you know I'm studying when...
Random medical factoids of the day: (P.S. The current block is the gastrointestinal block, so whee! Poop post! \:D/)
- When performing a digital rectal exam, one of my instructors advise us to examine men with the patient in the lithotomy position (i.e. legs-up, Pap smear position) as oppposed to the bend-over-a-table position, stating that it gives them more modesty. I haven't asked any guys about this, but I just started cracking up. Yes, I'm actually 14 years old.
- Women have longer colons than men, so as a population, women are indeed more full of shit. :P
- One of the new therapies that is being explored for antibiotic-related infections like C. difficile is the "stool enema". Because antibiotics have this tendency to kill off all the good bacteria in your gut, it leaves you more prone to getting infected by the bad bacteria. Ergo, when you get the bad bacteria, it makes sense that replenishing all that good bacteria would help cure you. So, you get a healthy stool donor, blend up his/her stool into a water solution, and give it as an enema. EVEN BETTER, you can give it through the upper digestive tract. No, they don't make you drink it, but it does entail them sticking a tube up your nose or down your throat and dripping it through.