Four

Four days of review. Four days spent in chairs meant for not more than a few hours of sitting. Four more days, after today, until it is all over (give or take four hours). 444 more questions to review before Wednesday's ERI exam (I was off by 24 hours when I originally said Tuesday). Unfortunately, I have but four more brain cells with which to study.

The review session was, er, informative. I am not sure how much it helped, though with her offered test-taking strategies, I am sure it ultimately did. Mostly she offered up a lot of stories to illustrate points, to augment our meager knowledge, or for shits and giggles. Things like (I can neither confirm nor deny the veracity of any of these statements mind you):
* The origin of HIV is Africa evidently. But, the first case of the virus being activated was in a pilot. The patient 0 as it were. Regretfully, this pilot was a man of voluminous sexual appetite. Fortunately, he was also a scribe and recorded his sexual conquests, which included underage girls around the world, men, women, and his wife. His wife an he had an open relationship as well, so she helped to further the disease spread as well.
* Semen concentrates alcohol at twice the rate of blood. It can be passed on through intercourse as a woman's vagina absorbs the proteins from semen.
* Immunizations have mercury in them still, but the total amount in ALL the immunizations is so trace that their is more in a tablespoon of tuna fish. There is still no link to autism.
* Autism is, however, linked to a mitochondrial weakness. Giving the immunizations all at once has been noted to accelerate the symptoms. However, it isn't causative. The acceleration can be avoided if the immunizations are broken up into smaller groups instead of all given at one visit.
* Magic Johnson has not ever developed AIDS despite testing positive for the HIV virus over 20 years ago largely because his HLA type is middle eastern. They evidently had some form of the virus go through their population in the 1500s and have increased immunity towards it.
* The HPV vaccine in this country only protects against 70% of the types of the virus. There is another vaccine overseas that protects against the other kinds. The same company owns both patents. When the patents expire, they will be switched. They could be combined and offer 100% coverage, but fiscally this does not make sense for the company.
* The HPV vaccine is not needed if a woman waits until after her 60th menstruation to have sex (or at least unprotected sex). Something to do with the roughening of the cervix.

I just couldn't help but feel that, though the stories and odd tidbits were fascinating, the actual content was somewhat lacking. When content was provided, it seemed kind of disjointed. Questions were covered, but often the rationale for correct answers was not explained. Just as frequently, assumptions about our level of prior knowledge were made overestimating both our experiences and our content.

That said, she was a dynamic lecturer and there is obviously only so much that we can cover in a four day span. I wish very much that she had been to our school earlier because she did manage to explain quite a few things that I never picked up on the first go round in a way that was both understandable and memorable. I would have chosen her over EVERY single one of our classroom clinical area instructors (not a one for adult, psych, peds, or OB were of near the value......i was very fortunate that my clinicians on my rotations were exceptional).

I need to get my learn on once again. Class tonight, Management final tomorrow morning, ERI Wednesday afternoon, Ethics paper Thursday afternoon, and final exit assessment on Friday. Drinking starts at 1pm Friday afternoon.