When an adorable 85-year-old woman, who has racked up an inspiring/intimidating amount of “firsts” in the fields of microbiology and medicine, stands up to give the last lecture of Mod 1, dammit, you better listen. Her take home message after describing a multi-state salmonella outbreak in the 1980s in which marijuana exposure was found to be a commonality among the victims: “Know your dealer.”
For 45 minutes, we sang some of her favorite arrangements as micro review, including “Leprosy” (set to the tune of “Yesterday”):
Leprosy, Bits and pieces falling off of me But it isn’t the toxicity It’s just neglect of injury. Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be Can’t feel anything peripherally From swollen nerves, hypersensitivity Why don’t leprae grow in vitro we cannot say In vivo they grow very slow, once in 12 da-ay-ay-ays Hard to get, But the stigma hasn’t faded yet, Don’t keep an armadillo as a pet, Clofazimine and Dapsone, Don’t forget.
On that note, I should get back to it. My day’s been pretty well eaten up by an obnoxiously long dental appointment and trying to help John get out the door for the airport after the snow severely delayed his drive back to Philly from an interview. Last night, a handful of MS1 kindred spirits met us out for drinks at Doobie’s (which I think is becoming my favorite Philly dive bar–thanks Mallorie for introducing us!), and they seemed to approve. The silver lining of living in a separate city from John is that I have almost a year with these kids before they really start to get to know him…he has a horrible habit of friend swiping! No really. I find the good ones, bring ’em in, and then John snatches them up. Friends far and wide are powerless against his charms. Well, at least when John moves to Philly he’ll be moving in with me, so the med school peeps will be forced to see me when they come over to visit him.
In all seriousness, as we were leaving Doobie’s, beginning the walk down Pine before we surrendered to the cold and got in a cab, I asked John what he thought. “Well, it’s a gang of movers and shakers, real world changers. I like them, a lot.” Pretty heavy for a two-hour gathering of MS1 hooligans, sipping on $4 beers and $3 vodka gimlets.
anna in med school 
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