There’s nothing in the world that satisfies the description of a “love hate relationship” more than Anatomy. There are many times I’ve declared just how much I love Anatomy, awed at the intricacy of the human body; yet equally as many times I’ve expressed how this subject is totally driving me crazy and teared my hair out thinking that I can’t possibly learn it all. Anatomy is truly a fascinating subject, but without a doubt, a challenging one.
The Love
Anatomy needs a lot of time, and when you do give it that you feel yourself love the subject more and more. What can be more amazing than learning about your own body? – the basic structures that you rely so heavily on everyday? And anatomy isn’t an abstract theoretical Science, instead it’s one that you are putting into action as you unfold the moments of your life. The contraction of your muscles, sensations of pain, every single bone in your body. It’s just so incredible to be the object of your own theoretical knowledge – every time I think of it in that manner it just completely blows my mind!
The Hate
For Anatomy, time is never on your side. Sometimes you just want to know it, to be able to recite the origins and insertions of the muscles off seamlessly. But that takes hours of reiteration and consolidation. There’s nothing that makes you feel as though your brain is about to burst with pieces of facts that can compare with Anatomy. The roots of the Median nerve are C5, C6, C7, C8, T1; Ulnar is C8 & T1; but Musculocutaneous has the roots C5 C6 C7. The human body is certainly complex, exquisitely specific and deeply intricate – so guess what, that’s going to be a whole lot of microscopic detail you have to learn!
There is the difficulty of memorising, retaining and then being able to apply the knowledge for a subject such as Anatomy, but over this first year of med school I’ve learn the best way to revise for it is to focus on being able to visualise the structures in relation to one and another in your mind. There’s many different ways that can be done, go and head over to my Instagram to find out more about the different ways I learn…
