Finals wrapped up yesterday with a hard exam in neuromuscular diagnosis and two afternoon lab exams. I am excited to be done with 6th quarter!

The two lab exam were back to back. This caused a little anxiety because we had to switch subjects quickly and be on our game. There was no room for making big mistakes and the pressure was on. My first lab exam was in neuromusculoskeltal diagnosis. The stations were not only a "show how" of many orthopedic tests but we were required to interpret what a positive or negative test meant. This was no easy task and ended with most students being peppered with questions for about 40 minutes each!

I made it through, a bit battered but ready for more. I wandered over to the muscle testing lab exam hoping we would have a little time to practice prior to going in. There wasn't much time for that. Thankfully, we had been working on the muscle tests the last few weeks and fine tuning our skills. Although, I had some hiccups in my skills during the exam.

The exam consisted of a professor assigning a muscle test then watching you perform it. It also consisted of "showing" via palpation. This meant moving other muscles out of the way to get at the actual muscle belly he assigned. I screwed this up on a few but learned a ton from it. Thankfully, he was in good spirits due to my ability to muscle test the muscle correctly and he only took a few of my points.

The muscle testing lab was really helpful for me because I now know how to test most of the muscles of the body. This consists of knowing where they originate and insert as well as which nerve supplies the muscle. Understanding things to this level helps with the neurological component of chiropractic a bit. The idea is that if degeneration of a vertebra gets too bad, it will grow osteophytes and end up compressing the nerve in its exiting canal and inhibiting the tissues function down stream. Regular chiropractic care can put a halt on this process and assure proper motion continues in our numerous joints.

I am happy to be done with 6th quarter and a bit pressed for time to get my head around boards. In time, I will be typing a blog entry about the process of the boards and how I and everyone else totally aced them!

All for now