Funny Video

via Highly Trained Monkey

Fall Pictures/ Painting

I think I might have said this already but... I love the fall. Below are two very random photos (one taking while driving, don't freak mom... notice: no cars).

The reason for the first one: it's hard to see but there is a huge tree that is all yellow, and this is what I get to see every day on the way to school (downtown D).

Please note the beautiful red trees (below) that I got to see from my bedroom (they're still red, but a little darker and losing leaves right now):

So my roommate and I have been discussing the fact that we want to paint our apartment since before the first exam (aka August), but never seemed to both be home after test weekends (or have the time). However, with the end of anatomy came the time to paint. Here is our apartment in the process of being painted:


(Yes, we did paint the entertainment center bright pink, but as you'll see in the final product pictures, it works.)


The final products: First pictures is the entry way (with greenery and nativity for Christmas).


The Living Room: The picture on the floor will be hung once the tree is gone, as the tree is currently stealing it's intended wall space.


See, I told you the pink entertainment center worked:

Oh the happy things in life.

There is so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, so I'm sharing my list:

1. My amazing family.
   
2. Family holidays/vacation in general (after missing a years worth, I'm so happy to be home for this year's family holidays).
3. My grandmother, who is doing well after breaking her hip about 2 months ago.
4. Anatomy and histology are over!
5. I did really well in histology! PTL!
6. Pandora now has classical music (found this tonight, which makes me overjoyed)!
7. M1 Women's Fellowship started tonight at my place... it was amazing. I can't wait for next Tuesday!
8. I'm going home tomorrow before afternoon classes (therefore, indirectly thankful for the wonders of streaming lectures).
9. Great times: Sunday's Post-Gross Potluck, Monday's Mini-Thanksgiving Potluck.
10. Great friends!
11. A great roommate in a great apartment, that I'm thankful for everytime I come home.
12. Our green walls (silly, I know... but we just painted them... they make me smile everytime I walk in the door).
13. Music.... whether it be classical, worship, pop, or rap, it always makes me happy.
14. Being in medical school.... crazy, yes, but it's truly the answer to prayers.
15. Finding an amazing church, with an amazing young professionals group.
    
16. All the little things!

Medical Trivia #2

• "The number one reason Americans visit the doctor is to treat an upper respiratory tract infection." Hmm, interesting. Not much else to talk about with that one.

• "Thirty million men in the United States suffer from erectile dysfunction." Guess that could explain A LOT of things about men.... we'll leave it at that.

• "Modern researchers believe that some mystics, including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Saint Paul, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Marcel Proust, likely had temporal-lobe epilepsy, giving them visions and transcendental religious experiences, and feeding an obsession with matters of the spirit." I'll give them Dostoevsky and Proust, but I can't give them Paul... that would just be stupidity. I would recommend them reading some more history on Paul and Christianity in general.

• "As late as the 1930s, many doctors treated alcoholism with a regimen of morphine injections." Because giving substance abusers a different substance to abuse is SUCH a good decision. Seriously?!?! What was the logic behind that one?!?!

** Again, all the quotes are from Doctors Killed George Washington by Barrett and Mingo. The comments following are obviously not from the book.

I live in....

... the most dangerous city in the nation. Guess there's a reason for the great clinic education that I'm supposed to be getting.

The man who grew roots

Imagine a man who got a wart. Now imagine that man years later, the warts overtaking his body... growing not only all over the skin but actually growing out from the skin. That is was happened to Dede. He has a rare immune system, and that mixed with HPV lead to some serious, and unusual complications.


Unable to work, he had to have relatives take care of his two children. But he wants help. An American doctor is going to try and provide that through daily doses of Vitamin A, which apparently stops the growth of the warts. Then, once the growths stop growing and start shrinking, the other, more stubborn, growths can be removed by freezing them or by surgically removing them.

If you want to read the article:
Tree-Man on the Telegraph

Two Whole Study Days = Lots of Study Breaks

That is the last thing we saw in anatomy... yes, really. Gotta love the sense of humor our profs have. So, as Dr. G said (before showing the clip), "Celebrate in moderation" (starting Friday of course).

Blog readability

Oh.. this is fun. Guess I'm at the right level...

Can you tell that I'm procrastinating studying for my test?!? Thinking it's time to give up and go to bed. Hmm, much better than studying. :)

Medical Trivia #1

When I graduated from HS my mother gave me a book: Doctors Killed George Washington. It is a little book full of "Totally Riveting Utterly Entertaining trivia", at least according to the authors. Now, this book has pretty much sat on my self since I got it (I flipped through it every once and awhile, but haven't really read it.... I mean, it's a book of anecdotes, who has time for that?!?!).

