I’ve found one downfall to studying pathology this
extensively; I think I’ve developed a mild form of hypochondria. While studying the skin chapter this week, I
found myself not reading, but examining every mole on my body. And for that
entire day, I convinced myself that I had melanoma. When I go to the pool I am
practically one giant blob of sunscreen. I refuse to let a wedge resection of
my ear end up on someone’s gross bench for basal cell carcinoma. However, I guess this precaution is probably
for the best – protect your skin folks!
I pretty much think I have any disease in Robbins that
starts with nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, nausea, weakness, etc. “Patient presents with fatigue after long
nights of studying and nausea before taking exams and giving presentations”- No
differential is needed; I’m diagnosing this case as “PA school”.
It was practically a breath of fresh air reading about testicular
tumors, knowing that I will never get one (girls don’t have those parts).
Also, I’ve never considered taking up cigarette smoking and after
seeing its effects I can’t imagine justifying it. Smoking can cause EVERYTHING
– lung cancer, mouth cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, ovarian cancer,
etc. I just can’t imagine willingly
subjecting your body to such terrible diseases.
I'd like to say that it passes, but it doesn't! The more you know about disease the more you are able to diagnosis yourself with everything (one of my classmates swears she has an abdominal aortic aneurysm, another may have a brain tumor, etc).
ReplyDeleteI got a good laugh out of this post because it is *so* true! I was fighting a cold last fall, and with the accidental bruises on my legs from banging it on something I had long forgotten about, the swollen lymph nodes, and feeling run down, my first thought went immediately to leukemia and all the invasive lab tests involved (bone marrow aspirations, tons of blood work..).
ReplyDelete