September 22, 2006 11:13pm

Another weekend...

Still no Stud.

Had a really nice talk with Mike the other night. I hope he's able to come and visit soon.

Tonight, I'm thinking about how tired I am of people at my school complaining. They complain about everything- the bathrooms, the administration, the length of our lectures, the amount of material we have to learn, questions on tests, length of tests, time allowed on tests, when tests are given. ENOUGH ALREADY.

Two years ago when we were all applying to medical school and were just hoping that someplace, any place would take us I bet there were no complaints then. If someone said, "Okay, you can go to medical school, but you have to sit on a wooden bench during lectures for 10 hours each day. You can't ever bring a cushion. You are allowed only one meal of beans and rice daily. You must sleep on a straw mat. these are the conditions, take ir or leave it." Oh I'm sure plenty of them would take it just to be able to be in medical school. Now that they're here- they bitch and moan and complain constantly.

SHUT UP. I'm so tired of people thinking they know how to run a school better than anyone else. That medical students think they know what they need to know and how it should be presented because years and years of medical education obviously hasn't worked. No, we've been producing nothing but horrible doctors in this country. Nobody knows anything. Look at poor Angelina Jolie. She had to go to a 3rd world country to deliver her baby because there weren't any hospitals capable of handling her pregnancy here.

We have some of the best medical care in the world available in this country. And how did we get to that point? That's right, by having people go to medical school, sit on their ass, hear a lecture, and LEARN SOMETHING.

Stop running your mouth and open a book.

Jeez!

On a related note, I get really frustrated when I hear people say "doctors don't know anything". This is usually said by someone who has been to see their doctor complaining of a cough for 6 weeks and the exact cause of it is unknown...therefore making the treatment elusive. The same goes for any other non-descript symptom such as "fatigue", "rash", "flu-like symptoms", and "It hurts here."

It's not that doctors don't know anything. The reason it takes so long to diagnose some people is because there is a shit load of diseases that can cause problems like this. After you eliminate the immediately life-threatening or disabeling, it gets harder and harder to figure out what to do.

Then there are the people who have totally bizarre diseases. They usually end up on a tv show on TLC or on the Discovery Health channel. It makes every doctor who treated them look like a total fool because they try to diagnose and treat them with the more common ailments. Finally, after years and years they go to a specialist somewhere on the other side of the country who diagnoses them immediately as having a rare, strange disease that less than 1,000 people have in the entire country. It also just happens that this person has devoted their career to researching this one disease. They look like a genius, and the poor internist they saw 2 years ago who has never even heard of this problem looks like an idiot.

Not very fair.

When you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras.

So if you have a fever and chills and the dr tells you that you have a virus- go home, drink fluids, take tylenol, and rest it is because that works for most people. Sorry if it doesn't work for you, but don't expect anyone to start testing you for rare diseases with unusual presentations just because you think you're so special that you must have something different. While it isn't nice to bring up money, it is a reality and it's just to expensive to order lots of tests on people when it is unlikely that they have something other than the flu.

And one more thing! I know it's our responsibility as your care provider to ask the right questions, but please try to give all the information you can- even if it doesn't seem relevant at the time. For example, "I've had a headache for two days." Might make me think stroke in someone who is over 50 and had high blood pressure. But, if they kindly mention, "The headache started when a brick fell on my head." I can save mayself and them a lot of panic and unnecessary procedures. I know lots of things don't seem relevant, but it doesn't hurt to mention them. Let the Dr decide if it is important or not. If nothing else, it makes for an interesting day. I love a good story!