Anyways, I digress... Anatomy classes ended today!!!! And I celebrated by 1) studying for my test on Friday, and 2) pulling fore mentioned book off the self and skimming it. That is when I decided to post some fun snippets. I'm going to try and post some every so often (hence it having its own tag and the "#1" in the title), so here goes:

"Licorice can raise your blood pressure."
Good thing I don't like licorice. :)

"Pick your saint and the Catholic Church has a patron saint for it. Here are some you may wish to know about: Saint Acacius (head-aches), Saint Cathal (hernias), Saint Giles (lameness, insanity, sterility, and epilepsy), Saint Drogo ("gravel in the urine"), Saint George (syphilis), Saint Catherine of Alexandria (diseased tongues), Saint Lucy (eye diseases, dysentery, and "hemorrhages in general", Saint Hilary of Poitiers ("backward children"), Saint Servatus ("leg diseases"), and Saint Benedict (fever, inflammation, kidney disease, and "temptations of the devil")."
Some of these makes me wonder what they did to get their specialty. And anyone see any conceident between St. George being the patron saint of syphilis and maybe George O'Malley from season 1 of Gray's??

"Calling Dr. Starbucks! In eigthteenth-century England and France, doctors prescribed coffee for a variety of diseases, from sorethroats to smallpox."
Oh coffee, how much I love thee... from taking anyway my headache to causing one when I try to detox. However, I don't think I'll try you as a cure for smallpox.... hmm, interesting.

Making a difference

Learn some words and start making poverty history:

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

I am pathetic

So.... I have decided that I'm pathetic, or a loser, or something in that line of thought. This decision came after the following 15 minutes:

-head hurting, eyes blurry... I give up on studying
-decide that I need some "social interaction" (roommate out with other friends on special dinner cruise thingy with other med school friends)
-determine to be a "good friend" and call undergrad friends
-call #1: about to watch fight with uncle and dad
-calls #2-5: no answer

Just goes to show, that other people have lives. I used to, but somehow have reverted back to being a hermit with no life.

Hmm... must work on this in the future.



p.s. Christmas music is making the studying so much. I usually don't like listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but I needed something happy to get me through the next week
p.p.s. Anatomy is done is 5 days!!!!

"Oh Happy Day"

It is official:

I have completed my first class in medical school! That's right... done, with one whole class!!! I have made it through histology/embryology. Our three hour final was yesterday and now I'm free (sort of). To say that I'm happy would be an understatement: I'm ecstatic. Histology, for those of you wondering, is studying the cellular structure of the body (think anatomy through a microscope). Basically, it's spending lots of time determining which pink looking cell is one of the many types of cells, then, once deciding that determining what this tiny cell actually does.

For example, the above picture (via lumen) is of the kidney (the outer portion of the kidney). But let me tell you a little more, so you can have a sense of the ridiculousness of what we need to know:

• The big circle structure is the renal corpuscle (or Bowman's capsule + glomerulus, aka membrane and capillary). Within this structure there at three types of cells with different function (and different structures when looking at electron microscopy pictures). I won't go into more detail for you.... but just know there's numerous pages on these three cells.
• The circles with fuzzy circles are proximal tubules, these are the first tubules to come off of the renal corpuscle (at the urinary pole to be exact). These are involved in reabsorption of lots of good stuff (including glucose by active transport.... which means if you have too much glucose, aka diabetes, your body only has these area and only so many transporters to recollect it, hence too much means glucose in your urine).
• Also seen are distal tubules, also involved in reabsorption, but of sodium. Meaning, helping concentrate your urine. You may even see a few cells that look close together at near the renal corpuscle.. this is the macula densa, which is involved in raising blood pressure as well as controlling water reabsorption through a mechanism I won't get into know (but again, is a few pages of notes).

This is just from the area around one corpuscle on one part of the kidney, which is only one part of your body.... now imagine doing that for the whole body. Can you see why I'm a little excited to be done with that class?

However, to histology/ embryology's defense.... I did enjoy the class. In fact, I knew quite a bit from my undergrad histology class and was thus really looking forward to this class. If I was grading it, I would pass it with a B+/ A-. There were parts that could have been better, lecturers that should never teach again, and boring labs... but all in all, I had a good experience.

