Do any of your medical schools offer medical humanities elective such as medical writing, medicine and literature or any other similar electives? If so, have you taken one and what were your thoughts?
I am admitting a patient who was discharged about week ago from pulmonary department for pneumonia of unknown origin and whole body nonpuritic rash.
She is in her 60ties, diabetic, hypertonic, obesity etc etc.
When she was being adnited to pulmo she was hypotensive tachycardic and she was less alert that is normal for her.
They gave her fluids and administrated iv atb augmentin (first mistake). After the admision they took the blood cultures and urine samples for cultivation. Her bood results came back with the results u would expect for somebody going thru a serious infection and that is not a point of this post.
The chest x ray showed “covid like” findings, tho her pcr was negative. Several times. Idk.
Well they gave her macrolide and cefalosp. 3 gen.
She got better.
In the hospital electronic system u can see that she was checked by a surgeon during her stay at the pulmonary dep. He was taking care of her small but deep wound on her foot. She got it 3 weeks back after she tripped. She is a diabetic and sensitivity in her feet is low.
She was also seen by a dermatologist who said that it is probably an allergic rash. The dermatologist did not describe the wound on her foot.
The doc who admitted the patient have not described the wound.
So 4 weeks later now
1. She got covid while being hospitalised
2. Her urinary tract is colonised by VRE and ESBL bacteria which was very probably caused by the selective pressure of the antibiotic treatment.
3. She is shedding skin like a snake.
This is why I think every rash should be seen by an ID doc.
a pretty slow but rad session in pharma this afternoon. was sleepy so i had a jasmine tea with me!! i am not over the tranquil, cold study vibes from yesterday so i put ac on, turned on the lamp, and put a fire crackling with a raining sound bg while studying
i’m going to memorize next what i just studied this afternoon (lipid-lowering drugs, GIT, anti-IBS drugs, respi drugs), have dinner, and go to my fave coffee shop to study with my med school friends the rest of the pharma topics for tomorrow’s exam (anti-seizure, anesthetics, drugs of abuse, analgesics, and anti-gout meds)!!!
3am. glad i spent the past 7-8 hrs talking-studying-laughing with my med friends. just showered. will study again in a few!!
a pretty slow but rad session in pharma this afternoon. was sleepy so i had a jasmine tea with me!! i am not over the tranquil, cold study vibes from yesterday so i put ac on, turned on the lamp, and put a fire crackling with a raining sound bg while studying
i’m going to memorize next what i just studied this afternoon (lipid-lowering drugs, GIT, anti-IBS drugs, respi drugs), have dinner, and go to my fave coffee shop to study with my med school friends the rest of the pharma topics for tomorrow’s exam (anti-seizure, anesthetics, drugs of abuse, analgesics, and anti-gout meds)!!!
from last night’s 1am study session!!!! would like to stay until 3am but my batt went out and my dog was with me so i couldn’t charge my devices inside. went home after and then further studied until 5am and slept for about 2-3 hours before my exam i just want to get another 3 hrs of sleep before i study for surgery!!!
despite all the midterm chaos, it has been raining since last night and the cool, damp air— the trees getting drenched, i feel at peace. this is your reminder to take it slow every once in a while, no matter how transient it may be.
hello, hello!!! studied all day and went to the gym afterwards. I just had dinner so I’m very sleepy. might take a nap before I continue studying!!! only 2 topics to go for my obstetrics midterm exam ☠️
good morning!!! i only had 3hrs of sleep and i’m fighting sleepiness throughout this morning lecture of lipid-lowering drugs. it felt weird and okay to be doing acad work again up until 5am. officially entering survival mode again for midterms week next week ☠️
it’s my dog’s birthday tho so i have that prioritize after classes. some pharma tonight after our mini celeb and after i watch olivia rodrigo’s drive home 2 u. i’m sleep-deprived but it’s going to be a good day!! happy friday!!!
It’s been a month… literally I did not realise that being in class everyday was so exhausting how did i manage to do this in high school but at last I’m actually done with class, for the remainder of the semester I’m either in clinical rotations or labs.
I’m not mad about being able to make my own schedule and I’m definitely going to enjoy it before entering the second cycle of med school, especially since I’ve been feeling like a main character in a 90s meeting some friends for dinner once a week.
