Alright! The summer semester has finished!

And none too soon. My head was beginning to go bonkers from the non-stop studying.

But, it also feels strange to have stopped studying, if that can be believed. My schedule up until Friday at 10AM (the time of the final exam), had been filled solely with studying pathology. I always knew what I would be doing in the mornings, afternoons and evenings of everyday. My daily calendar was filled with studying and my life revolved around it.

Now, with the conclusion of the final exam, all of the sudden my daily schedule seems to be out of synch. Where once I never had to plan on what to do (as it was always just studying), now I am actively looking for ways to fill my time. The whole world seems to be open with possibilities for these next four weeks until the fall semester starts. I wonder if this is how people feel when they retire. It's almost as if something inside is missing. It must be that habits are hard to break and once a person who has been ingrained in a certain way of life is taken out of their familiar environment, they feel out of place and perhaps even empty. If I'm already rambling-on about this subject after only 7 weeks of intensive pathology studying, I wonder how it's going to be when I finally retire 30-40 years down the road. I'm done for. I can understand a little bit now why some people choose to never retire. I'll just have to wait and see if I'm one of those people.

But in the meantime, I as well as all of my classmates have plenty of things that we need to catch up on. I've decided that I won't be going back to California this vacation in an effort to save money. Although a big part of me would like to see Hanako and my family, my previous experiences living away from home have given me the fortitude to live independently. I'll be just fine here in Morgantown and I'll find plenty of things to do. Or, I might just start studying again in preparation for the fall. Oh, I wish that were a joke. I'll give myself two weeks.

One Last Dash

Only two more days to go until our final test! I'm giddy with excitement. Only a little bit more and we can kiss goodbye to days defined by "all day studying", for now.

I'll say, this has been the most challenging course so far in my entire educational experience. The sheer amount of material to know in such a small amount of time is mind-boggling. I earnestly salute the medical school students and residents who are able to do this for years on end. I would suffer from burnout long before the end of a single year, which is actually what I'd like to talk about after this final exam is done and over.

Thanks as always for your support!

Studying Pathology and Hypochondria

Now that the summer semester is nearly over, our progress through Robbins is rapidly coming to an end. Even though I'm certain that we've learned a lot, for some reason it feels like there is always more that we don't know than we know.

One of the things that I've come to enjoy about studying pathology is that the things that I learn here can also be applied to improve my own personal health. Just as a mechanic usually knows what's wrong with their car when it is having problems, a person studying medicine (especially pathology) usually knows how their body works and what to do to avoid, diagnose or treat disease. However, studying about cancers and  fatal diseases day in and day out can really begin to have an impact on how you view your body and how you take care of it.

For the layperson, taking care of your body consists of eating healthy and getting regular exercise. But, for medical professionals and students who know every single cancer, syndrome, disease and infection that can afflict the human body, just eating healthy and getting exercise isn't going to be enough to allay your troubled mind.

I've always been conscientious in taking care of my body. I don't smoke, I don't eat or drink in excess and I try to go for a jog as often as possible. But now, I've noticed that perhaps I am taking too many unneeded precautions while I go about my day.

1) Lately, whenever I've gone outside on a sunny day I always either wear a long-sleeved loose shirt or I apply sunscreen to my face, ears, neck and arms. Wouldn't want to get skin cancer.

 2) Whenever I walk by a person with a cigarette or a car that has a lot of bad exhaust I hold my breath. Wouldn't want to increase my risk for atherosclerosis, chronic bronchitis or emphysema let alone one of the countless lung cancers.

3) Whenever I buy groceries, if it's available, I choose a product that is sugar-free, non-fat or reduced calorie (sugar-free syrup or sugar-free jelly for example). Wouldn't want to develop Type II diabetes and all of the associated pathologies that go along with it.

4) Whenever I go into someone's basement or attic I always wonder if there's radon present. Wouldn't want to develop bronchogenic carcinoma.

The four types of bronchogenic carcinomas are squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma and large cell carcinoma.

5) When I'm studying in bed for long periods of time, I constantly move my legs around. Wouldn't want to develop a deep vein thrombosis.

The patient's right leg is edematous due to a clot in one of the deep leg veins.

6) Lately, I've taken up the habit of avoiding cheese and any milk that isn't non-fat milk. Don't want to increase my risk for prostate cancer with all the hormones that companies inject into chronically lactating cows nowadays.

The white spots you can see is the cancer, probably an adenocarcinoma.

7) I've also stopped eating butter and most greasy foods like fried chicken. I don't want my coronary arteries or aorta to get clogged up like this.

In this aorta, all of the yellow debris are plaques of cholesterol due to atherosclerosis.

So as you can see, with knowledge comes a bit of apprehension. There are many more bad things that I haven't shown because I don't want you to lose your lunch. You don't want to know half of the things we study when it comes to venereal diseases.

I realize that, to some people, I may be going a bit overboard in how I conduct my life now. It's somewhat similar to the person who watches crime and courtroom dramas on TV all the time and then they worry about their house being the next to be burglarized.

So how should one conduct their life when they know about all of these bad things that can happen to their body?

The answer, for me, must lie somewhere in-between the extremes. I'm in no hurry to become the archetypal doctor who smokes, nor am I in any hurry to starve myself and start a diet of caloric restriction to live longer. I'll continue to mostly eat healthy and enjoy my occasional apple pie. (As a matter of fact, I'm eating just that right now as I type this. Now I need to run off the calories before my arteries start clogging. There goes my thinking again. See what happens when you study pathology?)

Busy As Usual

It has been a while since I've written about this summer course, and now that half of it is over, I have a fairly good grasp on how to pass. It consists of lots and lots of studying.

It's an online course, so there are no classes that you need to physically attend, but studying takes at least 8 hours a day starting Friday afternoon and ending Thursday night. My perseverance has allowed me to get grades in the high 'B's so far. I'm fairly certain that I'll be getting my first B in a class in a very very long time.

Studying straight through in one whole sitting is impossible. It's much easier to study in blocks of 2 hours or so. Despite all of the information we are jamming into our heads, for me, the worst part isn't the stress. It's the lack of getting outside for fresh air. I can feel my body wasting away as I spend most of my day in my pajamas laying on my bed writing notes, reading textbooks and watching video lectures. I'm still able to get out and do a quick 15 minute run, but my days of working out are long gone.

Yesterday was Independence Day and I was lucky to be invited by my roommate to spend the holiday with her family in nearby Cheat Lake. There was a huge barbecue and everyone, myself included, brought a mountain of food. The company was friendly and the fireworks were spectacular. Although nearly everyone was a stranger to me, I'm sure they'll all never forget me. I'll be remembered as the guy who watched fireworks while reading from a pathology textbook in his lap.

Happy belated 4th of July!