That's not to say that I'm excited for something new. I'm getting really excited for physiology... not so much for biochemistry (both starting in a week). However, before I get there I have another "week" of gross anatomy!!!! Which I'm even more excited about being done with (NO MORE GROSS LAB, which I was sick of by unit two...) The bad thing is that I was working so hard for histo this week, that I have completely neglected anatomy and thus no nothing on the unit being tested this coming Friday. AHHH. Time to hit overdrive.

But before then, I'm taking a little mental break. Last night was dinner and a movie with friends at our place and this morning is working at a clinic... taking vital signs and basic history's. Reminding myself of the goal. :)

Until next time, have a great week!

I love it when classes....

... make me understand exactly what they're talking about in the news.

A new CNN article about common abnormalities of newborns... including: UMBILICAL HERNIATION (yay embryology!), aka big belly button.

The other "weirdness" mentioned:
- zits
- enlarged breasts
- cradle cap
- third nipple

And in other embyrology news... this time tomorrow I will be done with both histology and embryology!!

Favorite Email of the Week

So, the embryology/histology final is on Friday... Not good considering there is 330 pages of histology notes + 100 pages (at least of images) and another 170 pages of embryology notes. Hopefully I'll be able to recall enough of it to do okay. Oral quizzing has been okay, but could be better.

These email messages made the studying all the better though (skim the first one, read the response):

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Tue 11/6/2007 3:10 PM
To: Class of 2011
Subject: Neural crest cells

Here's my list of NCC. Did I forget anything? Add anything in error? Good luck - R


1. Cranial nerve ganglia V, VII, IX, X
2. CT around eye
3. Head mesenchyme/facial morphology
4. Dermal bones of skull
5. Dermis of neck
6. Conotruncal septum of heart
7. DRG
8. Sympathetic chain ganglia
9. Chromaffin cells/adrenal medulla
10. Parasympathetic aortic ganglia
11. Parasympathetic ganglia GI
12. Pia Matter
13. Arachnoid
14. Melanocytes
15. Schwann cells
16. Parafollicular cells/ultimal brachial bodies
17. Viserocranium
18. Lens cover
19. Branchial arch cartilages
20. Odontoblasts
21. Cementoblasts
22. Membranous IV septum
23. Aortico-pulmonary septum
24. Tunica media of acending aorta and pulmonary trunk
25. CT of aortic and pulmonary valves
26. Endocardial cushions
27. Support cells of PNS/Enteric

From:
Sent: Tue 11/6/2007 10:34 PM
To: Class of 2011
Subject: RE: Neural crest cells

Here is a better way to remember what is derived from Neural Crest cells...

1. everything

Thank you to whoever sent that response. Amazing. Now back to studying.

Parasitic Twinning to the Extreme

In case you haven't heard about the 8-legged girl: CNN coverage.

Application: We're reviewing parasitic twinning in embryology.

Amazing Game Show.... I want to play.

Too Funny for Words....

So, remember that article I posted last week about the zombie invasion preparedness is Lansing... well, apparently the whole world picked up on the story:

Last week, a news item out of Lansing appeared in the British tabloid, The Sun.
It read: "Potty police lieutenant Bruce Ferguson has stockpiled chain saws so his men can lop off the heads of zombies if they invade Lansing, Michigan, US."
"Potty," to the Brits, means something along the lines of "nutty."

A similar piece ran in the New York Post.
The story was aired as actual news on radio stations in New Jersey and North Carolina and in other states as well.
In fact, a quick Google search or two will turn up versions of that story written in German, French, Danish, Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, Czech, Latvian and Icelandic.

"Whether you're in Britain, the Czech Republic or in New Jersey, the threat of the undead is always lying just below the surface - especially in Jersey. I'm glad we were able to alert local residents and others to Lansing's pro-active stance."

Seriously people, you thought that the zombie article was a serious piece of hard-hitting news? Newsflash, you all need help.

Where in the World Will Katie Land Next??

COSTA RICA!!!

That's right, I've been given the opportunity to do medical relief in Costa Rica over spring break!

Yay for combining my love for missions and my love for medicine. We will be spending the week doing clinics (details to come) for under-served poplulations!

To say that I'm excited would be an understatement! I'm ready to get back to the tropics (if it's not Thailand, anywhere is better than here in the cold).

What's even better is that my team is amazing! It is seriously a group of friends! There are a few people I don't know, but, I can get to know them later.

All that's left is to start raising the money: I need to raise $1,000 for the trip. If you want to donate, just let me know.