I had a shortened week because we had off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. Though it was a shortened week we still had a normal workload on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We went over how to proficiently take notes in The Clinical Encounter, went over glucose tolerance testing in lab diagnosis, looked over tendinopathies in Orthopedic Imaging, and had a mock practical exam in physical diagnosis.

Every Wednesday we have phlebotomy class, where my classmates and I practice blood draws on one another. We have also been going over the order of the draw, meaning the order of the collection tubes when one must draw more than one tube. Each tube has a different colored top. The colors represent different enzymes within the tube and each tube is therefore used for a different reason. Some tubes are used for clotting time, others are used for blood cell count, and others for nutrient measurements. We have been memorizing the order and the purpose of each tube in preparation for the written final.

The mock practical in physical diagnosis was on the orthopedic tests for the neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, low back, knee, and ankle. We will have a practical in a week and a half so it was good to get an idea of how proficient we are in our orthopedic exams.