So, I finally got around to posting the powerpoint my group used to make our final presentation for Physiology. I had a lot of fun making it. Just click on the slide to advance it. Please note, if you are a current M1 at the University of Tennessee it is an honor code violation to view this before you have made your presentation. We only had five minutes for this presentation and the slide supported the presenter (not a replacement).
Studying
Just so you know I’m still around, I’m just a bit disconnected right now through the end May. Have a 60 question “Assessment” (i.e. combined quiz in all four of the classes) tomorrow and another one a week from Monday or the 21st. Then two weeks (29th) from next Tuesday we have our first block exam of the second year (200 question, four hours to complete it). After that, then I can start thinking about the summer. Until then must learn – Amoxicillin, Pipercillin, Imipenem and many more.
What a year
Well, it is official. Finished my first year in medical school. We are still considered M1s by the school until end of May but we started our new classes last Monday. I think this year is going to be much better in terms of interesting material. Everything we are learning now is clinically relevant making it much easier to study. The only problem is the quantity of material covered. We started four new classes for this block Pathology (9 hrs), Neurology (7 hrs), Pharmacology (6 hrs) and Microbiology (6 hrs) for a total of 28 credits. When we come back next fall we will add another class Pathophysiology (12 hrs) for a total of 40 credit hours. With all the book work, it is hard sometimes to remember why I came to medical school. It is hard to remember that there are stories of patients on the other end of every question, case and lecture. To not disconnect all the information from the thought that someone is affected by this or that disease. I guess the time will come for connecting and remembering why, right now the task is to learn it.
Last week
Brief post today. This week is the last week of block classes for my M1 year only 2 and 1/2 weeks left. Gotta hit the books!
Hum, just noticed something weird with my archives, all my old posts have the wrong year. Oh well, no time to figure out why.
Anyway, I was going to say something about school, but forgot what I was going to say. Hope that doesn’t happen next week during exams. Maybe I’ll post my physiology groups powerpoint after all presentations Thursday, only problem is next years class isn’t allow to look at it since it would be an honor code violation for them to look at it I’ll have to check with my group but ya’ll might find it interesting plus I really think the PPT looks cool. Maybe if I remove the conclusions. . .
Friendly Advice
If you ever need to get a Hep B vaccination make sure you don’t do it right after you spend a day with your preceptor. Two weeks ago, after spending the day with my preceptor and seeing several patients with the flu and colds, the next day I got the last shot in the Hep B vaccination series. Didn’t think anything about it until Sunday morning when I woke-up with the flu. To compound things, I drove home for my mother’s birthday that weekend and wasn’t in any condition to drive back until the following week. At that point I didn’t want to miss a day of studying so I waited until yesterday to drive back (only two lectures that day).
Definitely made for an interesting first week of the block. Now to catchup on all of this weeks material after getting a slow start last week.
Good thing spring break is just a week away (extra week to study without classes).
Ten more weeks . . .
Yes, it’s hard to believe that in 10 weeks (including spring break) I’ll be done with my first year in medical school. Only one block left before we start our second year the 3rd week of April. Time has flown by. It’s really hard to believe. But that’s life in medical school.
This past week was spent taking exams, er, I should say this past week was spent study intermixed with 3 exams. Waking up this morning I felt like I should be studying or something. I felt like I wasn’t doing something right. Like I was getting behind. But no, not this morning.
I still woke up before 6am, but I slept in. Yep, I slept in until 5:20ish. It was really nice getting 8 hours of sleep and not having to study from 4am to 9pm. In a way, however, I really enjoy the studying. Yes, there is a disconnect with reality living like this; but, I’m not in reality right now. I’m in medical school. My purpose it to become a Doctor and that is what I’m doing. In 3 year, 3 months maybe I’ll get back to reality.
Oh wait, that is when I get to start residency. I guess I need to be catching up on life or something like that now.
Well, back to cleaning the Apartment and then to a friends house to play some games.
I’ll be posting more about life in medical school later.
Tidbits . . .
Almost every lecture has an interesting tidbit of information. For instance, yesterday I learned two interesting tidbits. First, I learned that grapefruit juice can enhance the effect of certain drugs metabolized by CYP3A4 (it does this by blocking the enzyme allowing more of the prescription drug to stay in circulation). Therefore, as future Doctors, we should keep this in mind and talk to patients about drinking grapefruit juice while taking prescription drugs metabolized by the CYP3A4 enzyme (over half of all prescription drugs today are metabolized by it). The other tidbit was on the lighter side . . .
