Monday, April 12, 2010

Lost my sensibiility

V-Q, CO2, PA02, A-aO2, Hbg, DLCO, FEV1, TLC, VD/VT, FI02, RV, IRV, ERV, VC, FRV, FEV, CO, N2O, pH, SaO2, HCO3

Welcome to my new language! It's called: Respiratory Physiology (oooooh, ahhhhh). Who knew that everything you learned in general chemistry the first semester of college 7 years ago would be so valuable? Partial Pressures, Dalton's Law, Fick's Law of Diffusion, it's all important to understanding the lung! If only they had told me that at the time....

Now that we're in the organ blocks, we are really getting down to business...We have 3 lectures a day, 4 days a week, just on the lung, meaning that we cover 12 hours of intense material each week. In two weeks we're already passed the 20 lectures point...talk about fast-pace. But of course, life also continues to happen, so I've been grappling with my summer options, extracurricullar activities and writing a research proposal. I'm getting the hang of it though, key words: SLOW DOWN and enjoy the flowers. No seriously, the wildflowers are in bloom all over campus. It's beautiful.

The lung is really neat, but not so neat if you have asthma, or COPD, or brochiectasis, or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis, interstitial lung disease, bacterial pneumonia, pulmonary edema, respiratory distress syndrome, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, or anything similar. Like my new vocabulary? Don't forget crackles, rhonchi, wheezes, spirometry, arterial blood gases, or body boxes, beta agonists, muscarinic antagonists and steroids.

 I try to immerse myself in the new language, so I read the recent NEJM article on the impact of 9/11 debris on pulmonary function of firefighters and emergency rescue workers. Hopefully that study will help secure funding for additional health coverage for those workers.

And, I've considerably lost my vision from studying too much. If only there was a spare moment to see an ophthalmologist, then the lecture slides could be clear again!

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