Endocrine

This week was the first week back from Spring Break. It was a little hard for me to get back into the swing of things. Good thing we had the Endocrinology exam on Friday, so I had something to keep me focused.

We finished the unit with lectures on adrenal and thyroid disorders and the pharmacology and diagnostic methods aspect of each. We had two CPX this week (standardized patient visits). One was for the endocrinology unit and the other was for behavioral medicine. I enjoyed both of them and was excited to see the good feedback they gave me. The exam was Friday morning. I will admit that I did not feel at all prepared for it. Somehow I was still able to do well on it.

We had on surgery lecture this week on cardiology stuff. It was a good review from the Cardiology unit we had last semester. On Friday we were in the fresh tissue lab working with cadavers. We were instructed on a laparoscopic appendectomy (appendix removal) and a cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal), a sternotomy for a lung or heart procurement (for a transplant), and how to start central lines (IV lines in the large veins). It was very interesting, as all of our Friday labs are. The second part of the day we had a lecture on wound healing.

The most exciting part of Friday was the bus we rode on to the lab. Note that this was right after we had finished the endocrine exam and were all very worn out and relieved that it was over. For those of us that were daring enough to enter a bus that we had not seen before, we had quite the surprise. The bus was an old public transportation bus that had been modified into a "party bus". It had purple velvet ceilings and walls, with black curtains on the windows, accent lights and a crazy sound system. I had never seen anything like it. Suffice it to say that we rode to the lab in style.

Saturday was the infamous Duke vs UNC game at Cameron indoor stadium. We didn't have tickets to the game, so we decided to go to the ESPN college game day at the stadium that morning. We made some signs, hoping to get picked to shoot the half court shot for $17,500. It was my birthday, so my sign read "Duke beats UNC = best birthday ever! Of course we also used our adorable girls to try and get some air time. We made a sign for Eliza that said I (a big read heart) Duke. When the cameras were rolling I would put Eliza on my shoulders and she would hold her sign up as high as she could. The sore shoulders and back were worth it, because we got on TV twice. Both shots were close-ups of Eliza holding her sign. The bad news was that I didn't get picked to shoot for the money. Maybe next year. The best news was that Duke blew out UNC. The losing streak to Carolina is now officially over.