September 23, 2006

• Memorize This

  More china posts coming soon–I know it is a poor excuse, but in trying to keep up with my actual school work, i have neglected the uploading and posting of china photos, including the ones of me eating crazy shit, and the trips to the great wall, which are probably among the most interesting of the photos i took. I assure you all i am properly contrite and will do my best to get the rest of the china posts finished before a year since my china trip has passed. That said, back to venting about class

  Medical school memorization is a challenge, I think, because you’re going from storing arrays to storing tables and databases, really.

  Throughout your education, you memorize facts as arrays. That  is, one piece of information corresponds to the other. It’s all linear. Capital of California => Sacramento. P53 => tumor suppressor. Ben Affleck => Terrible Actor. But medical school changes that. It’s no longer so simple. It’s not just that this equals that, it’s that this is related to that as well as this other thing. Or you’re required to memorize categories of information on a certain topic. Just like a database.

  An example may help. For each bacteria in micro, we have to know:

  * How to diagnose it
  * What syndromes causes
  * How the lab identifies it
  * Its antibiotic resistances
  * How it causes disease
  * What toxins it produces
  * Where it infects
  * How it is transmitted

  So it’s not just the process of trying to memorize all the information that makes it so difficult; it’s the fact that you have to train your brain to start storing information differently. Streptococcus Pyogenes, the bacteria that causes Strep Throat, isn’t just a bacteria. Now it’s a bacteria that:

  * is a gram positive cocci, found in chains or pairs
  * causes Pharyngitis (strep throat), Cellulitis Impetigo, Scarlet Fever, and Pneumonia, among others
  * can not be prevented with a vaccine, but penicillin and macrolides will treat it
  * produces Pyrogenic Toxins that stimulate T cells
  * produces F proteins that facilitate adhesion to tissues, Capsules that prevent phagocytosis
  * produces streptolysins that destroy red and white blood cells
  * produces M protein that prevents complement activation
  * inhabits the ciliated upper respiratory epithelium
  * is transmitted by aerosol particles, or direct contact with a break in the skin

  And that’s just one of 10 bugs that we have to learn for JUST THIS QUARTER. See what I mean? It’s a whole other ballgame

  Hence, less often posting—

  -J

  I’m Still here

  • 3:19 pm
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