Anxiety and depression before exams

"How do you manage stress before an exam? I study a lot, but I stress too much and I usually forget everything before the exam. I have anxiety and depression because of this." -Asked on Tumblr

Sounds like you need to believe in yourself a little more. You study a lot. There is no reason for you to worry so much! 

You should start your day with positive thoughts. Affirm this to yourself every morning, "Today is a great day to study and be productive." Clap your hands while you do this. It'll flip your mood right around! Before exams, "I have studied enough and I will do well."

Trust yourself, you've got this. You are a medical student. Getting into medical school ain't easy, but you did it.  You can do this too. 

We have different reasons for getting stressed out -

When you get tired of studying

"Sometimes I get the feeling that my brain can't take more information. Can this be? What can I do when I have this feeling?" -Asked on Tumblr

Yes, it can be! We often get exhausted and feel like we can't take any more information.

In my experience, taking breaks is the best solution for this. I read a research a while back (Don't remember where!) that your performance deteriorates after 45-60 mins of studying depending upon your capacity. If you take a 5-15 min break, however, you do much better.

You can exercise, eat, mediate, dance, listen to music or an inspirational tape if you want in this mini tape. Closing your eyes and lying doing for a while is very relaxing.
Do not use your phone. Your phone has text all over and reading does exhaust you.

I usually get really distracted if I take mini breaks after studying for an hour and don't return to books for another hour. If you have the same problem, you can study for 2-3 hours straight and then take a longer break like a shower, have a long lunch break or a walk around the park.

Change

I spent a lot of time thinking over the name and the logo of the blog, before I even started!

It had to be related to the medical field with a tinge of young enthusiasm. It is a student's blog after all! After a  lot of pondering and questioning, the eureka moment happened. Which word makes us awe in amazement? Awesome! Medicowesome!

If you have a good idea, do it. You don't need to be perfect.

Why does hypophosphatemia cause an increased affinity for oxygen in the blood?

The mechanism for this is very fascinating.

Remember the reaction that generates 2,3-Bisphosphoglyceric acid (2,3-BPG)?

Submissions: Endocrinology notes

Here are some more!

Submissions: Fever with rash in childhood mnemonic

Mnemonic for fever with rash in childhood is, "MEEK SCREAMER"

Dealing with stress and studying before exams for medical students

"I am overwhelmed with exams. I have an anatomy exam coming up. I am slowly beginning to lose hope. Advice would be very much appreciated, thank you!" -Asked on Tumblr

Medicine does get overwhelming. Mostly because no matter how much you study, you will always feel under prepared. It's normal to feel this way.

But don't let it get to you. This part is important because if you feel hopeless, you won't work as much as you should and the guilt will feedback. You need to break the cycle and focus on what's in front of you. There is always hope.

Take a deep breath. Say this aloud - "I've got this. I can do this."

Exercise. Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people kill exams!
(Do 20 jumps right now and then read further :D )

Laugh. It's a mature defense mechanism. You'll learn it in psychology. (Another reason for you to survive anatomy right now - so you can read new things next year!)

Acknowledge that you're stressed, laugh about it and be okay with it. Or pretend to be. Fake it till you make it. (PS: If you fake laughter, you'll end up laughing for real.)

Smile. Look at this smiley (:

It's smiling at you, please smile back!

Laughing and smiling alone is a HUGE stress buster.

Tissue plasminogen activator mnemonic

Greetings people!

Tissue plasminogen activator is an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin, the enzyme responsible for clot breakdown.

It is used in the treatment of embolic or thrombotic stroke.
Contraindicated in hemorrhagic stroke and head trauma. The antidote for tPA in case of toxicity is epsilon aminocaproic acid.

Mnemonic is, "TPA"

T - Thrombotic and embolic stroke (Use)
P - Plasmin (Mechanism of action)
A - Aminocaproic acid (Antidote)

The dose mnemonic is, "TPA" again!

T for ten:
10% of dose given as bolus.

P mirrored looks like a 9:
0.9 mg/kg dose, maximum 90 mg.

A for an hour:
Rest of the dose is given as an infusion lasting for 60 minutes.

That's all!
-IkaN

Dominant hemisphere and handedness

Hello!
This is practical exam related concept.

In a patient with neurological symptoms, you'd like to know whether the person is left handed or right handed. Why?

Dominant hand is important in medicine because it helps us figure out the dominant hemisphere - especially, in patients with stroke.

People who are right handed have their left cerebral hemisphere dominant. 70% left handed people are left hemisphere dominant.

To figure out handedness, you can ask the person with which hand he writes. If illiterate - You can ask with which hand he prefers to eat, combs hair, etc.

Threading a needle is an excellent way to determine handedness because very frequently people tend to hold the thread in the dominant hand and hold the needle with the non dominant hand.