So February is definitely going to be a self study/rest because it’s the dead of winter/understand what will be required to pass because no one is telling us anything kinda of month but I’m excited, what is on your plate ?
You know it’s a toxic environment for vulnerable patients when…
Your patient tells you: “you’re the only one who actually listens to me and doesn’t judge me.”
You overhear multiple medical staff complaining and saying judgmental comments about your patients.
When a nurse from the floor hears I’m in addictions and tells me : “if you could discharge all your patients, you would make my life so much easier hehehe”.
Patient who I’ve been following for a few weeks for her addictions:
« You know what? I think we would have SO MUCH FUN if we would go out together!!! I might not be as pretty as you - but damn, I can be fun when I go out! »
This comment by my friend made my mind twirl a bit.
My immediate answer always feel like : “No! Of course I dont LIKE studying. It’s an obligation.”
I feel like there’s almost a taboo to enjoy studying.
But when I actually take a moment to reflect.
I realize… I do actually like studying.
Not necessarily the moments before exams. Not the cramming. Not the few hours of sleep it gives me. That’s not the moments I enjoy it most, I’ll admit.
But I do enjoy it for these reasons.
It has always been my escape. My meditation, sort of speak.
From when I was young, I could give it my undivided attention. No stress or anxiety of the outer world could bother me, because I was focused on the task at hand.
It gave me excuses while growing up for why I didn’t participate in some activities. “Sorry, I need to study” was always there for me when I needed it.
It let me be by myself.
Headphones on. World out.
Dancing to good music while reciting texts.
Excuses to go to cute coffee shops.
It let me give all my focus towards something rewarding.
It cured my boredom (ironic, I know).
And I see these things more clearly now that I’m at the end of my university (10 years later, you know…)
Because when I feel bored, have nothing else to do… I tell myself “maybe I should study”.
When Dave Dubin learned at age 29 that he had colon cancer, it wasnt a big surprise. His grandfather and father had both survived the disease. “It was almost the Dubin way, and we just went on,” Dubin says. He had surgery and chemotherapy, but his cancer came back 10 years later. Genetic testing finally found an explanation for his family’s trials: a mutation in a DNA repair gene that lets genetic errors pile up in dividing cells. The disease, Lynch syndrome, comes with up to a 70% lifetime risk of cancer.
Dubin, 55, gets annual colonoscopies, endoscopies, and imaging scans, which caught a third cancer, in his kidney. His eldest son, Zach Dubin, 26, inherited the DNA repair mutation and also regularly gets checked for cancer. “It’s no fun. Nobody enjoys it,” Dave Dubin says—not the 2-day colonoscopy prep and procedure, nor the worrying about possible tumors. The disease also turned him into an activist. He and his family in Haworth, New Jersey, launched a nonprofit, AliveAndKickn, to promote research and awareness of Lynch syndrome, which affects an estimated 1.1 million people in the United States.
“There is a lot of anxiety in this patient population,” says oncologist and geneticist Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez of the MD Anderson Cancer Center. “It is a big psychological burden.” In hopes of easing that strain, Vilar-Sanchez will soon lead a clinical trial of a vaccine to prevent or at least delay Lynch-related cancers. If it works, Dave Dubin says, “it could be huge.”
Vaccines to prevent certain types of cancer already exist. They target viruses: hepatitis B virus, which can trigger liver cancer, and human papillomavirus, which causes cervical and some other cancers. But most cancers are not caused by viruses. The Lynch vaccine trial will be one of the first clinical tests of a vaccine to prevent nonviral cancers.
The idea is to deliver into the body bits of proteins, or antigens, from cancer cells to stimulate the immune system to attack any incipient tumors. The concept isn’t new, and it has faced skepticism. A decade ago, a Natureeditorial dismissed a prominent breast cancer advocacy group’s goal of developing a preventive vaccine by 2020 as “misguided,” in part because of the genetic complexity of tumors. The editorial called the goal an “objective that science cannot yet deliver.” But now, a few teams—including one funded by the same advocacy group, the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC)—are poised to test preventive vaccines, in some cases in healthy people at high genetic risk for breast and other cancers. Their efforts have been propelled by new insights into the genetic changes in early cancers, along with the recognition that because even nascent tumors can suppress the immune system, the vaccines should work best in healthy people who have never had cancer.
