Histology, PBL, POD, and Portfolio Stuff

Our seminar this morning was on the histology of the lymphatic system. It was ok. We also spent some time at the end going over flow cytometry and how it can be used to analyze white blood cells. It was kind of interesting but definitely a bit too long.

This is our first PBL case so far this block where the patient hasn't died on us. We had seven parts to the case today, including a bunch of blood smears and flow cytometry results to look at, so it was kind of rushed for a Friday. There was also an informed consent form included for the clinical trial that our patient was considering, but we basically didn't even get a chance to look at it because we were so rushed. The clinical trial treatment didn't work, but a second treatment did. I think this is my favorite PBL case. It has a little of everything in it, and the patient winds up being cured and going to medical school at CCLCM. What ending could possibly be better than that?

The POD talk was about circadian rhythms and how they are controlled. The speaker is studying circadian rhythms in mice, so of course you get the usual questions about how applicable any of it is to humans. Even though the topic is interesting, I'm not really clear on what this has to do with anything we are studying this block. Maybe there just wasn't room for it during last block.

Right after POD, the CCLCM Cardiology Interest Group had a speaker. There were only about half a dozen of us who went. I was hoping that the talk would be about research, but it was mainly clinical. It's tough to know these things ahead of time. I wanted to leave and go meet my PA early, but since there were so few of us and I had already gotten there late, I wound up staying until the end. The portfolio essays due yesterday were for Medical Knowledge and Clinical Reasoning, but I went ahead and turned in my Clinical Skills and Reflective Practice essays yesterday also. Now the final draft of the essays is due Monday, and the actual finished portfolio is due a week from Thursday. I can't believe how fast the time is just flying by....