Putter

I eye the book on my fresh and recently tidied desk. BRS (Board Review Series) Gross Anatomy. I take a quick flip through the red and black typed pages. Is there anything I need to review? I mean, there was surely something I didn't learn as well as I would have liked. My hubby glances over at me, I startle guiltily, slipping my hand nonchalantly away from the book. It lays there. Calling me.

During 1st term, my BRS book was the best purchase I made. I FedExed it down here at considerable cost and it was just fantastic - brief, pointed, cohesive, and thorough. I thought that the lecture notes and accompanied texts were adequate until I got this book at the advice of one of my study partners. The material is presented in an organized and systematic manner that is very similar to how I think.

To illustrate, instead of learning each individual muscle and the corresponding nerves that innervate it, I would rather learn the nerve pathway. There are 4 main nerves that travel down the thigh and leg. However, there are 28 muscles. In lecture and in most traditional anatomy texts, we learn each muscle (origin, insertion), then function, then innervation. Wouldn't it make more sense to just learn the main nerves, travel with them down the thigh and leg and learn the muscle innervations and functions along its path? In that manner, I not only learn the structures but also have a visual picture in my mind the route of the nerve which is very important in determining where obstacles or lesions can occur. Since vascular structures also use the same route, then it is much easier to learn them as well. The BRS authors had the same idea, so it presents both. Muscles and functions a well as nerve and vascular pathways. Other subjects are also presented in this fashion, much to my learning pleasure. So, I am fond of BRS.

In addition, I have puttering issues.

For me, boredom is like purgatory. I need purpose in my actions. Puttering around the house and cleaning because Grandma is coming to visit or putting nice clean sheets on the kids' beds is all right and good, but cleaning because I have nothing else to do other than putter is utter torture.

Bottom line is that I can not just downshift after 4 months of uninterrupted mental exercising to having nothing whatsoever to study. My mind just doesn't understand what happened. Where are all the complicated texts and weird encrypted but colorful lecture slides by an infamous biochem professor? What should I read now? Will it be enough to calm the beast? Aaaahhhhhhh!!!!!