Funny Drug Names: Episode I

Since we're doing pharmacology right now, drugs are on the mind. I think some of them are named very appropriately. This series of posts will discuss particularly funny drug names (or at least interesting drug names; funny might be an exaggeration)

• Flomax
• This is the trade name of the generic drug tamsulosin, which is taken by men that have a hard time urinating because of an enlarged prostate. Flow....max..... nice. Drugs that help with constipation should be called Poopmax. Drugs that help with depression should be called Happymax. Drugs that help you focus should be called Focusmax. You get the drift. Anways, the drug causes both the smooth muscle in the prostate and the sphincter of the bladder to relax. To be more precise, it inhibits contraction of those muscles by blocking (or antagonizing) the  α1  receptor that is usually engaged to stimulate contraction.

It turns out I can't think of any other funny drug names. So, this series might end have ended right now and ended up simply being an immature post about how Flomax is a funny name.

Hopefully to be continued.

Fun Medical Facts: Episode I

This is the first in a series of fun medical facts that I come across in my studies.

• Moles
• A mole is actually a benign tumor, according to Robbins Pathology. It's technical term is nevus. Sadly, this means I have a lot of benign tumors. Since benign tumors can make the transition to malignant (basically meaning starting to grow out of control and spread to other parts of the body, affecting vital organ functions), it makes sense why we are urged to watch for a mole that changes color.
• Cheese
• Many cheeses, when metabolized by your body, yield a molecule named tyramine. Tyrmaine can easily be converted to norepinephrine, which is used in your body for both nerve signaling and to signal vasoconstriction and to increase heart rate. Consumption of a lot of potent cheese (like Stilton cheese) can raise your systolic blood pressure by 30 points. Furthermore, some depression medicine works by inhibiting MAO, the enzyme that degrades norepinephrine at nerve terminals, and this in combination with cheese can lead to bad news. The clinical term of these symptoms is called the cheese effect. 
• Dimples
• A dimple is actually a defect in the buccinator muscle, the primary muscle of the cheek. The skin of your cheek gets stuck to the muscle. Dimples can be created surgically with a relatively easy cosmetic procedure.
• Yawining
• It's possible, when you yawn, to dislocate your jaw. Ex:
• 
  
• I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Tidbits about chiropractic

After my Medical Mandarin lunch today I had my alternative medicine elective, and today we had a speaker from the Texas Chiropractic College come in and talk to us. She also has a PHD and does research about the mechanism of how chiropractic manipulation is beneficial (something that has been fairly elusive). She was pretty candid and I thought it was a good talk. Even though 2 of my cousins are chiropractors I knew very little about it until today. Here are some new things that I learned:

·        Chirppractics is a pretty young field. It started in 1895.

·         Although the original premise was that 95% of all illnesses are caused by misalignment of the vertebral column, that is acknowledged as a historical claim only.

·         Although there are some crazy chiropractors who teach against vaccinating, they don’t teach that in chiropractic college.

·         Chiropractic college also doesn’t teach that spinal manipulations is a means for treating things unrelated to back pain such as asthma and irregular periods.

·         Some chiropractors subspecialize in nutrition, herbal remedies, and ultrasound (not the imaging modality, but the tissue remodeling modality)

·         There are many anecdotal stories about pain being relieved by spine manipulation that wasn’t relieved by more mainstream medical treatments.

·         These accounts have been harder to replicate in randomized controlled trials.

·         A new trial is underway in which patients are under anesthetic during the course of treatment (preventing the patients from figuring out whether or not they got a placebo).

The discussion we had on Traditional Chinese medicine a week ago totally biased me against it, but today's lecture actually opened me up to chiropractic practice. If I had lower back pain and wasn't helped by any other therapy, I might seek out a chiropractor.



