Pathology Oral Exam Upcoming!

We are heading into the stretch of final exams. Wednesday is the PA Pathology Oral, Friday is the Pathology Small Group, Monday is our final unit test, and the following Wednesday is our cumulative final (which is extremely terrifying!).

The oral is probably the most intimidating, because in addition to being an important part of my grade it is also the opportunity to look completely ignorant in front of our course director. I'm allotting time this weekend to write out the major pathologies of the various organ systems. Thankfully this week's lectures have included both GI pathology and liver/pancreatic pathology so it'll kill two birds with one stone (pathology oral and test 10 studying). I really feel like I need to go back and re-study the renal pathology lectures though because it has been a month since we had those lectures and there have been soooo many other topics covered between then and now. There are other organ systems to review as well, but I just feel strongly about needing to do renal since I don't feel like my retention was particularly good on those. Lungs too, it feels like forever since we've had to study lungs...

Okay, so maybe it would just be safer to start at the head and work my way down! It can't hurt and will hopefully make cumulative final studying that much easier...

Thankfully my kids are with my parents so my out of class obligations are significantly lessened. It is amazing how much easier it is to study during the day when it is quiet and you don't have to take anyone to soccer practice or feed everyone. I'm going to have to take a study break on Sunday though because there is a food truck rodeo! Socializing is important and so is eating lunch!

Nooooo, they be stealing my bucket!

Slightly relevant, slightly amusing bucket picture

On Tuesday we had a group in our small group pathology lab present their autopsy case along with the previously blogged about roadshow. Because of that we didn't have enough time to really go over our assigned bucket of organs displaying pathological processes. We were hoping to be able to get the same bucket back after whoever was assigned to have it today was done with it, but when we showed up in lab today we found out we had a bucket we'd already seen.

Stealthy picture taken of bucket

The other PA in our class texted around and found the lab that had the bucket, but luckily they'd already seen it* and happened to have an autopsy presentation today. Unfortunately they'd already seen the organs in our bucket as well. But on consideration, I realized that by switching buckets with them they were no better or worse off than they were before whereas we would be much better off. So... since our lab instructor wasn't there yet (I get places very early sometimes) I decided to take the initiative and switch our buckets.

It might have confused the folks in the other lab just a bit but after a hasty explanation they seemed okay with it... I did feel a little strange stealing someone else's bucket but it did make our lab session a lot more effective today!

*I think there is built-in redundancy because of the autopsy presentations.

In which I seem to know things!

It is biphasic! He stressed it in the lecture.

We had a mammography roadshow today in path lab led by the pathologist that is the course director for our program. We had a lecture on breast pathology from him last week but the associated TBL session was just a Q&A so it was good to have the roadshow to reinforce the material. It started with our traditional roadshow cheer (the class does the wave while going Roooooooooooooooadshow! and claps twice) which ensures everyone is awake.

There was a fellow from radiology that gave a basic overview of mammography and we had some cases with the doctors asking questions/leading discussion. No one really seemed inclined to answer questions so I ventured a few comments and it is... I don't know? Gratifying to be right and feel confident when answering. And if you're going to look competent in front of someone, it is nice to do it in front of someone who you want to have a good opinion of you!

Also, I got to handle the tools they use to do breast core biopsies which was neat. They are giant 9 gauge needle guns and are very intimidating! The GI biopsy equipment looks a lot friendlier after seeing the breast biopsy stuff.

It was a good morning and we have a free day tomorrow that I'm going to use to start studying for test 9--anything to make the weekend calmer! The kids are heading to my parents' house for the rest of the month starting Friday as well so that will give me quite a bit more downtime (and quiet!) for the rest of the studying I need to do. I will say that having Robbin's pocket guide on the kindle makes trips to the pool at my apartment complex more productive than they would be otherwise.

Lab Instructor Awesomeness

Normally in lab we have organs to examine and case studies* to go through. We didn't have any organs today so we managed to power through the case studies for the next two weeks. Since we're going to have all this extra lab time our lab instructor asked us if there were any particular disease processes or specimen types that we wanted to see that we hadn't already seen. There were a variety of different requests made so it'll be neat to see what kind of stuff he will be bringing to share.

From wikipedia: An older mitral valve replacement option

Tuesday we got to see a heart that had a Starr-Edwards mitral valve replacement, which is the kind of thing that we still might see on autopsy but that will become progressively less common as replacements are more and more from animals or of cadaveric origins. Apparently it also sounds interesting if you listen to the heart sounds of someone with that style of replacement valve.

I had an open mouth insert foot kind of moment today. It was unexpected... have you ever have one of those instances where you realize that words are coming out of your mouth but at no point did they pass through the discretionary filters of your brain? That was sort of what happened to me... I was speaking without having made any conscious thought to speak. Completely mortifying. Surprisingly well received though.

*The format is usually a few lines with the symptoms they presented with and relevant history. Then we get a gross and microscopic description and have three to five multiple choice questions about their condition. So it might be something like an 83 year old woman, who immigrated from Malaysia five years ago, presents with low grade fever, cough and enlarged lymph nodes. An x-ray reveals multiple 1-5mm nodules disseminated through the liver, lungs, and spleen. What do you think is the primary cause of the disease? What type of co-infection would you most likely expect?