House, M.D.

Michael is currently in what the second years have dubbed the "toughest three weeks of medical school," so we haven't been up to much. The good news is that all of Michael's studying seems to be paying off. He watched a little bit of "House, M.D." on one of his breaks from studying the other night. House and the other doctors were listing the patient's symptoms and eliminating certain diagnosis, and BEFORE they even said what the true diagnosis was, Michael said, "It's rabies." After the commercial--for suspense--we found out he was correct! Wahoo! Bet that makes everyone else really comfortable to know that we are assessing Michael's progress with a TV show. :)

But really, holy moly, there are A LOT of things he has in his head that he didn't have, even just a week ago. I made him a couple of flashcards last night with pneumonic devices. He is studying immunomodulator drugs (say that three times fast). One of the groups is antibodies and they have something to do with organ transplant rejections, so I made up this elaborate story about a guy asking a girl out and trying to give her flowers and a CD on her doorstep. She slams the door in his face and it makes the sound of "BAM!" (Each letter stands for one of the antibody drugs.) So then the guy wishes he had eaten basil (Basilaximab), and she can't stand the "cyte" of him (Antithymocyte), and it was the third Mormonad CD he had brought to her (Muromonab CD-3). I think I'll frame the flashcard. Now if only I could get my students to create such good flashcards... I'm working on that still.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for--sometimes when Michael has been studying for a while, he will do a couple of roundhouse kicks and karate chops, as seen below. Enjoy!