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Medical students expect a free lunch

I will have free lunch 4 out of 5 days this week. The best part about this is that it isn’t unusual. In medical school, at least here at BCM, free food is something we have almost come to expect. I think I’ve gone 5 for 5 once. Here’s how my week has gone:

Monday	Free wraps at an event hosted by a pro-life club where an OBGYN resident came and talked about alternative family planning.
Tuesday	I brought my own lunch (curry leftovers, thank you to my wife!)
Wednesday	Free pizza at an LDS church institute class that I attend weekly.
Thursday	Free pizza at an event hosted by a Christian club where our pathology professor spoke to us on related Christian topics.
Friday	Free food at the Medical Mandarin lunch meeting (I’m not in charge of the food this time and am not sure what is being provided). I can also go talk to the interviewees tomorrow and get some pizza, cookies, and soda while I’m at it.

At one point, there was actually so much free pizza floating around everyday that I got sick of pizza. Incredible, right? I mean, really, who gets sick of pizza? It sounds like something that only happens to old people. I do like pizza now, so maybe  I got younger again.

On a side note, I just realized that 3 of the sources of free food this week came from Christian organizations. That’s rather unsual. There indeed are a fair amount of conservative and religious people here, which is an appeal to me. However, if that’s not your thing then you shouldn’t be scared away because we are a diverse bunch and it’s for sure not like BCM has a religious agenda.



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Question: Will I have time to attend a wedding in December?

How much time is there to go out of town on the weekends during medical school, and what about right before exams? I received a question asking for advice on the practicality of attending a wedding in mid December. It's hard to plan when you don't know the exam schedule, so hopefully this helps.

Taking a weekend trip not right before exams:

First off, it's not uncommon for students to go out of town for the weekend. I haven't done this yet, but I have definitely taken Saturday and Sunday "off", where I don't study at all. In fact, there has only been one Sunday so far where I have studied, but that was just to complete a homework assignment that I didn't get around to doing. With time management, it's very possible to take that weekend trip. I would actually encourage it; breaks ease the mind and make studying more productive.

Taking a weekend trip right before exams:

So far, our exams have always started on a Tuesday. Monday is a study day, and almost everyone crams all day. If you're a procrastinator, you'll probably be cramming all weekend, too. That's not me, though, so for our past 3 blocks I have just studied for about 6-8 hours on Saturday before the exam and taken Sunday off. Theoretically, does this mean that a student might have time to go to an important wedding on the Saturday before exams? Looking at study-time alone, the answer is a clear yes. You could fly out Friday evening, do wedding stuff all day Saturday, fly home Sunday morning, and spend more time studying on Sunday than I would have over the entire weekend. Then, you still have all Monday to cram. If your grades for block 1 and 2 were in the 70 range, I might reconsider. However, the class average for all exams so far has been in the high 80's (and apparently we're a lot stupider than the MS2 class).

Med school is hard, but you don't have to give up your life for it. Well, once clinics start you might have to, but not in 18 months of preclinicals :)

Chances are you would regret not going to that wedding much more than you would regret losing a bit of study time. Plus everyone would be really impressed about how much you care about them to make the effort to go to the wedding, so that's pretty cool. 10 gold stars.

For reference, here was my schedule the last 2 weeks of class in December. 

I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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CPR: as easy as CAB

Today, after class, we had our CPR and AED training. There’s not a lot to say about it, except that it’s a really important thing to know but not the most exciting way to spend 4 hours. Hopefully I get to use it someday! Just kidding. During the training, we watched a long video from the American Heart Association that had lots of funny lines. From now on I'm going to say "go activate the emergency response system!" instead of "go call 911!". Actually, I've never called 911 or asked anyone to do so. Hopefully that will change! Just kidding.

The mnemonic for CPR used to be ABC for airway, breathing, and circulation; now it’s CAB for circulation, airway, and breathing. Turns out chest compressions are far and away the most important thing, so we do it first. Go figure.

