The semester is almost over! Mini 4 was a marathon of an exam compared to the others, it lasted 3 hours and 15 min. This mini includes the most interesting material to me. Instead of just general concepts in our "fundamental of medicine" block, this was the first block that included a system: heme/ lymph. I find immunology really interesting, so I probably spent a little too much time focusing on that, but I felt pretty prepared overall. Immunology was difficult because the literature changes so rapidly, as many of the interleukins, chemicals that can cause an immune response, have multiple functions which makes classification difficult. I was specifically fascinated by the neutrophils, or suicide bombers. They have receptors which allow it to engulf a foreign pathogen. The neutrophil then releases toxic reactive oxygen species to degrade the pathogen such as hypochlorite (ingredient in bleach) and hydrogen peroxide. The neutrophil has a short life span, partially due to the harmful ingredients it contains. http://www.jci.org/articles/view/67484 When it dies it goes out in a blaze of glory and releases a sticky net that traps pathogens. It was a reasonable exam, and there were some questions that were basically gifts. There were some questions that I should've known but just couldn't quite recall; it goes like that sometimes. It's time to catch up on some sleep. The past week was filled with late nights and late Chinese food orders, shout out to Golden Dragon.
Now I have to prepare for the upcoming histology and anatomy lab practicals, which are both respectively worth 5% our our semester grade. We have our final exam next monday, so it's going to be a busy few days, then I'm goin back to Cali! I'm not a big fan of histology, it's just looking at pictures, pictures, more pictures of various organelles, cells, lymph nodes... the artistic students tend to enjoy it more. The nurse cells are pretty dope tho. In the thymus they produce thymic hormones that cause T-cells to proliferate.
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