Pardon My Rhinorrhea

Excuse me for failing to post anything the past few days, but I was carefully determining whether I was sick or not. Yes, it took a full 2 1/2 days to decide whether I had a cold or was experiencing the worst hay fever of my life.

It was hay fever.

I'm doing much better now, thank you, except for the ravaged skin on my nasal alae. (At least I threw a proper anatomical term into this poor excuse for a post.)

All I can say is: DO NOT MOVE TO TEXAS IF YOU HAVE ALLERGIES.

Sometimes Med School is Hard...

Today is a hump day if I've ever had one. Wake me up when it's Thursday, please.

Fun With Anatomy!

Why anatomy (and medicine in general) is hard to follow: because you need to know if you're talking to a neurosurgeon or ob/gyn in order to know what they mean by "cervical".

No, but seriously... Why does the head have so many terms in common with female reproductive organs? I fail to see the similarities.

Who Wants to Contribute to The Health Scout?

Hi, friends, readers & fellow bloggers!

I'm thinking about adding guest posts &/or cartoons to my blog. This can be unique material or re-posts of something great from your existing blog. I'm thinking a somewhat different angle would be a nice addition (maybe a pre-med documenting the application or interview process). However, guest bloggers should still stay within the context of this blog, which is primarily pre-med and med school experiences, with sporadic dives into healthcare, politics, medical practice, etc.

Let me know if you're interested, know of someone who'd be great, or have any other ideas! Comment below or email me: thehealthscout@gmail.com. :)

Adverse Effects of Medical School

As you may already know, ADLs (Activities of Daily Living) are a precursory way to evaluate a geriatric patient's ability to live independently. It occurred to me today that medical school affects each and every ADL.

(You can also use this as a way to remember the 6 basic ADLs. You're welcome!)

Did I forget any other major adverse effects??

Med Students & Weird Food Analogies

There are a lot of food analogies in medical school. Some sound delicious and some disgusting, but one thing's for sure: they're certainly memorable.

P.S. I also found a pretty awesome article about the history of these types of analogies in medicine. Enjoy!

Overly Clinical Thinking: Also Known As Foot-in-Mouth Disease

Last night I posted this picture on Instagram (note the bruises):

Caption: Moving makes me look like I have a coagulopathy. Or experience IPV. :-/ (I don’t.)  #ecchymosis #medstudent

My Instagram is linked to my Twitter, so I also tweeted the picture & caption. Within a few minutes, a women replied to my tweet:

For those of you who don’t know, IPV stands for Intimate Partner Violence. (If you're unfamiliar with the topic, I strongly recommend that you read about IPV on the ACOG website & elsewhere.) I consider myself fairly well educated on IPV and also highly sensitive to the issue. 

So why did I joke about it?

The truth is: I wasn’t joking. I’ve become totally immersed in medical school & now automatically describe things in terms of symptoms, diseases, etc. (For the record, I also don’t think coagulopathies are funny.) Where an 8-year-old might say something like, “I look like a leopard,” my instinct is to describe bruises in terms of medical descriptors (& to use the correct term: ecchymosis).

These words have seeped into my thought process: I now think clinically & medically. This is both good and bad. It’s good in the sense that I no longer feel like I’m hearing a foreign language all day, every day. (Wow, the beginning of 1st year was awful…) It’s bad because I have the sneaking suspicion this is not the first person I’ve unknowingly offended.

(I’m also thinking that looking at pictures of dissected penises in coffee shops might have been poor form.)

I really appreciate that woman for pointing out my mistake. This was a good learning experience. Unfortunately, I don’t have a solutions; I’m just observing the phenomenon. If anyone knows how to stop yourself before offending others, please share!

P.S. I just created an Instagram account for my blog: @thehealthscout. Please follow & let me know when I'm offensive. Or stupid. Thanks. :)

And so it begins... Step 1 Prep

Mandatory class meeting yesterday was kind of a bummer...