The lack of sleep/caffeine dependence cycle of pain

Consider the simple medical student. He or she must strive to keep a balance between the positive and negative factors that are plentiful in his or her day to day life. These factors in the most loose sense can be defined as such:
Positive factors: Any such thing which ensures the health of the medical student. (Sleep, free food, free books - free anything, really, time at the gym etc).
Negative factors: Any such thing which may be detrimental to the health of the medical student. (Lack of sleep, stress, ultra-competitive cut throat classmates etc).
It started out innocently enough - happenings that in themselves did not pose any serious obstacle to the health of this medical student. A desire to attend Neurosurgery grand rounds the next morning; a shocking amount of material covered in lecture that day and the next; a dramatic increase in the amount of work to be accomplished in lab that night, a presentation in the next morning's class....in fact, a total of 6 negative factors combined to be the straw that broke the life-balance camel's back. A series of unfortunate events, if you will.
I worked late into the night, hoping to get both my studying for the day's lectures AND my reading for tomorrow done while working in lab. A free dinner would have been a bonus but I didn't plan on spending an hour at a meeting, no matter how good their food.
By 12am I was done studying, had completed my work, but hadn't read for class the next day nor practiced my presentation (which, by the way, is only for an informal PBL small group presentation, but if I don't practice I tend to suck at it. A lot).
Of course I had to get up early the next morning (5am instead of 6:40am) in order to avoid the slippery slope that is Falling Behind In Medical School. (A catastrophe of cataclysmic proportions) I did my reading for that day's lectures and practiced my presentation with time to go to the gym. In order to stay awake during lecture, however, the smoky brew of coffee was necessary. With even more lectures gushing forth material surely to be covered in the next test, lab work, studying and reading to be done, the allure of the brew became too strong to resist.
Now, one week later, I am slowly weaning myself off the brew and enduring many a gaping yawn. I'll see how next week goes...

Cells are awesome

In doing my reading for tomorrow's classes, I stumbled upon this delicious fact and I just had to post. Generally speaking, the more complex an organism tends to be, the larger its genome (the total amount of DNA in its cells). Yet, while the human genome is 200 times larger than a certain species of yeast, it is 200 times smaller than a certain species of amoeba. Yes, amoeba. Those amorphous jello like creatures with water for brains.
How amazing is that??
One more thing....each human cell contains an extraordinary amount of DNA. If stretched end to end, this DNA would be 2m long. But, deadrocketcow, you say. The cell is so small, how does all that DNA fit in there? The nucleus of the cell with a diameter of about 6x1o^(-6) - 6 millionths of a meter - achieves this remarkable feat by creating a series of supercoils and loops of DNA, all bunched up tight. This, according to 'Molecular Biology of The Cell' by Alberts, is 'geometrically equivalent to packing 40km (24 miles) of extremely fine thread into a tennis ball!'
If that doesn't make you almost vomit with excitement....I dunno, you're missing out on the fun.
And since I am posting even though I should be dilligently reading....we had our first Histology lab on Wednesday. It was cool to see sections of duodenum and liver and trachea and actually get a visual of all the stuff I read about in text books. When I realised that those pink stained dots in the cytoplasm of the liver cell were actually pink because of a stain for carbohydrates and connected that with learning 'the liver stores glycogen' in the text book, I had this huge burst of excitement. Glycogen! I almost yelled. It has to be glycogen!
And then....we looked at electron microscopy pictures of the very same liver slides, and we could actually see the rough endoplasmic reticulum with the *gasp* ribosomes sitting right on it. It felt like I had been given private access to a secret world, one that I could only have imagined. Awesome-ness, I tell ya.
Back to reading late into the night, with possible over-sleeping rammifications for tomorrow.

Random thoughts

I had my first test today. It was short - (12 questions) - more of a quiz than a test, but still. I studied hard and I am glad I did. It required quite a bit of thinking what with the pKa's of amino acids and different pH environments. I had immediate gratification too (or not), because we went over the answers together in class, as this was only our first test.
I was angry with myself, of course, because I missed a question I ought to have gotten correct. If only I had.......but of course 'if only' doesn't count. A wrong answer is a wrong answer. How many times must I tell myself not to obsess over having made a mistake, but rather focus on learning from that mistake and moving on? And when will I truly believe that I am learning material so I can better understand the basic science behind disease (hopefully to be a great physician) and not just to ace an exam? Give me strength!

In other news....I work in a lab at night in the hospital affiliated with my school and I often have to pick up samples from the nurses. Last night, I was standing at the nurse's station waiting for one of the nurses to come back from seeing a patient. I was looking around at all the neatly labelled files and cubbyholes wondering what 'patient request form' and 'meal agreement' meant, when I happened to see 'report of death'. For a moment I was stunned. How could such an appalling proclamation be so casually placed next to 'meal agreement'? How could one line mean so much? I wondered how many families had been affected by the filling of that report. Was there someone right at that very moment heading towards being another name on a piece of hospital stationary? Of course I know that many people die every day in hospitals, and yet, seeing a visible and tangible reminder of that fact was somewhat of a shock.

I have three more allosteric enzyme inhibitor drugs to understand, *cough* memorise *cough* before I sleep.

On traffic lights and making it to class on time

So far, every morning for a week and a half, I have woken up at 6:40am so I can squeeze in a half hour at the gym, eat breakfast and make it on time for my 8am class. On each of these days, I have left the building where I live at 7:50am (give or take 5 mins - mostly give) and turned right to walk down the block toward the traffic lights. Every single time this happens, I am forced into stress mode. Why is this? you might inquire, with raised brow. Let me tell you.
The light is always red. The little stick man in white is on, telling me it's okay to cross the road. He's giving me the right of way. No mind that I am halfway up the block at this point. Who cares that I am right at that awkward distance where I can't really give up on making the light but I am just a little too far to make it without breaking into a run? Not you little stick man!
There I am, thinking furiously in a panic, 'Should I walk faster? Can I make it in time?'
I break into a stride, with my eyes fixed on the road. I am picking up speed, navigating my way around parking attendants, innocent bystanders and incoming people traffic. In my head, a mantra is being repeated 'Please don't change, please don't change, please don't change'. Will I make it?
When I am a few feet away from the curb, when I am almost certain that I will, in fact, make The Light this morning, the orange hand flashes.
Yes...this happens every single morning. I falter, all my fears confounded. What now? This is too much to bear! If I cross, the lights will surely change mid-peregrination, putting me in the direct path of 50 raging yellow city taxis. And yet...do I dare...?
I tell you, I die every morning.

Disturbing

I hope this (or something similar) doesn't happen to me.