Today we started preparing for what will undoubtedly be the most uncomfortable part of our training this year: the GU/GYN exam. We listened to a lecture with all manner of uncomfortable diagrams before heading upstairs to practice male/female genital, breast, and rectal exams on rubber mannequins. All of this is in preparation for practicing of real, live people in the coming months. These people are experts on teaching these techniques using their own body and perform such a great service to the medical community by ensuring that the first people inexperienced medical students try these rather invasive techniques on are not real patients.
My first of these sessions is on this coming Sunday, so expect a very non-specific bonus post this weekend!
TIL: Phimosis and paraphimosis are terms relating to the pathologic immobility of the foreskin of the uncircumcised (or partially circumcised) penis. Phimosis is when the foreskin is too tight around the glans (or tip) of the penis and won't retract. Paraphimosis is when the foreskin has been retracted past the glans but can't return to its resting position.
Pterygium is a really weird looking growth on the surface of the eye (it's really cool and/or gross looking so I won't post it here, but if you have the stomach, click through to the wikipedia article for more). It's also known as "Surfer's Eye" and is thought to arise from damage to the cornea from excessive sun exposure. Pterygium is not actually dangerous, but may require a procedure to periodically cut it back if it progresses to the point of blocking the pupil and reducing vision.
One of the only times in medicine that you want to purposefully keep a patient's blood pressure artificially high is in the immediate aftermath of an ischemic stroke. The idea is to hyperperfuse the brain tissue (give it even more nutrients than it needs) to try to minimize the damage following a hypoxic event like a stroke.
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