I'm sick and tired....

I'm supposed to be studying. I have approximately 3 more weeks until I take Step 2, and am attempting to do most of my studying in the evenings after I get home from the Poison Center. Attempting. Today its not going so well, and by that I mean that I haven't actually tried yet. After an extensive and very slow apartment-tidying and tv-watching session, I have atleast made it down to the coffee shop, where I have only succeeded in getting very distracted by the internet. So here I am.

For my current low energy state, I only have one man to blame: Samuel L. Jackson. Last night I watched Snakes on a Plane. There were several fantastic bonuses of this experience:
1. I got to hear The Line ("I'm sick of tired of these mothereffing snakes on this mothereffing plane!" - censured for the children by me).
2. I got to learn some important things about snake physiology, like, for example, when snakes are enraged by pheromones they love biting people in their private parts, and when they have been infected by the bloodlust snakes can often be stopped by a pile of luggage, and once a person is bitten by a frenzied evil venomous snake they decompose into a rotting corpse in a matter of minutes, and snakes have the ability to burrow through bone into the human skull, and snakes see the world through a hazy green fog.
3. I got to learn about some toxicologic principles of venomous snake bite management. For example: if a cute but stubborn little boy shows you a picture he drew of the snake that bit his little brother, and that snake looks like a king cobra, and the boy who was bit is unconcious, then you should immediately administer 25 mL of lactated ringers. Lactated ringer (LR) is a kind of IV solution. My friend Tracy (another med student) and I had quite a good laugh at this: it is like saying "Give that boy one teaspoon of saline - stat!"

This was a very timely and educational way to spend an evening, given my current area of study and my future career plans. I dream of the day when, as an accomplished Toxicologist and poisonous snake expert, I am consulted by a crackpot FBI team and have to meet a planeful of venomous snake victims at the airport with vials of anti-venom and 25 cc syringes of lactated ringers. It will be a glorious, glorious day.

Needless to say, watching this movie necessitated the consumption of beer. Which is why, if I fail the boards because I was too hungover to really concentrate on Hematology, then a certain actor will be getting a very nasty letter in the mail. And that actor is Samuel L. Jackson. Or maybe that nurse from ER.

[Stay tuned for facts about poisonous snakes, and other Toxicology gems]