Also, in pathology today I learned what makes a tumor benign verses malignant. It’s funny because this is something that I’ve always wondered in the back of my mind but never bothered to look up. It turns out the definition is actually pretty simple: if a growth is likely to spread or metastasize to other parts of the body, then it is malignant; otherwise it is benign. Of course, the criteria for malignancy are much more complicated, and it takes a pathologist to sort that out.



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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How to be a bad doctor

Today I learned how to be a bad doctor. Six other classmates and I were engaging a clinical case during our integrated problem solving session with the help of our facilitator, an anesthesiologist. He's the kind of facilitator who makes you think through things and doesn't give things away. This made the case go a bit long, but I think we reaped some big dividends from it.

The case started with a middle aged female who came in with a six month history of dizziness and fatigue. Since the case is all computerized, there is a giant bank of questions we can ask and tests we can do to mimic a real clinical encounter. As we started off getting her history, trying to figure out what was wrong with her, we realized we had no idea what was going on. We exhausted what we could think of with an interview, and we proceeded to physical examinations. When that didn't yield much, we went "fishing" for tests. After the basic blood test, we decided she might need an x-ray, an EKG, maybe a test for mono, and a few other things.

That is how you become a bad doctor. When you have no idea what's going on, you go fishing. As our facilitator pointed out, groping in the dark ordering tests is begging for trouble. Not only is it super expensive for the patient (or taxpayer), but it also gives a high probability that the results will come back with some sort of slight abnormality entirely unrelated to the true cause of the disease. Nonetheless, as the doctor you will be forced into investigating it.

When ordering a medical test, the doctor should have a clear idea of why they are ordering it. For instance, a doctor might think that, because the patient has smoked for 30 years, their lungs have some sort of chronic pulmonary obstructive disease that is causing hypoxia and resulting dizziness. This is a valid line of logic that warrants the test. On the other hand, the following logic is bad bad bad: "I'm not sure why the patient is dizzy; maybe if I order a chest x-ray it will show something helpful."

Have you had a doctor that engaged the latter, lazy method of investigation? All 7 of us students were ever so tempted to do that, and I can easily see how this is the type of medicine that some doctors end up practicing.


We were in IPS for 2.5 hours today, so it did seem kinda long. However, I can honestly say that I feel like I learned some valuable lessons today and improved in my clinical reasoning. Sometimes I sort of wish I could be studying instead of doing IPS, but times like today make me think it's worth it for sure. Plus, at the end of the case I had a key insight which helped us solve it (pat myself on the back), although it turned out the answer was in front of our noses the whole time. I suspect this will happen more often than you think!



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Who wants to be an ENT superstar; herbs

Today we covered the facial nerve in detail during our anatomy lecture. Glen Yarneau, one of our anatomy professors, has a knack for making our lectures fun. Today, one student was selected to play Who wants to be an ENT superstar during the lecture. It was definitely a pretty impressive use of powerpoint and iclickers. In the past, Glen has setup anatomy bingo, and another anatomy lecturer named Greg once dressed up as a uterus. I think this is a good thing, because anatomy is difficult enough and sometimes dry enough that it can use some spice.

Of all the things in medical school that satisfy the cliché “medical school is like drinking from a fire hydrant” analogy, I think anatomy comes the closest to it. It’s not uncommon to learn 100 new structures in an hour. Not only do you need to memorize the unfamiliar names, but you need to know where they are, what they are next to, what nerves and blood vessels supply the tissue, and relevant clinical correlations. Most medical students, myself included, haven’t taken anatomy before, so it really is a lot to learn.

The good news is that learning anatomy is one of the parts of medical school that makes you start to feel like a doctor. A great majority of the things we learn in anatomy are important, which you can’t say about all other classes. Anybody can look up their symptoms online and guess at a diagnosis, but only medical professionals actually know the anatomy and understand how disease processes affect it. Your patients have the internet, but they never had a chance to spend hours cutting open and learning from a cadaver. Thinking of it this way, anatomy is probably one of the very most important classes we take.