That's all!
I'm left cerebral hemisphere dominant. You?
-IkaN

Submissions: Microbiology notes

More submitted notes here! :)

Submissions: Cardiovascular system notes

If you cannot read or understand anything or want me to send you a picture of any chart, just let me know! - Dr. Neelofer

Lines of Zahn

Question: Does a recent thrombus contain lines of Zahn?

Asked by: Maham

Answer: Yes.

Submissions: Hematology and Oncology notes

More notes. Yaay! Submitted to us by Dr. Neelofer.

Submissions: Reproductive system notes

These were submitted to us by Dr. Neelofer.

Breath sounds mnemonic

Breath sounds! 

Vesicular sounds:
Inspiration is longer than expiration. No pause in between.
They are normal. 

Mnemonic:
VE is short. (Expiration is short)
VesI is long. (Inspiration is long)

Bronchial breath sounds:
Inspiration and expiration occupy the same duration of time and are separated by a pause. 

Heard in: Consolidation or a large cavity. 

Mnemonic:
B for Bronchial, B for Both are equal.

Broncho-vesicular sounds:
Both are equal with a pause.
Heard in: Bronchial asthma, Emphysema. 

Mnemonic:
The B for Both are equal. The hyphen reminds me of the pause.

That's all!
Everything is awesome :D
-IkaN

Related post: Auscultating breath sounds mnemonic

Side effects of atypical antipsychotics mnemonic

Hello!

In this post, I'll be talking about some side effects of antipsychotics and a few mnemonics that help me remember the same!

Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) treatment mnemonic

"HI BCR ABL"

Submissions: USMLE notes

Hello... This is Neelofer.

This is especially for all those people who are preparing for Step 1 and reading First Aid 2014.

It will save tons of your time. (I have been preparing these mnemonics since September 2014 or so!)

It would be best if one opens First Aid 2014 along with these mnemonics. Good luck!! :)

Triangles of the neck diagram and mnemonic

Hello!
This post focuses only on boundaries of various triangles in the neck. Let's do this!

Triangles of the neck

How to make concise medical notes

Making concise notes is easy!

Write key words, no sentences allowed.
Use arrows, mini organs instead of words.

Flow charts are awesome.

Draw diagrams, write points in it.
Number your points, so that you have a nice flow while revising what you wrote.

Here's an example -

Trichomonas vaginalis mnemonic

Hello!
I make lists of words so that I remember about them (especially for theory exams!)

Here's another list for Trichomonas - Key word, "TRICHOMONAS"

Tubal ectopic pregnancy mnemonic

Hello.

We'll be learning some points and concepts about tubal ectopic pregnancy today! I tied em up together in a mnemonic, "TUBAL"

Pathology brain tumors mnemonic

Hello, my favorite brainy people of the internet!
We'll be talking about some brain tumors today.
All of the mnemonics might not work for you, so take only what you need :)

Fothergills repair or Manchester operation mnemonic

Hello everyone!
We'll be learning about one of the operations used in the treatment of vaginal prolapse.

It's Fothergills operation and I'll be sharing a mnemonic I use to remember the points about the operation.

Fothergills repair is also known as Manchester operation.

So the mnemonic for Fothergills repair is, "MANCHESTer"

What is the significance of pain during child birth?

Question:
What is the need of pain during delivery of a baby? I'm not asking the physiological mechanism. I believe that nature doesn't make a process painful unnecessarily and I wish to understand the importance.

Asked by:
Rahu Ketu

Answer:
To help make the essential arrangements for the birth of the child.

Insight:
To make it simpler for you, I'll tell you what happens when the pregnant woman does not experience labor pains. It's called precipitate labor. You'll read about it in forensic and medical toxicology in second year.

Hirsutism mnemonic

The mnemonic for causes of hirsutism is, "Hair On Chin"

Dermoid cyst mnemonic

The mnemonic to remember points to be written on dermoid cyst is, "DERMOID CYST"

Pagets disease of the breast mnemonic

Hey!

Anybody reading pagets disease of the breast?

Pica mnemonic

The mnemonic is, "PICA"

Pallor

Poor motor and mental development
Psychological problems

Parental neglect
Pregnancy
Poverty

Poisoning (lead)

Med school inspiration - My first story

Hey guys.

I'll be writing a series on inspirational stories and study tips this year. I'll try to keep them short (Except this one, it's long!)

Since this is my first post, I'll share my first story with you. From the time I entered medical school.

I was a normal, excited and happy to be in medical school kid, just like everyone else.

During terms, I studied causally and attempted the exam. I got my results - I had failed in physiology. My anatomy and biochemistry score was average too.

Yes, I was disheartened. Filled with disappointment. I was an outstanding pre-med. How could I fail in first year med school?

I'll spare you the details about the drowning-in-sadness, frustrated, self loathing me and skip to when I decided to be awesome (I don't quite remember when the transition happened.)

The first thing I did was that I tried to figure out where I went wrong - self analysis.

I realized that medical school needed a little more hard work than before. I had poke-evolved to a new course. I needed to evolve my skills too.