Moon, House, School
Mar. 11th, 2009 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liveonearthThe moon looks awfully near to full....bright white shining in my window. Cold out there for Portland, but probably not freezing. Today did my first ever gynecological exam, both the speculum and the bimanual. I actually felt her ovary. It was one of those firsts, like drawing blood the first time, that not everybody gets. The further I get into this training the more I want to live in a state where I can legally diagnose and prescribe. What a pain it would be to be persecuted for being a good diagnostician, and punished for competing with the established corporate medical monster.
House tonight was interesting. I guess it's always interesting to me. The TV show, I mean. We watch it online, using hulu and other sources. It's the only show I watch. Tonight's show had House on methadone, instead of his usual vicodin. Now I'm curious about the drugs. The diagnosis for the pt of the show was dehydration and kidney compromise, complicated by an MRI with contrast which the kidneys were unable to remove, which then deposited in the heart and other places that had caused trouble during the show. I can almost keep up with the medicine behind the show, and that is what makes it fascinating. It is part of my education, just as This American Life is part of my education.
From Wikipedia: Methadone was developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s in anticipation of possible shortages of raw opium during the upcoming war and possible blockades by the enemy, which would result in shortages of morphine and other opiates for both the military and civilian populations. It was tested by medical professionals in the German military in 1939-40 but decided that it was too toxic and too likely to become addictive upon repeated use (habituation) for use in the army and other organisations.
One of our professors, Dr. Windstar, recently said in a lecture that you have to know America to be a good doctor. A Canadian classmate piped up about something and she told him "you want to be different, but you're not." She talks about how all women with vaginal issues think they have a yeast infection "because that's what they see on TV". A few of the teachers at this school are truly priceless, and I am so grateful to be in their tutelage.
House tonight was interesting. I guess it's always interesting to me. The TV show, I mean. We watch it online, using hulu and other sources. It's the only show I watch. Tonight's show had House on methadone, instead of his usual vicodin. Now I'm curious about the drugs. The diagnosis for the pt of the show was dehydration and kidney compromise, complicated by an MRI with contrast which the kidneys were unable to remove, which then deposited in the heart and other places that had caused trouble during the show. I can almost keep up with the medicine behind the show, and that is what makes it fascinating. It is part of my education, just as This American Life is part of my education.
From Wikipedia: Methadone was developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s in anticipation of possible shortages of raw opium during the upcoming war and possible blockades by the enemy, which would result in shortages of morphine and other opiates for both the military and civilian populations. It was tested by medical professionals in the German military in 1939-40 but decided that it was too toxic and too likely to become addictive upon repeated use (habituation) for use in the army and other organisations.
One of our professors, Dr. Windstar, recently said in a lecture that you have to know America to be a good doctor. A Canadian classmate piped up about something and she told him "you want to be different, but you're not." She talks about how all women with vaginal issues think they have a yeast infection "because that's what they see on TV". A few of the teachers at this school are truly priceless, and I am so grateful to be in their tutelage.
