Brokeback Med School, Kids and Weed, and Beheading Doctors

Lecture is about to begin. That should be fun.

This morning in PBL, the student in charge of bringing breakfast, forgot the goods for the second time. What a jerk. In anticipation of eating this morning, I didn't eat breakfast, and now I am hungry. "My stomach feels like it is eating itself", as some might say.

Right now there are two girls from my class practicing giving high fives to each other.

Some people tell me I am an urban cowboy/cowgirl, I agree with them.

Links of Note
Child Health Family International
International Medical Volunteer Association
International Health Medical Education Consortium

BROKEBACK MED SCHOOL



News YOU Should Know About
(clizk quotes)

1. Beheading Threat Makes Doctor Flee
"Dr. Nafie Abtan once operated a thriving medical clinic in Baghdad, but one day last June he received a hand-delivered letter threatening to cut his head off if he remained."

2. CT Scans May Not Prevent Lung Cancer Deaths
"A new study suggests that screening smokers and former smokers for lung cancer doesn't save lives or prevent advanced disease and may lead to unneeded and harmful treatment. But it's not the final word on CT scans."

3. Are Orange Tomatoes Better For You?
"Food scientists at Ohio State University in Columbus have grown a special variety of orange tomatoes that may be healthier than garden-variety red tomatoes. The orange tomatoes contain a type of lycopene that is more readily used by the body than the type found in red tomatoes, they report."

4. FDA Chief: Regulating Tobacco Could Be Harmful
"Government regulation of tobacco could backfire by inadvertently forcing smokers to light up more and inhale more deeply, the head of the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday...."

5. A Perfect Storm For Creating Drug Addicts
"The scene was a shocking one: Children, 2 and 4, inhaled deeply on a marijuana cigarette with encouragement from their 18-year-old uncle. The incident, recorded on videotape by another juvenile, aired widely on cable news stations and eventually led to the two Fort Worth, Texas, toddlers being sent to foster care....."

String Cheese, Medicinal Rice, Non-stop Pain, and Drugs

The Light, Nonfat Yogurt I am eating right now has a really weird, thick consistency.

AMSA National Convention This Weekend. Hey-oooooh.

Does anyone want to be a Vulvologist when they grow up?

I am now eating String Cheese.

Another type of String Cheese, the String Cheese Incident.


Websites of Note
Foxy Vegetables
The Future of Food
National Geographic
Being There: September 11 Volunteers Working in Morgues


News I Want You To Know About
(click quotes)

1. Girl's Nonstop Sneezing Baffles Doctors
".... In what her doctors have dubbed a "medical mystery," Owens' sneezing spell has defied diagnosis time and time again. Doctors have ruled out allergies and neurological disorders."

2. Medical Mystery: No Fingerprints
"Imagine touching glass and not leaving a mark — virtually no trace of the complex lines and ridges that make up each individual fingerprint. Most of us take these identifying traits for granted. After all, everyone has fingerprints, right? Wrong."

3. Personal Problems Become Back Pain
" The following is what modern medical science currently understands about the most common kind of low back pain, the backache that bedevils working-age adults who are otherwise totally well. This is a pain that does not involve the legs — unlike many back pains — and that comes on for no apparent reason."

4. Prescription Drug Abuse Exceeds Illicit Street Drug Use Worldwide
"Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide, and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade in counterfeit painkillers, sedatives and other medicines potent enough to kill, a global watchdog warned Wednesday."

5. US mulls backing 'medicine rice'
"Authorities in the United States have given preliminary approval to a plan to grow rice genetically modified to produce human proteins."

Wallege, Tofurky, a 93lb Tumor, and Erectile Dysfunction

We are both the world and the people.

A wise man once told me that college=wallege. When I asked him what that meant, he didn't give me a response. When I asked him why he wouldn't give me a response, he told me "For you, to understand my young ninja, you must go to college, because college=wallege."

I just ate Chicken Pad Thai. The person I ate with, had Peanut Chicken w/ tofu.

Is Tofurky good? I can't imagine that it is.

