Gravity

Well, this slide from the gynecology lecture goes against everything I ever learned in high school and college physics...

Lasers

There are many ways to measure how cool you are in life (and it's obviously very important to know where you fit in the cool spectrum).  Apparently one way is based on what color laser pointer you have.  Now I would argue that anyone who owns a laser pointer probably isn't very cool to begin with - but what do I know, I'm just a med student.

so old school

I didn't even realize that there was a hierarchy of laser pointers until during an EKG training session, a cardiology attending pointed out to me that green lasers (one of which he just happened to have) were way cooler than the red lasers.  This is apparently because the green ones came out more recently and are more expensive (oh em gee - it's the same reason the iphone 4s is so much cooler than the iphone 4!).  To show how much cooler cardiology is than the other specialties, he asked our small group if we've ever seen anyone with a green laser pointer besides a cardiologist.  Apparently our other professors are all Luddites who insist on using their clearly outdated red laser pointers.

cardiology cool. already outdated.

Soon though, the green laser pointer will also be outdated because now there are PURPLE lasers which became commercially available in 2010.  Right now they are a bit expensive, but I imagine that by the time I'll need one they will be more affordable.  Or, if anyone was looking for a very very early birthday or Hanukkah gift for me, I would accept a purple laser pointer.  Although the one time I taught a lecture as a TA during my undergrad, I was so excited to finally use a laser pointer - but because I was nervous, my hands were shaking slightly uncontrollably, and using the laser pointer made it so obvious that my hands were shaking that I had to stop using it.  SHOW NO FEAR.  So first, confidence.  Then, purple laser pointer.

what all the cool kids are using (and apparently purple lasers are also patriotic)

Cool-Down Lap

Back in the days of my athletic prowess as a star player bench-warmer on my high school lacrosse team, we used to have timed 2-mile runs before lots of practices.  After you finished that 8th lap on the track, you had to walk one more lap to cool down, because stopping suddenly could probably kill you... or something like that.  This 10-day glorious vacation feels a little like that cool-down lap.  We've been going-going-going, and really pushed it out for our last exam on the 23rd which was on dermatology and cardiology (two subjects that naturally fit well together), and then suddenly it was over and we have over a week off from school.



But if they gave us NOTHING to do over break, then it would be like coming to a complete stop after running two miles, and we might get muscle cramps.  So thankfully they scheduled a test for us on January 4 to make sure we maintained a slight jog throughout break.  Don't get me wrong, up through Christmas we (I'm assuming all of us) were in the stage of hands on your knees, slightly doubled-over, huffing and puffing, can't move even another step.  But now I'm back up to a slow jog.



This test is for our Physician's Core class, Advanced Physical Diagnosis.  It's pass-fail, so no one seems to take it that seriously, but we've been warned that it's quite possible to fail, and we've seen the proof in the unhappy-looking third-years that show up to our lectures each week.  Not wanting to be THAT third-year, I am doing what I call relaxed-studying over break.  While my family watches TV, I sit with them ...but with my Physical Exam text book open.  When my family needs help cleaning up the kitchen, I can claim I'm too busy studying (shh, don't tell them).  And for a couple hours every couple days, I am actually legitimately studying.


The problem with this cool-down lap though, is that it's not really a cool-down lap at all because at the end of it it's not like we get to hit the showers, drink gatorade, and talk sh*t about our coach (what? we never did that in high school...).

intervals, nooo

So it's really more like my most dreaded runs in high school - intervals - where you sprint the long side of the field, then jog the short end, then sprint the long end, etc. etc. for like, a million hours 20 minutes.  Right now we're jogging along the short edge of the field, but that long edge is coming up again soon.  In high school, I would get so behind during the sprinting portion that during the jogging portion I would try to make up for it and catch up to everyone, of course making me that much more tired when the sprinting section came back and pulling me further behind.  Luckily I'm a much better studier than I am a runner, and I'm saving up most of my studying energy for our 5-month sprint when we return.  Now, if only you burned the same amount of calories from studying as you do from running...

My middle school lacrosse team. I'm goofy-looking #16

[I very recently discovered this ability to cross words out.  Expect to see more of it in the future right now.]

The Gift That Just Keeps Giving

Does the Henderson-Hasselbach equation EVER go away? 

I think I have learned it almost once a year starting with freshman year of high school in Biology - and then again in AP Biology senior year, and then in both Intro to Biology and Intro to Chemistry in college, probably in Physics, again for the MCATs, again in Biochem in med school, definitely again in Physiology, again to teach the MCATs, and now again in Pathology.

I think I actually understood it for real for the first time last year in Biochemistry.  The seventh time's the charm, that's what they* say!

Even though I get it now, pKa still gives me nightmares sometimes.

*by they, I mean me, when it takes me seven times to learn something