The Journey Continues

Referring to the old adage, "Time flies when you're having..." well, "fun." 

Time has certainly flown and I am now deep into my second year of Med School. It has certainly been a wild ride and like any adventure, it has had its ups and its downs. But overall, it's been a blast!

At this very moment, I am sitting in a study room perusing over the endocrine system (Taking a break only to update my severely neglected blog). This probably seems like a poor choice for a Friday evening and I can imagine that most people my age would prefer to be doing something much more interesting. My response to this; It is all par for the course. 

Now that I am well into my second year, I have reached the marathon phase. With less than six months until I have to take the first part of the Medical Licensing board exams, you could probably say that I am around mile marker 13 or so. 

Don't let this fool you though. Medical School has been so much more than simply studying. I have been able to get involved in some really great organizations during my time here. One, for example, has allowed me to travel to conferences to interact with other medical students across the country and to learn how they do things in their respective schools. It is really quite interesting to see how other parts of the country view and handle medical education. Some schools still have the old curriculum where it is cutthroat and competitive while others have group based learning in which they work through case studies. I personally favor my own curriculum where we still have lecture based content with a healthy spattering of case studies. 

Well, unfortunately, the endocrine system calls. This was probably not my most robust posting, but on my schedule, it will have to do for now. I would say I promise to update soon, but I have made this promise so many times before and much like my bank account, it has been an empty one. Until next time...

TB 

"We often hear of people breaking down from overwork, but in nine out of ten they are really suffering from worry or anxiety."

-John Lubbock

A Patient Can Have as Many Diseases as He Damn Well Pleases

Well... I once again have dropped the ball. This time I have gone a good few months without posting much of anything. At this point, trying to fill everyone in about what has happened in the past few month would take a novel rather than a single post. So, the abbreviated version is that medical school is going really well! I have successfully completed my first semester and now I can officially say that I am one eighth of a doctor!

My schedule has been pretty hectic and trying fit everything in has definitely been a challenge. Fortunately, I like to be busy. Medical school has not let me down in that regard. I have classes everyday and right now my main class is my anatomy and physiology course. Of course, Umass feels that "anatomy and physiology"is too simple of a name so they call it "Development, Structure, and Function." Basically, this course provides the foundation of the human body and teaches us what "normal" and "healthy" structures are supposed to look like. We have to wait until next year to really start learning the hundreds of diseases and disorders that we are expected to learn for the board exams. 

What we have learned about diseases, is that patients can and will have many of them and that it is our job to sort things out. With patients that have many ailments, we are supposed to find a diagnosis that can explain all of them in one whack. For this, we use the concept of Occam's Razor, "When you hear hoof-beats think horses not zebras." That is to say, we should find the simplest and most concise diagnosis that explains everything and not try use several and far-fetched diagnoses to accomplish the same task. However, if this is not possible, then we may be required to fall back on the slightly modified Hickam's Dictum that states that, "A patient can have as many diseases as he damn well pleases."

Well I am out of time and I must go read up about the skull and the gazillion bones that go with it. 

TB

"We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. Therefore, to the same natural effects we must, so far as possible, assign the same causes."

-Sir Isaac Newton