How come people who only eat Vegetables are called Vegetarians but people or animals who eat only meat aren't called meatatarians?

News Storiesis
(click quotes please)

1. Art classes teach docs-in-training new ways to see
FYI: My school, Yale, and other schools have been doing this for years.
"Lessons on drawing and poetry aren't typical requirements for medical students. But a doctor who teaches at the University of Nebraska Medical Center thinks they may help young physicians pay more attention to the little details. "Observation is a skill," said Dr. Bill Lydiatt, a specialist in head and neck cancers. "The key here is to learn how to observe....."

2. Obesity surgery triples among U.S. teens
SWEET.
"The number of U.S. children having obesity surgery has tripled in recent years, surging at a pace that could mean more than 1,000 such operations this year, new research suggests."

3. Woman's 93-pound tumor mystery
I mean, SERIOUSLY!
"Tipping the scale at 360 pounds, Kayla Hilton is seriously obese and has major health issues, but the Oklahoma woman's long-term prognosis is encouraging now that doctors have removed the 93-pound ovarian cyst that grew undetected inside her for years."

4. Nerve grafts may restore erectile function
YAY!
"In men who have become impotent following prostate cancer surgery, implantation of nerve grafts into the penis allows some men who were potent before surgery to recover erectile function, researchers report."

5. Retired NFL players focus of health push
"Before the echocardiogram or the prostate exam, before blood was drawn or body fat measured, the patients had a simple task amid the nearby Super Bowl pomp: Sign the football."

Anal Sex, STD Dating Sites, and the Miracle Baby

Finalmente. I am able to post on the blog again. My sincerest apologies for a lack of posting over the past few days. I had a cardiovascular exam today (not on myself) and I now have free time again. Phew.

Over the past few days, the following thoughts have come to mind.......
1. Are photos of animals considered nude photos since they usually aren't wearing clothes?
2. Why I am I on a sugar cereal kick right now? I have been eating lots of cocoa pebbles and Cap'n Crunch.
3. Whilst it medical school, why don't they teach you about Medicare, Medicaid, Insurance Companies, etc? After all, it is the system we are going to be entering!!??!
4. Why does the coffee at the medical center cost so much? Seriously.
5. Are there canaries on the Canary Islands?
6. If their not there, then who is where and who is there?

Peter's Health Visit



Peter's Prostate Exam



Going, Going, Back, Back, To College, College, Websites:
Bloody Penguin Game
Virtual Beirut/BeerPong
Napster
College Humor

Medical Newssssss
(click quotes for stories)

1. Business Booming for STD Dating Sites!
"...But John and his date are far from alone. And the growing number of people in similar situations has created a new industry: Internet dating sites just for people with STDs."

2. Antibiotic linked to serious bleeding condition
"An antibiotic often used in hospital intensive care units to treat serious staph infections resistant to other medicines may cause a sometimes-fatal bleeding condition, researchers said Wednesday. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine linked the antibiotic vancomycin to a disorder called thrombocytopenia."

3. Virginia to Require Vaccine for Girls
"Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Thursday he would sign legislation requiring all sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer."

4. Miracle Baby Dies and then Comes Back To Life After 30 Minutes
"Doctors say they've never seen anything like it: A little boy who was pronounced dead came back to life 30 minutes later."

5. The last lovemaking taboo lifted?
"According to results of a federal study released two years ago, 40 percent of men and 35 percent of women surveyed in 2002 said they have had anal sex with an opposite-sex partner. An earlier study published in 1994 showed that among heterosexuals, 26 percent of men and 20 percent of women had ever engaged in anal sex. And if anecdotes by experts are to be believed, the numbers have boomed in the last few years."

To My People

Sorry for not writing over the past few days. There is lots of action going on in the homefront. When I say a lot of action, I mean A LOT. I have been applying for grants, both year-out and research, receiving really poor exam scores back, writing differentials, reading for a final exam, and crying. So, bear with me. There will be more Anonymous writings tomorrow (Friday).

On the good side of the bridge, you can now Digg, e-mail, send to facebook, subscribe, and still comment on each day's entry. Give it a go!

One Love.