Whoa! I actually had a good day!

I think Wednesdays might be my fav day of the week as far as class goes! I have Musculoskeletal Pathology in the morning and Theraputic Exercise in the afternoon. Yeah, it IS as exciting as it sounds!!! I also have a 1.5 hour lunch break!

But seriously, today was a good day in class! We were discussing pathologies and maladies of the ankle and foot and I actually learned a few things. Weird, I know!

First off, I learned that prolonged steroid use (medicinal also) can lead to tendon break down, especially in the Achilles Tendon. So that is why doctors shouldn't give too many cortisone shots for pain relief and why transplant patients are susceptible to problems. It inhibits tissue repair in the tendon and makes it more susceptible to tearing. Isn't that interesting? Well I thought it was.

Now Morgan, if you're reading this you may want to stop now. The other thing I learned was information everyone can use. The antibiotic Levaquin is in a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. These drugs can increase the incidence of tendon damage or tear, especially in the Achilles! It is a really good drug, but you need to lay off vigorous exercise during and after taking it. You should discuss it with your doctor!

The next class was Ther Ex. The lecture was pretty good, but in lab afterwards I was talking to 2 of my TAs. They are twins. Anyway, one of them, Matt, is doing his doctoral work on endurance exercise vs. strength training, especially in a multisport (triathlon) setting, and his brother Mike is currently training for an IronMan. This was cool because Matt's research is of course very interesting to me since I would like to start training seriously again when I have time, and since Mike is currently training it would give me someone to train with! So for the next 2 years I may have the opportunity to work with Matt in his research and follow his findings!

I also like these classes because I think the information in them has the potential to be really interesting and I'll start learning treatments for the problems we've been learning about :) It's all starting to come together! Slowly, but it's coming together.

That's all, gotta go study now. Night!