There are sexual headaches. That's right--the human body can get a headache from having sex. Sex headaches. And I have to know that. I did not want to know that.
Jan 20, 2012
Jan 19, 2012
Discomforting
For the last two weeks in anatomy lab we have been sawing through a human head. It's discomforting. At first we were just sawing through the occipital and temporal bones. But then we started skinning the face. At first I found it amusing that our body, Debbie, was still very attractive with only dermis covering her face. But then we cut through her, straight down--through the chin, lips, nose, forehead. Between the eyes. Still pretty. But then we took a hand saw to her face. When we opened her mouth we looked around her palate. She was missing teeth. A lot. She only had 22. Most people have 32-36 (wisdom teeth are obnoxiously removed). I noted a cavity that hadn't been filled. No fake teeth had been added to her alveolar plate.
Someone suggested that perhaps Debbie was homeless. That did not sit right with me.
So I forgot about it.
It's really interesting, getting to know someone on a rather intimate level. Debbie, this entire year, has seemed very real to me. I have enjoyed getting to know her. But it has made me think. I'm thinking about the patients I might one day have. I'm thinking about all the information they'll give me that I'll have to file away under "TMI" and all the information I will be legally obligated to write down. And then there will be things I will want to forget but can't. I am sure even in this I will be happy I chose the profession. People are fascinating. I could observe people all day. I am excited for that part of medicine. What I am worried about is that I may one day be able to handle discomforting information much more readily than I do now. And if I no longer feel can I still be capable of empathizing? Because whenever something bad happens to someone, the natural response is to imagine how you would feel if you were them--mirror neurons fire away and all that jazz. That's why when you see someone break their ankle, you're suddenly much more aware of the weight pressing down on your feet.
Which is why I should be wincing in pain as my lab partners hack at Debbie's skull. But I no longer feel like something is horribly wrong when I probe through her nerves and vessels, peel away connective tissue, rub my fingers on exposed bone. I feel like a serial killer.
Now that's discomforting.
Jan 17, 2012
Eczema... Psioriasis
I aced the "Essentials of Clinical Reasoning" (ECR) exam on dermatology. I aced it. And yet... I still have no idea what's causing the skin around my nose and under my eyes to flake. I'm not sure if the white patch above my shin is an autoimmune response or simply a response to irritation from all the wool socks I wear. I know that eczema runs in my family. But the one time I saw a dermatologist, he told me I had psioriasis alba. So no matter how much I try to clinically reason with myself, I still fall short of any conclusive self-diagnosis. Moral? Good grades are not congruent with applicable knowledge.
Dec 8, 2011
Foreign Sounding Doctor
So good news! I passed my first medical school course, ensuring that I am a little bit closer to becoming a medical doctor. That pressure, coupled with the fact that I wrote a 50,169 word novel in the month of November (for NaNoWriMo), is why I have neglected this blog for the most part. I really would like to get my novel published one day, as it was an attempt to make primary care physicians sexy. Improving people's opinions for primary care physicians is my primary goal.
Regardless, I would like to get back on point. Yesterday all the first year students, across all the disciplines, had our HMTD course (nobody knows what HMTD stands for). We were split up in groups, and my group got to hear from a man in his seventies who had had a hemorrhagic stroke about five years ago. A doctor, a pharmacist, and a physical therapist talked to him about his recovery since the incident. The doctor was my community leader, Dr. Senno. Dr. Senno is a really loud man, a neurologist who deals with traumatic brain injuries. He also has an accent of medium thickness (which means its detectable, but you can understand pretty much everything he says).
At one point, he began talking about how easy it is to develop a rapport with your patient--asking the man questions pertaining to the day (it was Pearl Harbor Day), the man's hobbies, the man's career. When it was discovered that the patient and his first doctor treating him during and after his stroke had both gone to the same undergraduate institution, Dr. Senno had noted that he had done rotations at the very same hospital. Dr. Senno then proceeded to go on a tangent about how important it is, especially for doctors with foreign sounding last names, to establish credentials.
