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Evan: Dangerous combination.
Me: Extremely. I once highlighted an entire chapter and called it revision.
Evan: Did it work?
Me: Define work.
Evan: Did you pass?
Me: Yes.
Evan: Then it worked.
I point at the phone with my pen, even though he can’t see me. “Bad influence,” I tell it.
The phone doesn’t care.
Me: Okay, terminal branches. Give me the survival version.
Evan: Musculocutaneous. Axillary. Radial. Median. Ulnar.
Me: Sounds like a law firm.
Evan: A bad one.
Me: Musculocutaneous, Axillary, Radial, Median & Ulnar. We win cases and cause wrist drop.
Evan: Don’t write that.
I grin.
Me: Too late. It has entered the official record.
Evan: Musculocutaneous: C5-C7. Biceps, brachialis, coracobrachialis. Lateral forearm sensation.
Me: Coracobrachialis sounds like a dinosaur that eats interns.
Evan: It flexes and adducts the arm.
Me: So does the dinosaur.
Evan: No.
I laugh again.
This is bad.
Not terrible bad. Not “sign legal documents without reading them” bad. More like “eating ice cream before a clinical skills exam even though dairy has betrayed you before” bad.
I write down axillary and underline deltoid three times.
Me: Radial.
Evan: C5-T1. Extensors. Wrist drop with injury. Saturday night palsy. Sensation posterior arm, posterior forearm, dorsum of hand.
Me: Saturday night palsy is a judgmental diagnosis.
Evan: Descriptive.