys, ones that print both details of their most famous paintings as well as the entire work, for years. It seems publishers have often opted for one or the other. Which is frustrating since a detail is worthless without its context. I’m in total disturbing Northern Renaissance heaven (or hell).

» Mandi is away for a few days at teachers’ union summer camp. In the days before I hooked-up with a  nerd, I’d use these times to watch a stack of sci-fi movies. Now it’s the reverse. I feel like I have to purposely not-watch any sci-fi movies lest she might have wanted to watch them as well. I should say this really only applies to the Star Trek The Next Generation  box set that was staring at me all last evening. Not a problem, instead I read Prisoner of Azkaban for Project Potter which is being chronicled on Nerd Hurdles and the Hurdled Nerd  blog.

Ce tableau a été réalisé en 1998. Vous avez reconnu la peinture de  Pieter Bruegel l’Ancien et le repas de noces en 1568. Peint à proximité de Toulouse , c’est l’un des premiers tableaux peints par Arlette. Cette copie de l’artiste est d’ailleurs signée de sa propre main.

A Fleet Foxes cím nélküli debütáló lemeze több neves zenei magazinnál is az élen végzett a “2008-as év legjobb lemezei” listán, a zenekar most a legjobb művészi borítónak járó elismerést is megkapta az artvinyl.com nevű internetes oldaltól. A lemez borítóján a XVI. századi festő, Pieter Bruegel egyik művének (Netherlandish Proverbs) részlete látható, a kép egy abszurd városi forgatagot ábrázol.
A lista második helyén Roots Manuva ‘Slime And Reason’ című lemezének, a harmadikon a Coldplay tavalyi korongjának borítója végzett. A toplista első tíz helyezettjét januárban egy londoni kiállításon is bemutatják. Kattintsatok a tovább gombra a többi helyezettért!

2008 legjobb lemezborítói:
1. Fleet Foxes ‘Fleet Foxes’
2. Roots Manuva ‘Slime And Reason’
3. Coldplay ‘Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends’
4. Goldfrapp – ‘Seventh Tree’
5. Elbow ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’
6. Metallica ‘Death Magnetic’
7. Bloc Party ‘Intimacy’
8. Low Motion Disco ‘Keep It Slow’
9. Santogold ‘Santogold’
10. Zombie Zombie ‘Dog Walker’