On a Lighter Note

so this weekend is designated as my test prep weekend as my exam is coming up at the end of the week. while i've learned a lot on this rotation, that means nothing when it comes to boards-type exam questions. more than anywhere else, in medicine academia does not equal real life. so i'm boning up on statistics and quirky rare diseases and such. those illnesses/mutations that you never actually see in practice but are assured to find on written exams are referred to as "zebras" in the medical community and everyday illnesses are the "horses" in the metaphor. for example, "pheochromocytoma" is sure to be found on a test but "pneumonia" might not make it. get it? i can't tell you how often professors and guest lecturers say, "you'll never actually see this, but you should know it for your boards..." i think they just make stuff up and feed it to us students so that when a patient comes in with an ear ache we say crazy, stupid stuff like, "oh, clearly that patient is suffering from an oligodendroglioma since she is 43 years old and from Norweigian descent and has visited the ocean exactly twice in her life and has a second cousin twice removed by the name of Ingrid" instead of being reasonable and saying, "ah, yes, it's likely an ear infection. give her a wet willie and see if she yelps." somewhere there's an ivory tower filled with retired physicians just making themselves giggle all day long by the stuff they put in the text books.

so anyway... i am meant to be studying this weekend but am instead celebrating my birthday. have actually been celebrating my birthday for the last week and intend to continue celebrating it for another week to come. i learned from some of the important women in my life that it is totally acceptable to have a birthday 'season' instead of just one lousy birth-'day.'

my sweet husband is building me a cake. i'm sure he'll do a beautiful job (he's a great cook) but sadly, i don't think it will look like this one. although that would be most excellent. (credit due: i stole this from someone smart on the interweb).