Confessions of a Med Student- Part II

So the week before last I told you all about how much I adored biochem, not! But I survived it and so it was on to term 2.

This week I'll reflect on the term that was 2nd. (Genetics, Parasitology, Physiology, Neurology, CPM)

It started off with Genetics and Parasitology and truth be told these were well taught and interesting. Each one was only one or two hours of lecture a day, worth two credits each and only two weeks long.  It was compact, doable and a great way to start the term. Good times.

Side Note- I got a toaster oven. Now you might be wondering how this fits into term 2. But it made all the difference for me. I love to bake and having only a stove in my on campus apartment wore on me during first term (not that I would have had time to make anything but the option would have been nice.) Anyhow I made it my goal to get a toaster oven 2nd term and I think that it was one of the things that kept me sane. That and the hammock that I ordered for my balcony. Some people need to run, I need to bake. I like making something from raw ingredients and I love to give away my baked goods, which I did a lot of during the term. Now back to the classroom aspect....

The true fun began when we started Neurology and Physiology. We also had Community and Preventative Medicine to balance things out. In full disclosure, I am interested in Neuro and have past experience in the area so I expected to enjoy the class and was a bit disappointed. The team taught approach made Neuro seem like 5 different classes: there was neuroanatomy and then neurotransmitters and then the neuro clinical exam. And each subject was taught by a different prof which would have been fine except it was as if they never talked to one another. Each lecturer didn't seem to know what we had already learned so I found it frustrating and a bit disorganized. On the upside small groups were fairly useful, we worked through cases and identified structures on plastic brain models. And they did attempt to bring it all together at the end with comprehensive cases but by that point it was too late to be making integrations.

Physiology on the other hand was under the auspice of Dr. Holroyd who I would easily nominate at Professor of the Year. Entertaining in the way that only someone from Australia can be and well presented material, it was almost fun to go to class. Our 10 minute breaks would be filled with Dr. Holroyd's music and as he turned up the volume he would add the visualizer via the projector for full effect. You felt like you were at a rock concert instead of in medical school. But it wasn't easy. I had to work very hard in both neuro (anatomy again, ugh) and physio. Some of my classmates would talk about how physio was all just common sense, I never felt that way, but it was important to the basics of medicine and I felt like we were given a solid background. I frequently look back at my physio notes, they are golden.

So to sum up term 2: Much better than first term. Got a toaster oven.  Classes really depended upon the lecturer of the day. Dr. Holroyd was/is amazing.

So all in all it was an interesting yet difficult term.

Next time I'll tell you all about on one of my favorites, term 3!

Brain Day

In honor of devoting most of my day to neuro, here is a way interesting bio from a wiki search I did today.

Exceptional case

One interesting case involving a person with past hydrocephalus was a 44-year old French man, whose brain had been reduced to little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue, due to the buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in his head. The man, who had had a shunt inserted into his head to drain away fluid (which was removed when he was 14), went to a hospital after he had been experiencing mild weakness in his left leg.

DWS: All of the black in the middle is cerebrospinal fluid and the brain matter is the rim of white along the outside of the skull. This is a screen shot from aFox News report.

In July 2007, Fox News quoted Dr. Lionel Feuillet of Hôpital de la Timone inMarseille as saying: "The images were most unusual... the brain was virtually absent."^[10] When doctors learned of the man's medical history, they performed a computed tomography (CT) scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, and were astonished to see "massive enlargement" of the lateral ventricles in the skull. Intelligence tests showed the man had an IQ of 75, below the average score of 100. This would be considered "borderline intellectual functioning"- which is to say not quite mental retardation.

Remarkably, the man was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant, leading an at least superficially normal life, despite having enlarged ventricles with a decreased volume of brain tissue. "What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life," commented Dr. Max Muenke, a pediatric brain defect specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute. "If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side."^[11][12]

I love that site, and speaking of loving web sites I have started a new list of links with some of my favorites or most helpful to date. If you have anything that I should add to my list please let me know....

And since today is self-declared brain day, here is an interesting theory on play. I obviously went to the wrong pre-school. Check out this article in the New York Times Magazine: Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?


Speaking of self-control I think its time I return to my studies. I think I've developed ADHD since starting medical school but more on that later... Time to pre-read for 2 hours of immuno tomorrow.

Class-Notes and Quotes

So today we started our next block of classes and I'm pretty excited and a little apprehensive: Community and Preventative Medicine (final in 3 weeks), Neuroscience (love the topic but after the self-assessment quiz I'm reminded how much I really don't love anatomy. Time to learn names of a million structures, oh goodie!) and Physiology (Cardio, Renal and Pulmonary, oh my.)

Today was all intro so I don't have much to say except the profs seem great, funny, nice and ready for us to hit the books. But I did manage to find a quote that pretty much sums up each class, so without further ado.

CPM: "If people are falling over the edge of a cliff and sustaining injuries, the problem can be dealt with by stationing ambulances at the bottom, or erecting a fence at the top." -Dennis Burkitt

Neuroscience: "Don't be afraid." Oh and don't forget to take the on-line self assessment quiz where you must label and learn a few hundred gyri, vessels, sulci and nerves. No big deal.

Physiology: "Skin, skin its a wonderful thing, keeps the outside out and the inside in."