Study tip: Turn off TV while you work
The Wonder of our Creator
Many times it is hard to step back from our activities and realize our place in life. Aptly termed the “Tyranny of the Urgent”, in many cases, is what determines the course of our lives. Yet, there are times in that “tyranny” that we should step back and see the big picture. See God’s hand at work and how His creation is glorifying HIm.
During the first two weeks of this semester I studied molecular embryology, an incredibly interesting subject. One of the more interesting topics we covered was a gene called PAX. The PAX gene are a multi-gene family that is a group of 9 unlinked members found in both mice & humans that controls their development. This is often pointed to as as sequence conservation between homologues of distantly related species. That, in so many words, basically means the PAX gene is used as proof that we have a common ancestor.
The similarities between the mouse and human PAX genes is quite striking. Both have the same number (9 of them) and each controls development of similar aspects in humans and mice. It is a really incredible design how the PAX genes cause our cells to express different parts of our bodies from our eyes to feet. The PAX gene takes a set of cells that are all the same and notifies them where they are located in the developing mouse or human and controls the differentiation of those cells (what the cells become . . . eye, feet, etc).
The PAX gene really is an ingenious idea and sorta reminds me of the development of the semiconductor. Before the development of the semiconductor, all electronics were large, bulky and expensive. After the semiconductors development, our electronics have miniaturized to the point that now we have more computing power in our cell phones then the most powerful computers created before the development of semiconductors.
The reason I thought of semiconductors when studying the PAX gene maybe best explained by a cell phone and an iPod. If we were to tear each one apart we would see common design and control based on semiconductors. It would be easy to see that each, the cellphone and iPod, has developed advantages over a common ancestor. The cellphone for example evolved wireless capabilities making it able to easily communicate with others of it’s species. The iPod, on the other hand, developed a click wheel making it easy for it to communicate with other species. It quite obvious that both the cellphone and iPod are based on semiconductors and without the semiconductors they wouldn’t exist. Thus, it is easy to deduce that they must have had a common ancestor, i.e. something like an iPhone.
Because we know the history of the semiconductor, cellphone and iPod it would be absurd to assume they came from a distantly related iPhone. The semiconductor was a simple, elegant design that revolutionized the way man has designed everything (not just electronic). In the same way, why should our Creator come up with a new design to control our development. If something works well, why come up with different designs for mice and humans. The PAX gene is a wonderful example of a simple, elegant design that is reused, just like the semiconductor, in many different applications. The simple elegance of it is why I look at it as evidence of a common designer and not of a common ancestor.
“Definitive” proof global warming is true (Updated)
This is definitive proof that global warming is taking place somewhere else, at least it isn’t warming here in Memphis. We just got 1 and a quarter inches of snow. The funniest part is school has been closed. I don’t remember the last time I got a snow day and I had to move to Memphis to get it.
More pictures coming . . . They are posted. Checkout the snow images
My “first” patient and operation
Last week during my DRS class I had a really funny experience. Less then a year ago I worked as a computer programmer and all-around computer support guru for several different people and friends. 6 months ago, I started medical school and left almost all my computer experience behind in my new relationships. I didn’t tell anyone but a select few that I had a B.S. in computer science and that working on computers was second nature to me.
Well last week when I was apprenticing under my preceptor (local doctor in the community) all that changed. We had seen several patients and had some downtime in the afternoon. My preceptor pulled out his personal laptop and plugged it into his computer network and mentioned under his breath, “I hope it connects because it didn’t work yesterday.” Moments later, it didn’t work and I offered my experience to try and fix it.
After a few minutes debugging, it turned out that the 5th pin in the ethernet slot was stuck down and wasn’t making contact with the ethernet cable. In order to fix it, I needed a small tool to slip under it and pull it up. My preceptor produce a syringe with a 16 gage needle and the next thing I knew I was in an examining room with his laptop on the examining table (better light) and started my first minor operation.
First thing I did was to bend the very tip of the needle at a right angle so I could slip the needle under the depressed pin. Next, I grabbed an otoscope, turn its light on and looked through it to get a better view of the problematic pin. A few moments later, the procedure was over and I had brought the laptop back to my preceptor’s office (the recovery room) plugged it in and it worked.
Needless to say, I don’t have an pictures because I was unable to get the permission of the patient (actually I just forgot).