On other news, I learned about herbs today in my alternative medicine elective. Here is the gist of it: herbs have been used for a long time as remedies for various ailments. Many of the commonly used drugs today have been extracted and purified from herbs. Thus, herbs are drugs. Unfortunately, in the early 1990’s congress changed the laws so that the FDA has no regulation over herbal products. Thus, there is no way to be sure that the herb you buy doesn’t have things like mercury, arsenic, and other contaminants in it. The product might not even have the herb it says it does. In addition to this, most people don’t use herbs under doctor supervision, so you end up with lots of self-medicating that can easily go awry.

You might take an herb, and it might make you feel better. It might be the placebo effect, and it might not. What you can be sure of, however, is that it hasn’t been thoroughly tested for safety, efficacy, or even purity from the manufacturer. Some people think western medicine doesn’t like herbal remedies because they are competition. That’s not true. If an herb actually works, western medicine would love to know about it, because then they would study the herb, discover how it works, and take the active ingredients that are actually helpful and market them. If a drug is actually proven to be helpful, then there is money to be made and pharmaceutical companies would jump on it. 



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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12 days

Walter, I poked your eye out!

Walter is the name of our cadaver, and today I poked his eye out. I would say it was one of the funner anatomy labs. With one eye we went through the top of the skull, and with the other eye we went through the front of the face approaching the eyeball directly. The bones surrounding the eyeball are very thin, and they peel away like egg shells. The weirdest part about the whole thing was actually cutting the eyelids off with a scalpel. This is probably because, since the cells on our cornea are so sensitive, we all have distinct memories of what it feels like when our eyelids get messed up.

At BCM, whenever we cover a particular organ in the anatomy lab, they have specialists in that area come to help out. Today, for instance, a bunch of ophthalmologists (BTW, if you ever contact Dr. Kretzer and misspell this word in your communication, your future at BCM is doomed) were walking around the anatomy lab to help  answer questions. Last week we had neuro pathologists helping out, we've had cardiologists helping out, etc. I don't know if all schools do this, but I think it's pretty cool. It really shows a coordinated effort to help us learn.

Today, an ophthalmologist pimped my group. What is pimping, you might ask, and why did I mention such a vulgar word? In medical school, pimping is when a doctor asks the student a bunch of difficult questions. Usually, the doctor doesn't expect the student to know the answer and it provides not only a teaching moment but also an ego boost. Surgeons are by far the most likely doctor to pimp someone. If pimping people is a characteristic of a surgeon's personality, this might be one indication I don't want to be a surgeon. Time will tell!



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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How to spend an afternoon without class

It's noon, we got out of pathology lab early and I just had lunch. I have the rest of the day off. What should I do? None of today's lectures were very difficult, but there's always an infinite amount of studying to be done, if so desired.


I could:

A. Read chapter 3, 30 pages, of the tome known as Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease
B. Review anatomy lectures
C. Go to the anatomy lab and study
D. Make more flash cards of drugs for pharmacology
E. Review physical exams in preparation for my trip to the pediatric clinic tomorrow
F. Review immunology stuff


If I planned ahead, I could use this time to shadow doctors, start research projects, or volunteer somewhere. Or, I could just waste time or take it easy the rest of the day. If I was single, I would probably do this a lot. Being a husband and father in medical school, however, my philosophy is to work hard M-F so I can have time to relax in the evenings and on the weekends with my family. To paraphrase Dr. Goodman, one of our deans, "Medicine is everywhere in our lives now, but it is not our whole life."



BTW, it's the middle of January and the temperature outside when I left my house at 6:40AM was 72 degrees. Yay Houston.



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Baylor College of Medicine Preclinical Medical Student Curriculum

Here is a fairly comprehensive overview of the BCM preclinical curriculum (here is the official link). Most medical school applicants go to so many interviews that it all blurs together, so hopefully this is helpful to some people.

