Recent Debacles

In Which Brother Is Broken By Brethren, Volume II

Cousins, brother, and friend came back from their basketball game in the park the other day. Nothing like a bunch of funky, sweaty guys desperately gulping bottles of water in the kitchen to brighten the day. Except bro's glasses were shattered and he groped blindly around the kitchen, looking for the mini tool set in the drawers.

"What happened now? Did J (friend) break his glasses this time?" I joked from the doorway.

All their faces swiveled toward me except for J who sat stoically. "How'd you know?" cousin asked in surprise.

He's playing around, I thought. "I'm kidding because J was the one who caused bro's ankle sprain last time ..." J didn't meet my eyes. "Oh my god, you broke his glasses. What are you made of!"

Once again, like the ankle sprain case, bro was on the same team. J had passed the ball to bro, but the ball had caught bro in the face --> bye bye, glasses.

In Which Narrator Narrates Sad Life & Equally Sad, Not-Quite-Dangerous Incident

We just started a section of pathophysiology which we'd continue in the fall. Exam this coming Monday. In two weeks, we have our board exam for micro and immuno. Then it'd be summertime! And an exam in August before class starts that would require us to review all of the neurology and behavioral science we had learned before in preparation for our neuropsychiatry course. Which pretty much says "Screw your summer vacation, suckers." But I should be to able to finally update Through Me some time soon before things pick up again in August.

Today, we started hospital rounds, shadowing a nephrologist as he checked in on a patient with pleuritis (inflammation of the lining of the lungs and chest that leads to chest pain when you take a breath or cough), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and HIV.

It's cool how some of the terms that would have just flown over my head before are starting to come together. He also quizzed us in the hallway on what we know about pneumonia (S. pneumoniae is the top cause of community acquired pneumonia. Pseudomonas major concern for health care workers. For Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sensitivity tests, they actually use oxacillin as opposed to methicillin.) Interesting. And somewhat uplifting that we knew more than we expected - or at the very least, had heard of so and so bacteria and drug before. However, at the same time, it sadly reminded us we still need to desperately polish up on more of the micro and pharm (oh god) - especially with our board exam coming up.

Otherwise, I've been having a week of bad luck and I've been in an especially foul mood lately. To finish me off, I stepped my heel into a pothole after leaving the hospital, nearly spraining my ankle and sending me toppling. I managed to grab hold of a friend who was thankfully right next to me so I didn't wind up sprawled on the ground in front of incoming cars, saving some face in front of this nice huge Asian family who was doing group pictures. I have the bad feeling some of their images might show this lopsided girl with her arms flying in the air and one foot in a hole in the background while they're busy grinning, pulling victory signs. Then they'd curse this mysterious loser for ruining a perfectly fine family photo. Story of my life.

Good thing I also clipped my nails recently so I didn't leave scratch marks on poor arm of friend. He was adamant that he would have saved me even if I hadn't grabbed onto him because he has quick reflexes like that. Yeah. Right. I'd probably have died.


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

When I saw this, it made me think of a friend who had picked herself up a rape whistle, a siren, and licensed mace when she moved into an apartment by herself.