Fighting Trousers - Professor Elemental

Well it made me laugh and not just because he raps about "chap hop".

(via Life in the Fast Lane)

This just seems plain wrong

So I found this on someone's YouTube video whilst I was looking for a nice Pulmonary Embolism video. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but it's just depressing that this kind of thing goes on; naturopathy is pretty much one of the worse kinds of bunkum but seeing someone promoting it and denouncing actual medications that work to prevent death? It just seems wrong.

I always figured that the alt med users were like atheists in foxholes when they became seriously unwell. You bad-mouth medicine whilst it can't cure your muscle aches/ lethargy/ "bloated feeling", but when you get diagnosed with cancer or have an MI you're all about the "western medicine". Guess I was wrong. Sadly. Apparently you can get a DVT and think that "blood cleansing" is the way to go.

This medicine thing takes a lot of time

In space, no-one can hear you be a massive nerd

I can't believe it's taken this long to find the time to do another post. Even worse, I can't think of a cohesive topic for a Friday night, so I (and subsequently, you) will have to make do.

Here's some thoughts:

1) I'm pulling 8 hours a day, a couple of hours in the evening and I don't think this is going ever let up. I'm not complaining, just sayin' is all. I'm balancing it out by knowing that you have to make sacrifices to get what you want. And any time I feel I'm a bit stressed by it all, I watch a little Randy Pausch and get a bit of perspective and a renewed eagerness to work harder.

2) My uni seems to think that one lecture on pharmacology per quarter is acceptable, but we have 3 comms sessions a week. This is the kind of thing I'm just going to have to address with a "suck it up and walk it off" mentality. I can't change it - we've had an opportunity for feedback, but I don't feel like The Man really wants to address this kind of thing. Whatever, I'll play the game, pass the tests and try and do more individual learning to make up for this.

3) Channel 4 do a good line in getting Britons to show off their embarrassing bodies. (Apologies to people who 

4) This week was a good week. I felt like I was on top of things for the first time in a long while. With PBL it seems very easy to cover just the Learning Objectives your group agrees on and not go much deeper. Then you rock up to the next PBL session and realise that other people have pulled out the lead a bit more than you and have gone deeper. Then you feel stupid and lazy and it means you feel at a deficit for the next round.

This week, however, I went deep enough and really nailed the issues we discussed in group. I feel more comfortable with the menstrual cycle than I have done for aaaaages. I feel like learned a lot and had plenty of positive input in the group sessions. My group of friends is getting tighter, too, which is awesome. I'm hitting the gym with one of my PBL homies on a regular basis and really lifting weights, on top of my prep for the Hastings Half-Marathon - so that's all good.

5) I may have also reactivated my EveOnline account. I'm not going to apologise - I need to indulge my nerd a bit and if by playing at being a spaceman every now and then, so be it!

Another space filler

Urgh, I am having trouble finding the time for a proper post, but here's a little something for this evening: The Differential Diagnosis

There as many ways to do this as there diagnoses (PRO TIP: It's never Lupus, but it might be TB) but the one my PBL group has settled on for the next few weeks is the acronym, Investigations - a like so,

Idiopathic/ Iatrogenic
Neoplasm
Vascular
Endocrine
Structural/ Mechanical
Traumatic
Inflammatory
Genetic/ Congenital
Autoimmune
Toxic
Infective
Old age/ Degenerative
Nutritional
Spontaneous/ Social

And as for history taking, I'm yet to find a good one, so I just end up humming...