First it’s only 3 semesters, so you finish preclinical science work after Fall II (this is one of my favorite things about BCM!). Lecture/lab always goes from 8-12, and 2 days a week in the afternoon you have IPS (integrated problem solving) or PPS (patient, physician, and society). This means we usually have at least 2 afternoons completely off, 3 if there is no anatomy practice pinning on Friday (we usually have 2-3 of those a block). Lectures are all recorded, so you can stream them at home if you want. I think all but 1 block ends with at least a 2 day vacation.

And now for the details of each block:

Fall 1

Block 1: This block is basically a smattering of the foundations of cell biology and basic biochemistry (not metabolic biochemistry).  Cell organelles and basic structure, cell signaling, the cell cycle, the central dogma, basic early developmental embryology, and basic genetics are covered. The histology covered is skin, connective tissue, adipose tissue, cartilage, bone, muscle, and organs of the immune system. Anatomy covered is the upper and lower extremity and the vertebral column. Because this block is so foundational, it’s a bit disjointed and not that clinical. You do have weekly IPS sessions, which are small group integrated problem solving sessions focused on a clinical case. You also start learning how to interview patients in PPS in class and at a clinic.

Block 2: This block is a reward for the boring block 1. It’s called CRR: cardiac, respiratory, and renal. Some blood is also covered. Basic physiology of these systems is covered, with the histology and anatomy. IPS continues, and in PPS you learn the cardiovascular exam and pulmonary exam. Most students love this block, myself included.

Block 3: GIMNER. GI tract, metabolism (i.e. biochemistry), nutrition, endocrine, and reproductive with the associated anatomy and histology. IPS continues and you learn the abdominal exam in PPS along with more interviewing skills. In addition to clinic with real patients, you get a chance to practice skills with standardized patients. I liked this block a lot, too. But not the reproductive anatomy. Nobody likes the pelvis. Blocks 1-3 each end with a written test that counts for 80% of the grade, and an anatomy practical and histology practical that count for 10% each. Blocks 1-3 are each 30% total of your semester grade, and there is a cumulative test that is pretty easy worth 10% the day before winter break. We did have some students drop out or defer (I think 7 of the original 192), but everyone who took the final exam passed the semester. Passing is 70 and above. It’s really not that hard to pass.

2 week winter break

Spring 1

Block 4: This block is awesome (so far). We are doing head and neck anatomy (today’s eye lectures were beasts), basic pathology, pharmacology, and immunology. IPS continues and we learned some musculoskeletal exams and will learn the head and neck exam. Each of these, however, are individual classes now. We will have an individual test in each class at the end of the block. This will be the case from now until the end of preclinical coursework.

Block 5: This block is Infectious disease, behavioral science, ethics, nervous sytem. IPS continues and we will learn the neuro exam and eye exam in PPS.

Block 6: This block is infectious disease again, nervous system again, behavioral science again, and IPS and PPS continue.

4 week break

Fall II

Block 7: This block is review and pathology of the following systems: cardiology, Hem/Onc, Respiratory, and Renal. In PPS we will learn how to give bad news and the infant exam.

Block 8: This block is review and pathology of the following systems: GI, GU/GYN, Endocrinology, HST (hard and soft tissues), age related topics, and genetics. There is an intro to clinics course and various physical exams  in PPS. Immediately preceding winter break there is the End of Basic Sciences Exam.

2 week break

Spring II:

Clinical Rotations!!



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Medical Mandarin 中文医疗

I just got out of the Medical Mandarin class that I lead with another student. It's part of what our APAMPSA club, the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association, does. If you noticed that I'm not Asian and are wondering what I'm doing in the club, it's because I was a missionary in Taiwan for 2 years and speak Chinese. There's a pretty large amount of Chinese people here in Houston, so it's not a bad place to be if you have that interest. Over in China town, BCM has partnered up with the HOPE clinic, so there is some actual opportunity to treat Asian patients. In reality, the most useful language to know is definitely still Spanish, however, even at the HOPE clinic. I know every medical school has clubs, but we don't lack them either.

And now it's time, while we are on the topic, for the Chinese phrase of the day.

