American Anesthesia Board Oral Exams Prep

An excellent pair of episodes from ACCRAC. An excellent listen while the brain is just fried.

How to answer and not to answer questions. At the end of the day, oral exams are usually based on one's daily practice. Damn, I'm postcall and just spent a while sleeping soundly. After an on call with no opportunity to read anything, but drank 5 tablespoons worth of coffee (and equal amount of cocoa of course) to stay awake; the smell's so strong it could probably kill any caffeine-naive person or two.

Spinal Cord Injury... Only Able to Read, for Now

I've a few topics where my notes couldn't be completed in a reasonable time, hence switching to (usually smaller), more manageable topics. Some of the notes even ended up become partially destroyed (I'm not a tidy guy) before I could finish them as the notes would remain as is. One of the topics is spinal cord injury, which I could never get around to finishing.

How I make my notes is fairly labor-intensive. I have to read all of my resources (for most topics will be a minimum of 3-4, but not SCI), take note of all of the points and where they are located (not easy), put the notes in (not easy), cross out everything that I've already included (not easy), while at the same time ensuring a proper structure and flow of thought that I want to follow and is coherent (not easy). Sometimes, you just don't cross the finish line.

These are my current resources on the topic (not including the obligatory A-Z brief on the topic). Please enjoy (if BDSM is your thing):

1. Cervical cord injury and critical care (BJA Ed)
2. Anaesthesia for major spinal surgery (BJA Ed)
3. Initial management of acute spinal cord injury (BJA Ed)
4. Perioperative management for patients with a chronic spinal cord injury (BJA Ed)
5. Anaesthesia and acute spinal cord injury (BJA Ed)
6. Case discussion on SCI (WFSAHQ)
7. Anesthetic considerations in acute spinal cord trauma (International Journal of Critical Illness & Injury Science)
8. Spinal cord injury (Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine)
9. Anaesthesia for Spinal Surgery (FRCA UK)
10. The Unstable Survival Spine (FRCA UK)

That's all for your reading pleasure.

Paracetamol

Here's notes on a drug that's used everywhere and all the time, yet poorly understood.

Another half a month, another mass shooting incident in the land of the free and the home of the brave, where people are made free to buy guns and afraid to send their kids to school. It's so bad that the Onion sounds like a website with serious shit.

"He is fully aware of what is going on, and he’s just a broken human being." Whatever. A terrorist's a terrorist.

And I finally got some A4 size stock of Tomoe River paper, which is almost impossible to get in Malaysia. None of the local fountain pen shops sell them, and CzipLee's Bangsar branch only sells (the full range of) Rhodia products. Apparently it was the only stock left. It's definitely expensive, but the smoothness and the way colors just pop on the page (as it literally repels ink while being thinner than your typical 80 gsm paper) makes me happy. Anything that pushes me to study is good. Now where's the ice I've always wanted to give me unlimited energy?