S2W10: Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

Three weeks until the end of year exam period begins!
Our exam timetable is out!
& The sunshine is too!

Subjects at a glance:
Anatomy has now covered muscles of the shoulder and arm.
MSK is challenging our clinical reasoning - how we diagnose and plan treatments.
Neuro topics covered this week include spasticity, muscle tone and reflexes.
Pharm has discussed endocrine pharmacology.

I start writing this blog on Monday and quite often wonder what exciting things I will write about in the week (or if I will even have anything interesting to report!). So I was pleased to see that lecturers are contributing to the clinical and academic physiotherapy community on social media, namely, Twitter. I have decided to follow a few in the hope that they continue to post interesting links (and perhaps put up some end of year exam hints... wishful thinking, right?!). Interested to see what they tweet about? - Follow the links below:

Clinical Biomechanics Otago - @OtagoBiomech
Centre for Health, Activity & Rehabilitation,  UoO - @OtagoCHARR
Physio Clinics, UoO - @PhysioclinicsDn
University of Otago (UoO) - @otago
You can even follow journals and celebrities (physio staff included)!

Feel free to Tweet to me @PhilNZ10 about this blog.

Anat dept put choc up for grabs in a mid-lecture quiz which featured (90% anatomy questions and 10% random questions like 'how many films has Rachel Hunter starred in'? And 'who was the first international artist to feature at Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium?') Do physios need to know general knowledge questions like this? Probably not, but it'll save dividing the chocolate between 100 students.... because we are all pretty good at anatomy - it's our bread and butter! We also learnt a quirky phrase to remember attachment sites on the bicipital groove: "a lady between two majors"... Tere's Major, Latissimus Dorsi, Pectoralis Major.

Pharm lab was all about diabetes. One task was to test our blood glucose level. My fasting blood glucose level was 5.2mmol/L which is within the normal range of 3.5 to 5.5mmol/L. It is on the higher side of the normal range, probably because I finished off a reasonably large tin of pineapple pieces (with Weetbix for breakfast) an hour or so before that lab. Good to know my pancreas is working! Blood glucose measuring involves drawing blood with a pricking device and using a machine to analyse the blood. Also in the lab we had a go at self-administering a subcutaneous injection (for type1 diabetics, this would have insulin in it). The hardest part was getting over the psychological barrier of stabbing your stomach fat! There was no pain associated with the injection thankfully! If you are diabetic your doctor or physio can better inform you about what is involved and how to use the equipment.

Tip for surviving physio: Give everything a go at least once - you need to be able to relate to patients experiences!

In social events, there was a combined 2nd and 3rd year BYO on Friday evening!

A little bird told me that they were also tweeting this week... well, not so much told me - rather I heard them tweeting. The pleasures of spring!