Wednesday, January 09, 2008

PBL, Anatomy, and Echo Lab

Our PBL case this week is about congestive heart failure. I am doing the pharm learning objective, which no one else wanted to do. That's ok with me, because I like pharm. I have realized though that I suck at hearing heart murmurs. We had some heart sounds to listen to during the PBL case, and I really have a hard time hearing the diastolic murmurs. (Diastole is the point in the heart beat where the heart muscle is relaxing and the chambers are filling with blood.) Systolic sounds, which occur while the heart is contracting, are a lot easier.

Our anatomy session was really a body cavity embryology session. We didn't do much embryo last year, so we're doing it now. It's pretty complex, but kind of interesting how the embryo starts out as more or less a flat disk, and then it starts folding up in all different directions. I don't think I could explain the sequence of events from start to finish though. After Dr. Drake went over the embryo, we went through some prosections to review the chest anatomy. It was a really good review, and I understood a lot more this time around than I did a year ago.

We had a radiology station too just like we used to have last year. I don't know if I've ever mentioned our radiologist. He's awesome. First of all, radiology is just cool anyway. Plus, our radiologist is this really nice older man who has a British accent, so you have to imagine all of this being said with a British accent. He'll start out by showing us a CT of the chest and pointing to something really easy, like the aorta. And he'd say to me, "Can you recognize what this is?" Of course I would say, "The aorta." And he'll say, really enthusiastically, "That's right! It IS the aorta, isn't it! And look, here's the left ventricle attached to it!" I love the radiology station.

This afternoon, we went to the echo lab and listened to several patients who had heart murmurs. That actually really helped, because it's a lot easier to hear a murmur on a real person than it is on the computer, and most of these patients had really loud murmurs. But I still have a hard time making out the diastolic murmurs unless the murmur is practically audible without the stethoscope. I know it's shameful for a Cleveland Clinic medical student, but maybe I'm not cut out to be a cardiologist. ;-)

3 comments:

YS said...

Good for you. It looks like you are having an interesting enjoyable time.

MC said...

So, I've been reading your blog since I got accepted to CCLCM last month, just to get a feel for where I'm going. It's been good to see honest day-to-day thoughts from someone that's in the middle of all of it right now. Anyway, the timing is sort of random, but I wanted to introduce myself so I feel like less of a stalker. My name is Maurine, and I expect I'll meet you in real life at some point. Until then, I'll keep reading, and maybe ask if you have any good housing hints.

CCLCM Student said...

Hi Maurine,

Glad to hear from you. :-) I hope you'll be coming for the second look weekend next month. That will give you a great opportunity to look for housing, as well as to help you decide if CCLCM is the right school for you.

I'd be able to give you better housing advice if I knew more about what you were looking for. Basically, most students live in Cleveland Heights or Shaker Heights (two cities within a few miles of campus). A few people live further out in the suburbs (probably a must if you plan to buy your own house), and some people have lived on the Case campus in grad student housing. I also know of a few who live downtown. There is plenty of reasonably priced, convenient housing in Cleveland, so I don't think you'd have a problem finding a place that you like.