In memoriam

My school inbox this morning (which I have been checking most frequently, to see if the renal final exam scores were up?  up now?  how about now? now?) was flooded with emails about the death of one of our exceptional biochemistry professors.

Biochemistry has always been a bit of a struggle for me, though that phrasing is, upon second thought, highly inaccurate as it implies a gentle, continuous process of studying and stress over a period of time.  I took biochemistry as a second-year in college.  The professor was an almost certainly deranged old man who delighted in telling premeds how much he hated them/farting in public/telling the medical school professors who shared his room how much he hated them.  He was barred from teaching undergrads the following quarter.  I got a C+.  Surprisingly, this was not a huge problem on post-collegiate applications, with the exception of an incident with one admissions member who took it upon himself to go through my transcript, grade-by-grade, in front of me.  ("You did pretty well in developmental biology...not too bad in introductory linguistics...WHOA!  You're not too good at biochemistry, are you?")  I then studied exactly how much biochemistry was needed to score well on the MCAT, took the MCAT, and vowed to expunge it from my mind. 

Suffice it to say that I entered biochemistry with a chip on my shoulder, but the warmth and enthusiasm with which Dr. B. approached his subject would have softened even the most resolute haters.  Teaching an introductory biochemistry course was the least of his responsibilities.  He had an enormous and highly productive lab, he was on the admissions council, but he gave each lecture as if it was the sole focus of his career.  He was an exceptional role model to those who find themselves heading toward academic medicine.  To have accomplished so much (and to have learned to be such an effective teacher) in such a short amount of time is astonishing.

I hope someday that I will be satisfied with my own accomplishments, that I will manage to balance life and work effectively rather than the delicate teeter-tottery that allows me to make do but produces toxic amounts of stress and sugar-eating as a byproduct.  I hope someday that I can show angry C+-earning former premeds that my scientific passions could be theirs, too.  I can at least try. 

Time to give the grant-writing and schedule planning another go.  Time tromples on.

Mission Statement/ [Don't] Taste the Rainbow

I have created this blog for three marginally sound reasons.  In order of decreasing legitimacy, they are:

1) I've wanted to start a blog for a while. 
2) I am a student.  I am also painfully enthusiastic.  As such, I frequently run across tidbits in books and lecture that delight me so much I wish to share them with everyone.  By confining my gleeful discoveries to this blog, I imagine I will be far less obnoxious to the world at large.
3) I am currently finding designing a prospective course schedule for graduate school so frustrating that finally starting a blog instead of blinking at the "courses offered" bar seemed far more productive.  [Discovery of the day: Just because a class was last offered in 2000 does not necessarily mean it will be removed from a course list.]

Also, courtesy of my first three semesters of medical school, I give you: The urine rainbow!
Red: Beets, natch, or gross hematuria (bloody urine) 
Orange: Rifampin (treatment for tuberculosis)
Yellow: A normal state of affairs
Green: Urinary tract infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Blue: Amitryptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant ("Your pee will be blue, but your moods won't be anymore!")
Indigo: A tricky one...perhaps concentrated urine from a patient treated with amitryptyline?  Suggestions?
Purple: Learning about this one tickled me pink.  Certain bacteria (Enterococcus, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa) can break down a metabolite of tryptophan (indican) into indigo (blue) and indirubin (red)...giving you Barney pee!