The Weird Intern Who Stepped Up To The Plate

A few days ago I wrote about my identification with Heather Brooks from Grey’s Anatomy (and how I wasn’t sure if I liked that). Since then, I heard from one doc that she used to identify with ER’s Dr Carter and from another soon-to-be medical student who identifies with Izzie (minus the LVAD chaos). I

Before Television

On a ward round, the surgeon is explaining why in certain situations, an absent family history may not be relevant (for example, in adopted patients or small families). He questions the elderly patient: DOCTOR: Sir, how many brothers and sisters do you have? PATIENT: counts on fingers Ten, Doctor. DOCTOR: Ten siblings! PATIENT: Yes, doctor. Those

Scaring Kiddies… Unintentionally

When I rotated through Paediatric Oncology during my elective, I had some trouble. Remember how I wrote about the incredibly late detection of tumours – well, that is largely due to the fact that the Eastern Cape has a large rural population. Also, a lot of these children are first taken to traditional healers and

Crossed Wires

The following phone call happened to one of the doctors at the acute admissions ward at the hospital where I am currently doing my fourth year elective: REFERRING DOCTOR FROM RURAL CLINIC: I have a ten-year-old patient with meningism to refer. DOCTOR: Alright, can you tell me more? REFERRING DOCTOR: The patient has meningism and

A little rural funny

Apparently one gets talking medical equipment these days. Talking BP monitors and talking sats monitors and so on. I’ve never seen one of these, of course, but apparently when a new rural hospital was built recently, the local government decided to splurge a little.

Things I Want: Infectious Plushies

Friday is my final final exam for fourth year. Exams have gone really well so far this year, but after this weekend’s news I guess my focus has been a little off.* Since I’m studying all sorts of horrid diseases, I figured I’d share something I want to get. Well, I certainly don’t want any of

Forensics Study Break: Mellanby Effect

How is it that I perform better at Anaesthetics and Infectious Diseases than at Forensic Pathology? It was a short two-week module and by all accounts my class should have done well., but our average was dismal. It must be the completely unappetising subject-matter. You’ll remember that I found the practical rotation rather difficult. Studying

Studying Skeleton

Ah, we love our bag o’ bones in medical school, don’t we? I’ve shared some skeletal creativity here and here, and today I share another picture.

Spot the Odd One Out

Ever wondered what it is like working in a resource-limited setting? Wonder no more:

Cranial Nerves and Dirty Minds

Cranial Nerves are little buggers. They’re one of those things that you need to study and study and study and repeat, and then actually have to recall when in a real-life patient situation. (GCS is also on of those things.) Fortunately, there are many mnemonics to remind us of the cranial nerves and their functions.