I pray to the gods and the power of
Grayskull
, please help my neurons to dig up the lost memories of pharmacology from the depths of my mind. Specifically, the antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and
anti-cancer drugs, as I’m thinking those are the ones that will be the focus of my exam on Friday. If I could get the toxicities back, as well as mechanisms,
and all the mnemonics I made up for them, that’d be great.
Also, if it’s not too much trouble, all of microbiology would be awesome. If not, I’d like the major bacteria and viruses, specifically upper respiratory
tract infections, pneumonias, diarrhea bugs, and urinary tract infections.
I’m really willing to make it worth your while, God.
3 Comments »
If you’re not reading
Mimi Smartypants
, your life is either a) not complete or b) totally lame.
Mimi totally picks me up when I really need it. Like today. When I did really crappy on an endocrine exam, and I have a cumulative
Final O’ Death
in one week’s time.
She also has
a book
of her writings. Yes, she’s that good. She’s literally the only weblog/journal/whatever I read that doesn’t have an RSS feed. That means a lot, in
my sick little dweeb head.
Also, she lives in Chicago, where I used to be, so brownie points for that.
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on Thank You Ms. Smartypants
I got into a nice yelling match with a close friend last night (who will inevitably read this, I’m sure). This is not news. We do this every couple months or
so. Very healthy.
Reflecting back, it’s kind of interesting to see why I was mad at him-he had insinuated that I have loads of free time because during one of my study breaks, I
had emailed him a website I thought he might enjoy. He found this suspect, because when he called me while I was “in the zone” studying, interupting my
train of thought, I didn’t stay on the phone long, and excused myself to get back to work.
And then I realized how totally
defined
I am by my hard work. Other people are, too, I suppose, but what else do I have to show for it? No paying job, no major source of income besides hundreds of thousands
of dollars of student loans. I can only impress people by my perserverance and my knowledge. So
of course
I was insulted; telling a medical student that he or she is not working hard enough is both a) nowhere further from the truth and b) insulting to one’s core
definition (What a does a med student do? Study, study, study.)
I’d have (and have had) a similar reaction when the same friend, not coincidentally, denigrates my knowledge (or any other person). They’re usually
kidding, sure, but I still take offense. If my knowledge is devalued, what else do I have to pride myself on?
I knew medical school messed people up, but this is really sad that I now define myself this way.
4 Comments »
When you study diseases and cancers and other terrible things all day long, you start to formulate the most invalid of hypotheses:
this is pathology that affects
other
people
. I will not get cancer. I will not have a risk of dying. I will go on my merry way, helping my patients. I will remain 24.
We need to know these diseases and their symptoms and complications to help our patients, never us. Maybe it’s an “us versus them” mentality, or
maybe it’s just a psychological defense mechanism, but either way, I’m constantly reading about some disease and thinking to myself, “Man, that
would really be
awful
to get that. I feel so bad for what
they
must have to go through.” But then a moment later, the reality hits me-and it’s frightening. I’m assuming that these awful cancers with awful
prognoses and awful survival rates and awful treatments will somehow skip me. I’m just as likely to develop some of these cancers or diseases. I don’t get
a “by” just because I’m going to be a doctor.
Perhaps that’s why doctors are more likely to smoke, drink in excess, or do recreational drugs than you’d expect. Less likely to get a regular checkup and
physical. These aren’t diseases that affect
all
people. They affect
other
people.
1 Comment »
From the
Washington Post
(I like to switch it up every now and then):
Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility
and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person’s genitals “can
result in pregnancy,” a congressional staff analysis has found.
- A 43-day-old fetus is a “thinking person.”
- HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.
- Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.
-
One curriculum, called “Me, My World, My Future,” teaches that women who have an abortion “are more prone to suicide” and that as many as
10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion,
the Waxman report said.
What a crock. If you believe that abstinence-only education is right, then that’s your own problem, but it’s another thing when the supporters of it use
blatant lies and mislead people. [via
MeFi
]
And if you didn’t know it,
abortions increased under Bush
last term. Not decreased, and
HIV infection rates are staying steady
.
4 Comments »
I love it when doctors who have seen hundreds (thousands?) of a certain class of disease make pre-clinical students feel stupid and inadequate for not understanding
every possible physiologic consequence of said disease. Great way to encourage learning and turn people on to the exciting world of your specialty.
I’d hate to see how they react to patients who ask questions, get confused, or don’t understand something.
3 Comments »
December first. World AIDS Day.
Protect yourself and get tested.
I read
And The Band Played On
(read the first 3 pages at the new Google Print), and it was absolutely excellent. It changed the way I thought about policy, the media, politicians, politics, and
celebrity; it still has a lot of lessons that we can learn from. If you’re looking for a new book to read, pick this one up; it’s a page-turner.
I couldn’t help but wonder if we would have reacted to HIV if we only started to really see it now, as opposed to 20 years ago. Would the government continue to
deny it? Would the NIH underfund and ignore it for years, only later trying to take credit for isolation and discovery of the virus? (The French discovered it.)
Would the president keep from mentioning it
for 6 years, or until 16,000 people had died from it, and thousands more were already infected?
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on World AIDS Day, 2004
