NYU and Benches

I hate Pharmacology. My test grades are all over the place, and we have a test every single week. I know -- wah, wah, wah. Every single one of his multiple choice questions were answered with A, or B or C or (A and B) or (A and C) or (B and C) or none or all. Really. I mean, fricking really. OK. Rant over. I'm in hate with that professor. Thank you Jesus for pass/fail. Other than that, I'm learning and things are progressing. I do see the growing pains of the program showing. For instance, I am learning such incredible detail on drugs for hypertension, heart failure and asthma right now (things I will never prescribe) and I wish I could put that time into psychotropics, which I will prescribe. Now, do I need to know and understand the drugs for medical conditions? Absolutely, but not at this level of detail. That's the key. Clinicals are just plain fun. At the student health center, we saw 8 sore throats in the four hours I was there. It was cool because one of them was strep and one was someone with chronic sinusitis and boy - did their throats and tonsils look different than the others, which were just the common cold. It was a terrific education in throat pathophys -- ha. And man, as I exclaimed to my preceptor, them tonsils can get HUGE. One guy's were touching (the strep case). And when you're dealing with this population, it's always an eye-opener. One of our patients comes in for a sore throat but tells us he wants an HIV test. Um....ok...but you have to come back for a full STI review and counseling session.
I went to a conference on mental health by the Hogg Foundation http://www.hogg.utexas.edu/. Some good learnings that I did not know:

• Mood disorders are the sixth most expensive health problem in the U.S.
• The top 3 underlying causes (lifestyle choices) of death are smoking, diet & exercise patterns, and alcohol. If you manage those well, you're probably in excellent health.
• Education is the greatest predictor of longevity, particular at the high-school level. If you didn't finish high school, statistically you will live a much shorter life than someone who finishes. Someone with a college degree lives much longer than both of them, etc.
• There's a lot of interest in the positive correlation of depression with chronic disease right now. For instance, they know that depression and diabetes go together, they even know that a depressed person is much more likely to get diabetes (instead of the reverse, as one would assume).
• Usually someone with a mental disorder is first screened by a primary care provider (a family doc, a nurse prac) and often they are referred to see a mental health provider. Sometimes the PCP prescribes anti-depressants or anti-anxiety meds, sometimes they aren't comfortable doing that. But they do usually say, hey you need to see a counselor/therapist. And guess how many don't go? Seventy percent. I was shocked at that.

So my lovely daughter was accepted at NYU. She's been offically accepted at Northeastern, NYU, and Texas A&M. UT rejected her (she's not top 8%). No comments, but needless to say, I'm not happy about UT's holding 75% of their freshman places for top 8% in every Texas high school. I think it's a stupid policy, but it's the legislature, not UT. Anyway, here's a pic of her with her mascara all runny on Wednesday, when she found out from NYU. Yes, her head really is that big now, I mean she's going to NYU! (kidding - I'm a bad photog with the iPhone!) The deal that we've struck with Dani is that we'll pay for NYU for one year if she comes back to an in-state school after that. I'm pretty sure that's what she'll do. (I mean, who wouldn't want to live in New York for a year?)

Funny things still happening at the gym. There is a bench outside the spin room where most of us sit to put on our cleats before class. The other morning, I went up to the bench and there's a guy standing by it, he grasps the bench by one end and yanks it way up in the air -- takes a good look at the bottom, like where a kid might stick his chewing gum -- and sets it down. I stand and wait patiently while he does this. Then he looks at me and says "I do things like that." Yep, there are potential patients for me everywhere.