Should I change my last name? What would I change it to? No. I like my last name, even if people tend to pronounce it as Abandagu, even though my last name is phonetical and clearly Apantaku. It scares people. I don't want to scare people. But things should change, if only because the majority of the students in my class aren't white. But until then, I guess I could be Dr. A.
Regardless, I would like to get back on point. Yesterday all the first year students, across all the disciplines, had our HMTD course (nobody knows what HMTD stands for). We were split up in groups, and my group got to hear from a man in his seventies who had had a hemorrhagic stroke about five years ago. A doctor, a pharmacist, and a physical therapist talked to him about his recovery since the incident. The doctor was my community leader, Dr. Senno. Dr. Senno is a really loud man, a neurologist who deals with traumatic brain injuries. He also has an accent of medium thickness (which means its detectable, but you can understand pretty much everything he says).
At one point, he began talking about how easy it is to develop a rapport with your patient--asking the man questions pertaining to the day (it was Pearl Harbor Day), the man's hobbies, the man's career. When it was discovered that the patient and his first doctor treating him during and after his stroke had both gone to the same undergraduate institution, Dr. Senno had noted that he had done rotations at the very same hospital. Dr. Senno then proceeded to go on a tangent about how important it is, especially for doctors with foreign sounding last names, to establish credentials.
Should I change my last name? What would I change it to? No. I like my last name, even if people tend to pronounce it as Abandagu, even though my last name is phonetical and clearly Apantaku. It scares people. I don't want to scare people. But things should change, if only because the majority of the students in my class aren't white. But until then, I guess I could be Dr. A.
Dec 4, 2011
MANDATORY
In undergrad, I helped organize events for our Biological Honor Society, TriBeta. One of these events was the Chili Cook Off, and to get people excited about the event, I created a ton of flyers that made the event seem mandatory for select groups of students who might be Biology majors:
One of the fourteen or so different flyers I made caused a lot of problems, however. It read:
The professor who organized TriBeta got an angry cease and desist e-mail from the women who organized the pre-meds. The reason? She was getting a lot of e-mails from freaked out students asking whether or not they had to attend. A lot. Our professor told us to immediately remove the flyers. I was saddened. If people had just been logical, they would have realized that not only did it make no sense for TriBeta to have the authority to interfere with pre-med going ons, but that the high variability in the signs would suggest that there was no way the event could be mandatory. Sarcasm in print is hard to understand, yes, but it should be easy to understand if you get a lot of helpful hints. Or even if you just think with a discerning mind. I wanted to scribble on the flyers, "Relax STIFFS!" Thankfully, I did not. I just removed them, defeated.
Later our professor told me that he thought they were very amusing, but, leave it to the pre-med students to be driven into a tizzy by clearly humorous signs (he was an ecology professor).
I now go to medical school, and these people I am surrounded by, many of them behave with the same freaked-out tizziness of the pre-med students from my young adulthood. It is hexing. But also pretty funny. I wonder if I could increase readership by putting up signs around Rosalind Franklin University that read:
MANDATORY for all students enrolled in Physics 101 who would rather not be.
MANDATORY for all students going abroad to either Uganda or Costa Rica next semester.
MANDATORY for all students who know what Isoamyl Acetate smells like.
MANDATORY for all students who are Nolan Sheppard.
One of the fourteen or so different flyers I made caused a lot of problems, however. It read:
MANDATORY for all pre-med students.
Later our professor told me that he thought they were very amusing, but, leave it to the pre-med students to be driven into a tizzy by clearly humorous signs (he was an ecology professor).
I now go to medical school, and these people I am surrounded by, many of them behave with the same freaked-out tizziness of the pre-med students from my young adulthood. It is hexing. But also pretty funny. I wonder if I could increase readership by putting up signs around Rosalind Franklin University that read:
"LESS THAN CLINICAL" is MANDATORY READING FOR ALL M1s.
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