TWS - Year 3 Med, Preeclampsia, and Top Hats

📝 Rx

Hi friends,

This is my first week of year 3 (wooo!) and I'm now in the middle of orientation. It's extremely nerve-wracking, but mostly because I'm not really sure what to expect yet, we've been given a general idea but this is a huge step from the classroom into the hospital. I've done some medical observerships in the past 2 years, but this is on a whole other level and we'll be graded on it so yea, it's just weird stress due to uncertainty. The other thing is, while it's still a year away, STEP 2 CK is basically around the corner. It's the only big exam that's graded now that STEP 1 is P/F, long story short the pressure is pretty high for the specialty I'm leaning towards. All in all, really looking forwards to how this year will challenge me to grow. For now, just gotta focus on my first rotation: OBGYN 😁

🩻 Diagnosis of the Week:

Preeclampsia

What is it:

Preeclampsia is just excessive high blood pressure in pregnancy. Normally, when women get pregnant their blood pressure increases, and this is completely normal, the issue in preeclampsia is that it's excessive to the point of damaging organs. What's happening is that the placenta monitors how much blood is reaching it for exchange of oxygen and nutrients to feed the growing fetus. If the placenta senses that it's not receiving enough blood from mom, it will push out factors that will boost mom's blood pressure. In preeclampsia, there is some issue with blood reaching the placenta properly, this makes the placenta excessively stimulate mom's body to boost blood pressure, and this is what leads to organ damage.

Key signs:

• Can be asymptomatic, this is why always taking vitals (like blood pressure) is so important
• Headaches
• Vision issues
• Protein in urine (from damaged kidneys)

🤓 Dose of the Week

This week in History: John Etherington wore the first top hat in London on Jan 15th, 1797 and the hat itself was so shocking at the time that it caused a riot. He was arrested for "disturbing the peace" and for wearing something "calculated to frighten timid people." It's crazy that this was only 227 years ago, imagine showing the people at the time viral TikTok videos.

Favorites of the week:

• I've been consuming Doug Demuro's car review videos on YouTube all week like crazy. I was following him from way back and seeing the format of his videos remain unchanged after years somehow makes his channel even better.
• For the first time I'm using an airfryer to cook food and I can confidently say I'm never going back. It's just too convenient and fast in terms of both cleanup and prep. Might never touch my stovetop again.