the luckiest wife

i have a husband who has a heart of gold, who loves every meal i've ever made (except the bad ones), who tells me playing scrabble or battleship or settlers is about companionship, not competition, who laughs with (at?) me during my blonde moments, who plays ocean music at night for me because he knows i hate living land-locked, who takes interest in my interests by reading every book i've recommended to him, who always hugs me first thing in the morning, after work, and before bed, who makes brownies better than i do, who does all the dirty jobs around the house (especially cleaning up the bird poop), who would rather hang out with me than "the guys", who helped me break in the new kitchen aid (thanks, mom mom!) by making mint chocolate ganache cookies, who supported my triathlon goal last year by buying me a road bike (oh yeah, you need a bike to compete...), and the next year, learned how to swim so we could do the tri together! it was the share-a-smile mini triathlon at the end of august. check him out!! david finished the 400m swim, 10 mile bike, and 5k run in 1 hour 3 minutes. my knee gave out before i even started the run, so i hobbled across at 1 hour 23 minutes, i think.

test anxiety

i have test anxiety. this means my brain freezes and locks up on sometimes very simple questions, sometimes hard questions, and other times my brain gets overloaded by the multiple choice options, creating a feeling of certain doom. i am ultimately left incapable of thinking reasonably and logically. a few years ago i would walk into the testing center and literally start to itch and have to remind myself to breathe slowly and deeply. over the years i have tried to learn and employ many different testing strategies as a crutch. i really feel like i have come a long way. although i don't itch anymore, i still have the same brain, which locks up somewhat regularly.
this semester i am taking zoology 1090, intro to anatomy and physiology. this same course was required for my medical assistant program, and i am always reading something that includes medical terminology/anatomy, so this subject isn't new for me. and it's a subject i really enjoy--i really love learning about the human body, how it fits together and how things work. i have this class three times a week, and then i study 9-10hours outside of class. i'm mainly a visual learner, so i take notes in colors, highlight the text as i read, and draw pictures/diagrams if needed. i really feel like i have a good handle on this material...until quiz and test time. this professor is infamous for insanely hard questions.
here are the scores so far: quiz 1, 10 questions multiple choice: class average 4/10, i scored 5/10; quiz 2, 27 questions fill in the blank: class average 2/10, i scored 7/10; exam 1, 50 questions multiple choice, class average 38%, high 68%, low 18%, i scored 58% (i have never been so happy for a 58% before!). so here are some examples of test questions (answers at the end)--maybe y'all can help me feel better and let me know it isn't my ridiculous brain, but really dr. shively...and if these are easy for you, please let me know what i can do differently--give me another test-taking suggestion!!

1. an individual has _____ somatic systems and _____visceral systems
a. 7-5
b. 4-7
c. 7-4
d. 5-7
e. 12-4
f. 12-5

2. which nucleotide is not involved in transcription?
a. a
b. c
c. g
d. t
e. u
f. if all of the above are involved in transcription, choose this response

3. which of the following is not one of the 4 major subdivisions of the cell cycle?
a. g1
b. s
c. interphase
d. mitosis
e. if each of the above represents one of the 4 major subdivisions of the cell cycle, choose this response

4.which skeleton function is least important?
a. storage of calcium and phosphates
b. storage of adipose
c. locomotion
d. protection
e. body shape
f. hemopoiesis

5.how are membranous epithelium and glandular epithelium alike?
a. bother are vascular
b. both are holocrine
c. both are highly regenerative
d. both can be unicellular
e. none of the above
f. more than one of the above

6. how are osteoblasts and chondroblasts different?
a. one manufactures collagen and one does not
b. one is involved in ossification and one is not
c. one is associated with bones and one is not
d. one secreted ground substance and one does not
e. they aren't different, they are just different names for the same cell
f. they are different but a correct difference is not listed above

7. most bones develop by
a. intracartilagenous and endochondral ossification
b. endochondral ossification (only)
c. ossification of a fibrocartilagenous model
d. more than one of the above
e. none of the above

8. bicarbonate (hco3-) is not
a. a molecule
b. an ion
c. a compound
d. found in the body
e. a hydrocarbon

9. what kind of muscle tissue is found in the organs of the skeletal system?
a. cardiac muscle tissue
b. smooth muscle tissue
c. skeletal muscle tissue
d. voluntary muscle tissue
e. striated muscle tissue
f. more than one of the above

10. what name is applied to the joints located between the proximal phalanges and the bones just proximal to them?
(sorry, this one was a fill in the blank)

11. how many bones are in one human hand?
(another fill in the blank)

12. muscle a flexes a joint that muscle b extends. muscle c flexes this same joint and antagonizes an additional action of muscle b. from this, one can logically conclude that
a. a and c are multiactioned
b. a can synergize b
c. a and c are antagonists
d. a, b, and c are multiactioned
e. b and c are multiactioned
f. none of the above can be concluded

13. form a polymer of 10 glucose subunits (c6h12o6) by dehydration synthesis. this polymer would contain _____ atoms
a. 3
b. 240
c. 30
d. 213
e. some other number

ANSWERS (i'm including explanations in case you are curious. and i'm writing everything by memory--what i've learned, i'm not consulting a book at all. this is what happens to me! i can sit down and talk to you about everything i'm learning, but in front of a test my brain freezes!!):

1. c 7-4. i answered a 7-5 because in class we were taught there are 12 systems total (dr. shively doesn't lump anything together, so although the book lists 11 systems, he taught us 12)--integumentary, muscular, skeletal, nervous, lymphatic, endocrine, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, urinary, male reproductive, female reproductive. in order to be classified as visceral, that system must have all 3 of the following characteristics: 1. tubular in design/shape, 2. 1+ openings to the outside, and 3. lined by mucous membrane. in class we starred respiratory, digestive, urinary, male repro and female repro as visceral. he didn't lump it together then...apparently he lumped together the reproductive systems for the test.

