I Remember Having a Blog....

I have been a bad blogger. I keep feeling guilty about not posting, but I just haven't found time to get my thoughts on "paper". I"m afraid there won't be much to read until October though, because exams are looming ahead.

In the meantime, Anatomy Katie posted a spot-on and hilarious piece about our most recent dissection. (follow the hyperlink)

A quick run-down of what's been happening:

1. My Katie visited last weekend (~8 days ago) and we had a great time making dinner together, etc. It was really nice to be "away" from med school for the weekend.
2. Last week was my second set of quizzes. Even though I spent most of the previous weeekend NOT studying, I was golden for the anatomy quiz - in contrast to the first set, I knew to study ahead so that I wasn't scrambling to get everything in my brain by Monday.
   
3. By the end of the week, my mind was fried. I was emotionally wrought, which - apologies to my anatomy group - was pretty evident during Friday's lab.
   
4. Immediately after lab, I took my online biochem quiz, got in the car and drove directly to Ohio.
   
5. This past weekend, I went to the OSU game and helped my Katie and her roomates move into their new house. I studied very little, and felt very good about it.
6. Now it's time to get down to business. Anatomy, Biochem, and Histology are next Mon, Wed, and Fri.

PS The list was unnecessary, but it was fun for me.

Clinical Correlation: Rare Genetic Disorder

1) The patient presents with severe hemolytic anemia, causing painful facial edema and a particularly dark jaundice - this symptom grouping is often referred to as craniofacial Solanum tuberosum - and swelling of the mouth, lips, and tongue.

2) Further analysis shows a peculiar developmental condition involving anatomical mismatch, involving the same gene that causes ottis dorsum (which you've seen here before). This was particularly visible as a pronounced optic armitis.

3) Many of the 'accessory' appendages of the body were missing on inital physical examination. However a rectal examination revealed many of the organs had migrated posteriorly.

You don't believe me? My brother posted a picture of this disorder on his blog!

Yes I am so much of a dork that I thought this post was hilarious! I'm not sorry. Also, what's the deal with Mr. Potato-head having a butt cabinet? Does anybody really put stuff back there?

Delayed Entry: The Good Side of "Last Week"

The whole point of my Aug 29 Posting Title "The Bad Side of Last Week" was lost due to the fact that I got lazy. The original idea was to quickly follow up with "The Good Side of Last Week" in a charming little juxtaposition. I made the mistake of telling myself I'd wait until the next day. So, now it's been a week and I'm writing tangents about spices! It's time to re-center...

--cue harp music and wavy horizontal lines, ala "having a flashback"--

There were alot of GOOD aspects of "last week", but I thought it would be too confusing and long winded to mention both the good and the bad at once. On Saturday, I was part of a beautiful thing called a study group. As a rule, I avoided study groups as an undergrad. They always disintegrated into nonesense because someone got bored, or two people had a personality conflict, or everybody just wanted to talk about their day. It was just inefficient and boring for me.

But this was different. Everyone in our anatomy group who was in town met at the library during Saturday afternoon ready to go. We chatted a little while, then all gathered around a skeleton and started grilling each other. The questions were uncompromising, and you really had to know your stuff...but everyone was so supportive! If you don't know that muscle's innervation, now you know to study it. "Let's keep moving on." I was surrounded by intelligent, well-prepared, and collegial peers! It was a great feeling, and I honestly learned more during that time than I would have learned studying alone.

The second good aspect of last week was that my Katie* came down to visit for the first time since I moved from back home to school (~7 hours away). Having her around was the best part of the weekend. I could mentally walk away from all of my med student baggage and spend quality time with her instead of fretting about some meaningless quiz in a couple of days.

This brings me to a mini-rant. Everybody tries to say you shouldn't be involved with someone during med school. The doctor I previously mentioned (Dr. Johnson) gave me a long speech about how he was so glad that he waited to have a significant other until after residency...you're much better off giving med school your full attention and finding a nice woman once you're all done. Well, I think that's a bunch of crap.

While the weekend I mentioned is not necessarily indicative of all of med school, one thing that stands out about it is that contrary to Dr. Johnson's claim I was better off (ie more sane) since Katie was there. Yes, of course there was compromise - I studied alot more during the week in order to have more time for her during the weekend, and she had to entertain herself for hours when I actually did have to study alone - but that's the nature of life. I'm sorry to say though that the medical profession is brimming with very intelligent people who refuse to compromise in their daily lives.

I think they're worse off for it.




*You may have to doublecheck your playbills, because this is the introduction of a new character on the blog. I call her My Katie only to distinguish her from Katie-from-anatomy-group. She's in school back home, and for those friends and family members who are dying to know more about her, just email me.

So what's all this business about Cinnamon

Eric is worried that our carton of eggs will become culinary hand grenades on Septmber 9 (exp date), so I've been trying to eat them at every opportunity recently. I was looking for something new to put on my eggs this morning - to make them taste a little less like plastic and a little more like...well, food - when in a snap decision I grabbed the cinnamon shaker and *BAM*-ed the eggs, Emeril stlye.

"Cinnamon?" you might say, "What's this guy's problem?" I don't know what came over me either! I don't usually put cicnnamon on anything.

It's just that people keep talking about cinnamon in their diet, and how it decreases heart disease risk, cures cancer...and might even mow your lawn if you ask nicely. I have no idea of the bona fide health benefits and/or risks of a heavy dose of cinnamon on your cereal, but an exhaustive literature review (googled it) leads me to believe there might be something to this one. Link!

Are you getting enough cinnamon in your diet?? This seems the new high point in absurd dietary recommendations. Next thing you know, we're asking "How about my allspice intake? You know, I don't think I'm getting my recommended daily allowance of Mrs. Dash either..."

So, open question: Of the people who read this blog (yes, both of you), has anybody heard this business about cinnamon in the diet? Have you added it to your diet, and/or did your physician recommend doing so?

Maybe it's good for you. Maybe it causes ears to grow out of your back. All I know is that cinnamon on the eggs is REALLY tasty!