broad-based & budding

June 21, 2006

after 2 years of a primarily non-medical existence, i am finding it both amusing and somewhat horrifying to discover what my brain chose to file into long-term-storage vs. what it decided to forget. appparently, the medically-trained neurons certainly didn’t consult the rest of me or apply any sort of logical ‘usefulness’ algorithm before deciding which items to throw in my brain’s trash folder. today i couldn’t remember which valves went where in the heart (no, i’m not kidding, sorry) but had no trouble recalling a smattering of esoteric microbiology facts, such as

– you got food poisoning from rice? b. cereus!
– the patient has diptheria? grab a tellurite plate!
– anthrax causes the formation of a . . . black eschar
– broad based budding yeasts? blastomycosis!

yes, these little tidbits remain firmly lodged in my head for some reason, despite the fact that they are:

– not made up of real english words
– essentially useless.

oh well.

also, ha:


(from the british medical journal, apparently)

and also again: i met josh’s fellow surgical residents for the first time at a party last night. i felt a more-than-a-little bit out of the loop as i am about as far from your typical surgical type as . . .well, most budding psychiatrists. some were nice, some were clique-y, and many were sports fans, and most looked either a) nervous or b) tired. i found myself babbling a little bit defensively as i mentioned my career choice (though not many asked). i’ve got to get over that.

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