Saved by Salt-Free French Fries

I had yesterday off, and I spent the entire day at home in my pajamas reading for school and watching the snow flurries falling softly outside my bedroom window. I have to say that when I don't have to go anywhere, I really like the snow. I got my learning objective done, and I even got all of the reading for today done too. I'm especially proud of that.

Our PBL case had a sort of happy ending--the patient survived, but she stopped at a fast food restaurant on the way home after being in the hospital for heart failure. It's pretty true to life, unfortunately. Patients don't even need to wait to be discharged to get their fill of grease, because there is actually a McDonald's in the Cleveland Clinic hospital cafeteria. I don't usually eat at the cafeteria, but whenever I have gone there, the line at the McDonald's stretches all across the room and around the walls. The interesting thing about this McDonald's is that they don't salt their french fries, as if a box of greasy, unsalted fries that don't taste good are somehow better for you than a box of greasy salted fries that do taste good.

The seminar was on endocarditis, which is an infection of heart valves. Pretty gross stuff, but interesting at the same time. Our POD talk was on the biochemistry of atherosclerosis, and it was decent. I'm glad that today is Friday though, because I'm ready for the weekend. The first week back is always a hard one.