today in micro we did a case study, some 7 year girl had a hip
infection and a 103 fever. doctor says surgery time, drain the fluid,
plus some antibiotics to clear up the bacteria.

what kind of antibiotics should we give?

I said Bartrim (i think thats what its called) and one partner agreed,
i ask the girl across from me (hot, but jesus, wear any more makeup?)
and she said bartrim as well.

5 person groups, probably 9 or 10 groups. every other group said
cefalozine or whatever its called.

not a bad choice.

well, the bacteria is MRSA, methicilin resistant staph aureus. the
girl now has breathing difficulty and is doing much worse. now what
antibiotic should we give? triclomysine (harmful to kids), vancomycin
(attacks this strain of MRSA, but also has a low selective toxicity,
which means its harmful) or bartrim (attacks a general spread of
bacteria).all three help the lung problem.

my group said either vancomycin or bartrim but were undecided. at the
critical point when the prof asks us what we picked, I say Bartrim.
every other group said vancomycin.

I was like "why would you want to cause harmful side effects?"

teacher said our group saved the girl, and in reality the doctor gave
cefalozin and then vancomycin and the girl died. even the case study
assumed people pick those two drugs. he came up to us after class and
I asked him "how often does that happen?" he took it as how often
doctors prescribe inadequate antibiotics, but I meant that a group
picks a worhtwhile antibiotic. since we were 10% of the class that
decided right, I bet its even less over his tenure.

I will say, in real life, doctors don't have a chart listing a drug's
effectiveness or target spread. and they most likely get caught up in
a routine of "hey, we used this before, no reason to think about
changing it up"

made me wonder if it would be grounds for malpractice, the girl dying.
probably not, but you think someone would want to do something about
it. remember that article about the doctor doing workshops across the
country on simple handwashing and sterilization of hospital equipment
so people don't get infections from hospital care? u might not have
read it, but I was like "wtf, that guy is surely busy as hell, and its
such a simple thing" yet those infection rates significantly dropped
when his simple plan was put into use. I believe it was a checklist
of things to do, and by simply checking them off as you did it the
care improved an insane amount.

i wonder if they had a list of a drug's spectrum and selectivity if
doctors would provide better cure? i wouldn't be surprised if someone
thought of it already. If not, I'm patenting an idea.


after class, Shantall told me "you raelly need to go to medical
school." Why? "Cuz you think outside the box" Eh, I said it was a
group effort, and I don't think I really had any effect since the
three girls were debating among themselves and me and the other kid
worked together.

She also said depending on what kind of doctor you are, you don't work
all the time. her friend's dad is a pediatrician, has Wednesdays and
the weekends off. I could live with something like that. depends on
if I want to do the school. i'll think about it some more, most
liklely leaning towards PA but we'll see.


also, I told that kid in chemistry, the smart one who sits beside me,
that I got a 2110 on the SAT, and he was like "that's incredible". he
got a 2050 though, and I told him that's pretty fuckin good. still 95%
better than the national average. 2110 is slightly less below 97%.
that kid definitely isn't dumb. got a 760 on the verbal. and he's a
math major, haha.