Blwuagh!

Blwuagh! My head will probably explode in 10 seconds from all the things I have been stuffing into it lately. Chaotic-much like the environment at the ICU- is the perfect word to describe this week because there is almost no way to organize EVERYTHING that I learned this week into one coherent entry. There are a couple of different things that I have done outside of the hospital that I haven't had a chance to do previous two weeks. In addition to shadowing Dr.Wilson at the OR , this week I also went to U of A and followed an intern at Valley Animal Hospital for about two hours; my friend's 18 year old tabby has kidney problems so she took him to the vet and I tagged along. At the clinic, I simply asked the assistant whether I could observe things for a while but at the U of A library, the situation was much trickier. I had to spend all of my limited people skills to be able to check out some pathology books. Since there is no way I could own a Cat card, I had to bribe( with Twix) one of the U of A students to let me check out the materials on her card. Anyway trickery aside, due to my confusion, I have taken a habit to writing down all the unfamiliar terms in a 5 by 5 note book ( it's faster than typing in an itouch google search and looks more sophisticated). By the end of the 3rd day I have been using the notebook ,about 6 pages (both front and back) have been filled out by probably misspelled medical jargon, shortened names of disease and tests. Because many of the definitions are closely tied with or depend on other systems in the body, the majority of my time was spent leaning about the relationships between organs( this was especially true with spinal disk herniation and the pains/sensations in different parts of the body that occur because of the pinched spinal chord). Surprisingly, I also had to learn a heavy load of biochemistry definitions and processes on a cellular level( for example, all patients receive anti-ulcer medication because they undergo a lot of stress which causes their body to output hydrocortisone or cortisol that stimulate gastric acid secretion and cause stomach ulcers if uncontrolled [ the pituitary gland in patients who are in comatose state still releases cortisol]). Most of the time, the terms centered around blood and blood thinning medication but there was also some interesting conversations by the nurses about the new smoking cessation aid by the name chantix (varenicline). Because about 85% of lung cancer patients are smokers (and I am shadowing a lung doctor ) this drug is quite important. It acts as a partial antagonist. To make it short and easy, varenicline blocks the nicotine from binding to the receptors AND stimulates the receptors at the same time. This drug has the highest effectiveness then any other anti-smoking medication and the highest percentage of suicidal thoughts in people who are taking it. ....Anyway, dying from lung cancer (or any other cancer..or just dying I suppose) is an ugly sight. Dr. Wilson said that "doctors in the ICU help the patient die comfortably " not necessarily help the patient get better.

I have also found out that medicine is very much like a business not in the terms that doctor's salaries depend on how many procedures she/he does, but to the amount of involvement of drug companies and their cooperation with the hospital. I will explain more about this in my next post because my head just exploded.