Things I'm learning

This week's case study is osteoarthritis, and there are some new medical terms I am coming across;

• osteophytes
• subchondral sclerosis
• subchondral cysts
• Herberden's nodes
• Bouchard's nodes

When there's not much going on in the case study, I guess you hang on to whatever you get!

I'm still too bored to read all about bone anatomy, so I'm currently looking at the musculoskeletal section of First Aid for the USMLE Step 1.  I wont get my 30-day subscription to USMLE World Q-bank until Week 5 or it will run out before the end-of-term exam.

Even my presentation this term on Paget's disease is not overly exciting.  Sheesh.

I know somewhere in this module the infamous brachial plexus is going to turn up, so I might as well start looking at that too.

I'm pretty happy with  my current understanding of NSAIDs/paracetamol and the DMARDs.  I suppose I could look at bisphosphonates and perhaps a little more biochem in the areas of gout and inflammation.  Yuk.

I also have a gaping hole in my knowledge of genetics, but my genetics book looks so scary.  My lecturer (Dr Laura Gunder) has authored a textbook Essentials of Medical Genetics for Healthcare Professionals and I'd love to get that one.  I might check the hospital library for it this week.  All other textbook purchases will have to wait a few more weeks at least.  I also really, really want Murtagh's General Practice as I love the way his companion handbook is set out.  That one I know they have in the hospital library, but I want my own to draw in!

And reading Metamorphosis-time.blogspot.com by Bethany, I am so jealous of her results!  Dang.  My friend at work is also looking awesome.  We started trying to get in shape together a few months ago and she kept going and I fell off!  I need to get back on the wagon.  My excuse is she is one of those people that only needs about 6 hours sleep a night.  But excuses don't get me anywhere!  So I just made a fortnightly(!) grocery list for tomorrow, this time trying to keep to bill down as well as being extremely healthy, so I went through my cupboards and have found plenty of ingredients I don't need to buy like brown rice, brown pasta, tea bags (not my fancy organic oolong, but oh well), and chicken stock power (not my fancy organic, non-MSG stock, but oh well!).  I tend to do better if I commit 100%, so let's try again!  At least I can still see most of the great definition from TAM (like I have mentioned before, I'm a 50/50 mesomorph-endomorph).

Anyway, just realised the time and I have to go get ready for my 14-hour night shift :(