2. f all are involved in transcription. i got this one correct, but after thinking a looooong time about it. transcription is basically dna inside the nucleus of a cell copying itself to mrna, which then goes outside the cell to create amino acid polypeptide chains. dna uses a-t, c-g as the complimentary base pairing, while rna uses a-u, c-g. seems pretty straight forward, right? well, i lingered on this one because i was trying to think how dr. shively would define transcription. if he defined it according to how i just defined it above, then all the nucleotides would be involved. if he defined it as *just* mrna doing its thing, then "t"-thymaine wouldn't be involved because rna uses "u"-uracil in its place. anyway, i aired on the side of the general definition.

3. c interphase. i think i answered e. now that i'm reading that questions outside of the testing center, i can easily name the 4 subdivisions--prophase, anaphase, metaphase, and telophase. according to this picture, g1 and s are parts of interphase.

4. b storage of adipose. i debated between that and the one i ended up putting, e, body shape. here was my thought process: well, the body stores adipose elsewhere, so it doesn't have to be in the bones, but if it isn't in the bones when the body needs it, you're in trouble...and people can still live without a perfect body shape, although it can be sometimes debilitating, and i guess some babies do die when they are born without certain skeletal shape...but isn't adipose needed to cushion bones also, and help store fat-soluble vitamins and minerals, which ultimately aid in bone formation and growth?...

5. c both are highly regenerative. well, i knew this, and then i thought, hey, in order to be classified as highly regenerative, it needs to also be highly vascular--it needs blood, oxygen and nutrients in order to regenerate. so i went with f.

6. f they are different, but a correct difference is not listed above. i got this one correct! osteoblasts are the beginning bone cells and chondroblasts the cartilage beginner cells, but most bones use cartilage to form through a process called endochondral calcification.

7. e none of the above. i answered d, more than one of the above. ok, so according to the osteoblast/chondroblast explanation above, i felt like i knew what was going on here. it was a question on the fill-in-the-blank quiz "most bones begin their development with what kind of ossification?" endochondral ossification. i got it correct on that quiz. cells also add to bones by creating sheets and attaching to the bone--this process is intramembranous ossification. so i figured it was a few of the processes he'd listed. guess not.

8. e a hydrocarbon. i got stuck on molecule vs. compound. i always mix up the definitions. david once tried to describe it to me as a fruit smoothie--a molecule is a fruit smoothie made of 1+ strawberries, whereas a compound is a smoothie made of strawberries and bananas and maybe even blueberries. a compound can be a molecule, too, but a molecule can't be a compound...

9. b smooth. so the organs of the skeletal system are bones. bones only have smooth muscle tissue inside of them (smooth muscle tissue is present with any blood/vessel formation)

10. metacarpophlangeal joint or metatarsophalangeal joint, as he didn't specify the phalanges of the hand or foot. so this is the spot where your fingers meet up with the bones in your hand, it's the little knob at the base of the finger (or toe). i totally pictured it--i knew exactly which joint he was talking about, and i called it a simple hinge joint--simple because only 2 bones are articulating, and hinge because that's the action it makes. i asked him about this one and he said i was right, but he asked for the NAME, not the TYPE of the joint.

11. 29 bones in the human hand. i wrote 19. here was my thought process: well, he's asking for the hand here, and this is dr. shively, so i don't want to lump things together, so i'm not going to add the carpals because that's the wrist, and the textbook even specified "bones of the wrist and hand", so i counted 5 metacarpals, 12 phalynx bones, and 2 thumb bones. surprise! according to dr. shively, always listen to him, not the book. the wrist is one section of the hand, just as metacarpals and phalanges are. so there are 8 carpals, 5 metacarpals, 12 phalynx bones, 2 thumb bones, and--oh yeah! 2 sesamoid bones that happen to grow and form IF you are a heavy duty football player or exercise a lot. 2 extra sesamoid bones grow in each carpal area of the hand and tarsal area of the foot to act as buffers as muscles and tendons rub over the bones. fyi: the adult human body has 206 bones, unless you are in dr. shively's class, then it has 214 because of the extra 8 sesamoid bones in the hands and feet that no one ever counts because not every body has them

12. e b and c are multiactioned. this was really lucky, i think. i drew a picture on my scrap paper i brought with me into the testing center, and hoped my drawing was done correctly...

13. d 213. i answered b, 240. dehydration synthesis is the process of binding polymers together--in the process you remove water molecules. so i was debating 213 and 240, and decided to go with 240 because even though it's removing h2o, the atoms are stil present, just in another form. i guess he did say specifically "**this polymer** would contain _____ atoms". but i still don't get his subtraction. you start with 240 and then 10 h2o molecules would be 30, and 240-30=210...does anyone have the answer? oh, and btw, dr. shively never lectured on dehydration synthesis, and there's a one-line definition in the text, nor was it a part of any of the study guides he gave us.

anyway, enough complaining! i ought to get back to studying!