谁是你的爸爸？
shei shi ni de baba?
Who is your daddy?


This reminds me, on tomorrow my alternative medicine elective is covering Chinese Medicine! Excited to hear that.



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And our brain got ripped in half

Coolest cookie jar ever

Today, during anatomy lab, I couldn't help but compare what happened to a zombie attack.

Anyway, today we took out the brain. Before we arrived, the staff had retracted the scalp and used a bone saw to cut around the skulls of all of our cadavers. This meant that the calvaria, the upper portion of the skull, was about ready to come off with use of a crowbar. It was a little bit disappointing not to get to use the bone saw ourselves, but we did already get a chance to use one when we cut open the vertebral column last semester. I think the staff wanted to save time and to make sure we got the brain out intact, as they emphasized repeatedly that we should be really careful taking it out.

I started using the crowbar to pry open the skull. We could see the brain inside, sprinkled lightly with bone dust. There was considerable space inside the skull, implying that the brain might have largely atrophied away (or simply shrunken during fixation). Our TA came over to see how we were doing. He was new, first day on the job, and was the most jovial person I’ve ever seen in an anatomy lab. With a giant smile he eagerly shook everyone’s hands, and I took one off the crowbar to comply. Then, he peeked inside, commented that we didn’t have a very good brain and didn’t have to worry about being that careful, and took over. He tugged a bit, and then gave a harder pull that resulted in the top half of the skull cracking off and bringing half of the brain ripping off with it.

“Oh… whoops!  I guess I ruined the brain. Looks like it was actually a pretty good one.”

I don’t know if you had to be there or not, but it was hilarious. Perhaps it was just that our TA ruined our brain that we were supposed to be so careful with, and we were only 2 minutes into lab. Maybe it was our stunned facial expressions. Our maybe it was just the unexpectedly gruesome ripping and cracking. Or maybe it was the fact that those crazy sounds that you imagine coming from a zombie movie were instigated by such a cheerful person. Or maybe it was the formaldehyde.

I love medical school.



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Genetics track and Thomas Jefferson

I just got out of a genetics journal club meeting for the genetics track that I am in. At Baylor, tracks are sort of like mini-minors. They include genetics, geriatrics, international health, research, management, ethics, and care for the underserved. They are completely optional, and simply offer an organized array of resources to utilize and take advantage of if you're interested in the topic. Most of them entail some extra coursework, service, outside meetings, and specific clinical electives. When you graduate I think they might put something on your diploma or something, but the real benefit is in helping you learn about stuff you're interested and helping to get you professional contacts. As you might imagine, if we have a track for it, then BCM is pretty strong in that area. I didn't know this before I came here, but Baylor has an awesome genetics department. If you're interested in genetics, then Baylor is the place to be for a medical student.

Today the journal we talked about was about Thomas Jefferson and an illegitimate child that he fathered with his slave, Sally Hemings. She publicly accused him of fathering her oldest son, Tom. Turns out that through genetic studies of the Y chromosome, we know he didn't father that son, but he did father a different son, Eston. Whoopy.



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Implosion at BCM!

OK, so technically the implosion wasn't actually at BCM, but it was pretty darn close. I actually totally missed this entire event and am really bummed out about it! I've always wanted to watch a building blow up. I think every man wants this, and most of us would be perfectly happy watching a show like this. Alas, I'll have to wait for the next demolition event at the Texas Medical Center. Hopefully it comes soon. Very soon.

The building that was demolished was an old MD Anderson building. MD Anderson is a ginormous center dedicated mostly to treating cancer patients. They have at least 4 huge towers in the medical center. In the video on the right, you can see a big tower of Texas Children's hospital, one of the best children's hospitals in the country. The Texas Medical Center also includes Methodist Hospital, Ben Taub Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital, the Baylor Clinic, Texas Women's Hospital, and many other hospitals that I can't remember right now. It's awesome. And Baylor College of Medicine is right in the middle of it all.

