Manic Depression

[Warning, explanation: this is the most personal blog post I've written so far, so if being close to people makes you uncomfortable, you can skip this. But it's medically related, technically]:

Psychiatry Class. 9 AM. Dr. S is giving an cursory lecture on various mental conditions. He gets to mania. He starts listing off characteristics. An entire row of students in my lecture hall, turn around to stare at me.

Am I manic? Perchance.

Like many mental conditions, you have to have a certain number of listed signs/symptoms in the DSM to be able to classify yourself as anything. But I do have some symptoms of mania:

On Call

So my friend just called me to tell me that her twelve year old roommate has been really sick for an entire day. I got to run a differential! So, patient has had nausea for a day, with intermittent vomiting and diarrhea over the same period. Abdominal pain crampy. Pain is also diffuse and not localized to the RLQ (if it were, suspect appendicitis). Patient is afebrile (almost entirely rules out appendicitis). Most likely diagnosis: considering the age of the patient, most likely cause of pain is gastroenteritis, or stomach flu. Patient is advised to stay hydrated and replace lost electrolytes. It is recommended that patient also go to school tomorrow if she feels any better at all.