A Unique Look

As GenNeo wraps up, I feel like I should make some kind of post that shows it actually even happened (other than Things I Like More Than GenNeo). While we have learned a lot of interesting things (and believe me, some things that were just not interesting at all), what I'm about to post really stuck with me as an interesting representation of just how much cancer can flat out screw your body up.

The typical person's genetic makeup consists of two copies of 23 chromosomes (one from each parent). Mishaps can occur on a large scale such as Down Syndrome (or Trisomy 21), where a person has an extra chromosome, or on a very small scale such as Sickle Cell Disease, where a single piece of your DNA (a nucleotide- the ATCGs) is inserted wrong (this is called a point mutation).

A karyotype provides a quick way to look at a person's genes to see big large-scale changes. It's really just a picture of each chromosome from a person's cell lined up in their respective pairs. A karyotype looks like this:
The chromosomes look very similar and seem pretty neat and orderly. If examined, we can see that this person was a male, we'll call him Clark, because there is a single X chromosome with a Y chromosome (a woman would have two X chromosomes). Clark inveitably has mutations. We all have tons of them that simply don't cause problems (silent mutations). It's possible that Clark even has cancer or some other ailment, it just apparently isn't affecting his genes on such a scale that looking at a karyotype can discern it.

So what kind of destruction can cancer rain down upon your harmless little nuclei, the keepers of your genes? BAM!
This karyotype was taken from the cancer cell of a person with lung cancer. Look at all that! Who even knows where to begin?

My diagnosis (or Dx)? Not good things.
My treatment? Uh... Quit smoking.

Until next time.

Wait...What?!

Being paired with a local physician (preceptor) that we visit at least once a module makes up one of the clinical aspects of our first two years. It is with these preceptors that we have some of our aforementioned "patient contact." The experience generally lets us get more comfortable pretending to be doctors with being student physicians, but more than anything it helps reaffirm why we're all here. What do I mean by this?

As my preceptor and I sit in the side office of the clinic and he fills out the chart of a patient we just saw, the nurse walks in and hands me (as the real doctor is still busy) the next patient's chart. I glance down to see at what we'll be looking and my eyes go wide with surprise.

The Chief Complaint (i.e. the reason for coming) box reads:

Right Thumb- splinter under nail (noodle).

As one might imagine, I reread that sentence a few times. Curious, I look up at the nurse and she, trying to contain her surprise/amusement/disbelief, explains that he was cleaning some dried pasta from a pan and voila:

Noodle + Under + Thumbnail = Pain.

The real downside of this for the patient (It was great for me. I got to watch and help with something unusual.) is that pasta, being a grain product and rather moist, acts as a pretty poor tenant when leasing sub-cuticle space. After about 10 minutes of Lidocaine shots to numb the area (oddly enough the most painful experience for the guy), half of his nail cut off, and some nimble forceps work by my preceptor, he left likely feeling physically worse but thumbnail-infection/pasta free.

I am certain that while this is the first semi-strange experience in my medical career, it will not be the last. Until next time.

What Think You I Take My Pen In Hand?

The Gen/Neo module currently dominates my calendar and all its time enclosed. So, in order to escape from its tedium and rote memorization, this post will instead focus on everything not medicine related. Specifically...

Things I Like More Than Gen/Neo:

-Pouring just the right amount of granola into a cup of yogurt so that it doesn't spill over when I mix it.

-Being able to "hide" the annoying status updates (such as "Farmville" and "MafiaWars") on Facebook.

-The chill an autumn evening's air leaves in your chest.

-Feeling completely content wandering through a book store, even when not buying anything.

-The 3rd or 4th bite of a really good apple, once you've really broken through the skin and can get a crisp chunk of it.

-Getting an unexpected package, letter, magazine, or item in the mail.

-Jason Sudeikis on SNL.

-Opening the door to the mail box and seeing anything there.

-Top 10 (or 20/25/30/50/100) lists of just about anything, but particularly things to do with books or movies.

-The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman.

-Getting a really good Sporcle game when the "random" button is clicked.

-Hyperlinking.

-Writing with a really nice pen.

-Coming up with (what I think are) clever tags for blog posts.

-Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

-Having a wonderful wife (not at all because she will make a few extra said cookies when she's making them for work).

-All of the backgrounds and photos of InterfaceLift.

-Hitting a crosswalk at just the right time so that you don't have to break stride.

-Getting more than 6 good songs in a row on Pandora.

-The Office.

-Reading.

-Finding a good excuse to not study.



Until next time.