Being a medical student here provides limitless opportunities. A while back I randomly emailed an interventional radiologist to shadow him at MD Anderson. A few weeks later I was watching some sweet procedures just for fun. Whatever you want, TMC has probably got it, so the sky is the limit if you get into BCM.



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Alternative Medicine Elective

One of the cool things about being a medical student at BCM is all the available electives. During clinical rotations, 40 hours of electives are required. This constitutes about one fourth of the total clinical education. What is a bit unique about being here at Baylor is that we can start our electives now. Every block, various optional classes are offered. If we take 8 credit hours of elective pre-clinical coursework, this effectively knocks off an entire month of clinical electives to give us more free time during our fourth year. Pretty sweet!

I previously took a medicine and management course and a health policy course. This block, I signed up for a 2 credit alternative medicine course. There are 6 classes, each 1.5 hours during the afternoon. It starts today and I'm actually pretty excited about it.

The topics include: placebo effect, chiropractic, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture and herbal medicine, spirituality and religion in medicine. My wife is from China, so I'm really interested to get a western point of view on the subject. Plus, it seems like everyone wants to know about the efficacy of herbal remedies and other alternative treatments, and I'm excited that I will at least know something about the topic.

Before class starts, I think I'll do a bit more studying of the neck anatomy and then mingle with the applicants who are here right now (and of course eat their pizza).



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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Self-care

Yesterday I had a 2.5 hour lecture and small group discussion about self-care. It was basically about tips on avoiding getting burnt out and the importance of maintaining a balanced lifestyle amidst the difficulties of medical school, residency, and working as a medical provider. I think BCM has had some problems in the past with students getting stressed out and depressed, so they seem to be extremely sensitive to this now. At the start of last semester, we also had similar meetings such as this.

I might groan a bit at the topic, and I am not looking forward to doing the reflective essay homework assignment about how I'm doing, but it's nice to know they are so concerned about us. I don't know how the rigor of our coursework compares to other medical schools, but our pre-clinical time is only 1.5 years instead of 2, so it's probably a bit more demanding than some other medical schools out there. Nonetheless, I think the coursework has been extremely manageable so far. I'm sure not everyone feels that way, but it should be a great comfort to anyone who is worried they can't handle the course load at Baylor that BCM goes out of their way to help students adapt to being here.

RIP Dr. Sheila Goodnight

Dr. Sheila Goodnight was our professor for the respiratory unit during block 2. Midway through the block, we were told that she was on leave for a family emergency. About 2 weeks later, we were told she had passed away.

Unknown to us, at the start of the block she was diagnosed with an advanced stage of terminal cancer and given weeks to live. Nonetheless, she was still determined to give teaching one last go for as long as she could. Quite literally, she was choosing to use some of her dying breaths teaching us about the lungs. I remember asking her a question after a lecture and noticing a slight tremor, but I never imagined she was knowingly on the verge of death.

I sincerely doubt most people would continue working at their job knowing that they have a few weeks to live. I take Dr. Sheila Goodnight's example as proof that, at Baylor College of Medicine, we have a group of extremely dedicated faculty who are passionate about teaching. Indeed, if this isn't an ultimate example of passion for teaching, then I don't know what is. Every school has their share of mediocre professors, but BCM definitely has more than its share of stellar ones. It's good to be here!



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The Dr. that treated the bubble boy

Back to school for block 4 at BCM and we just had our first  immunology lecture. We were informed that one of our professors will be Dr. William Shearer, the same doctor that treated David Vetter (read his scientific literature about bubble treatment here). Who is David Vetter? The boy in the plastic bubble! No, not this boy:

But David Vetter did actually have severe combined immuno deficiency, he did indeed live in a bubble for most of his 12 years of life, and he was one of the models for John Travolta's entry into stardom.

In sum, one of my professors at Baylor College of Medicine is the one and the same doctor who treated the real boy in the plastic bubble. Pretty cool. BCM is A-ok.



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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