What is it? Acute limb ischemia happens when there is a sudden interruption of the blood supply in the arteries of the limb, with no time for collateral blood circulation to form. Causes There are three main causes of Acute Limb Ischemia:
… Thrombosis Thrombus can form in atherosclerotic arteries in Continue reading Acute Limb Ischemia 
Recently on a Friday evening in the ER with the resident I was following, I met an older gentleman in his early 70s who had come in complaining that he felt that his abdomen was pulsating with his heart. He had mild pain around his abdomen but was otherwise feeling fine elsewhere. After laying him down on the patient bed… Continue reading The Numbers Game 
It’s important to be detailed when taking patient history to get a good picture of what is going on. For every type of patient, there are specific sets of questions that need to be asked. During our rotation, we learn to follow patients, present our patients to our attending physicians, and observe our attendings examen the patients. For every rotation,… Continue reading Things to Ask a Diabetic Patient 
Screening for Hypertension Continue reading A Quick Guide to Prevention Screening 
When an older patient comes in for a headache, besides the common headaches like migraine, cluster, and tension headaches, it is also very important to consider Temporal Arteritis. Here, I will explain to you what this is. What is it? In summary, temporal arteritis, also known as Giant Cell Arteritis, is a systemic vasculitis of medium and large… arteries. While Continue reading When to Think About Temporal Arteritis 
The ToRCHeS are a group of infections that can be passed from the pregnant mother to her fetus through the placenta. They can infect anytime during gestation, and sometimes during the time of delivery as well. Since they can cause mental retardation, morbidity, and even death, they are important to recognize and prevent. So far in my pediatric rotation, I… Continue reading All About TORCH Infections 
When you first see a seizure, or experience it yourself for the first time, it can be quite freightening. Seizures can present in numerous different ways, often not what we think of when we usually think of “seizures.” Here, I’d like to present a few types of seizures and epileptic syndromes you may see in children. First, a little about… Continue reading Seizures You Might See in Children 
How Do We Get Osteomyelitis? Osteomyelitis is when you have an infection of the bone. It can be caused either by hematological spread that leads to sepsis of the bone, or by direct spread… from an adjacent trauma wound, infected diabetic foot ulcer, decubitus ulcer, or some other ulcer that spreads to bone. Hematogenous osteomyelitis happens in 20% of the Continue reading Management of Osteomyelitis 
How Do We Get Pneumonia? Our body has a pretty good natural barrier to protect the lungs from potential pathogens. First, we have hair and turbinates in our nose to block out larger particles. Then we have cilia that constantly sweep mucus-trapped pathogens out of our bronchioles and trachea, and not to mention a cough reflex. We also have tons… Continue reading Empiric Antibiotic Therapy for Pneumonia 
To prepare for my upcoming week in the neonatal nursery for my pediatric rotation, I’ve decided to put together this list of common and not-so-common conditions that one may see in the newborn. When babies are born, you may see things here and there that might worry you. However, not all abnormal findings are bad and many of them go… Continue reading Things You Might See in a Newborn The best way to learn how to interview psych patients is to see how others interview psych patients, and then trying it yourself, and you’ll have plenty of chances to improve your skill during your clinical rotations. I’ve found some useful examples of Psych interviews, courtesy of the University of Nottingham. Here are the videos in the series:
… Continue reading Psychiatric Interviews for Teaching 
Earlier this week, two of my AUC colleagues and I had an awesome Sim Man learning session together with Dr. Butler. This is the first of two Sim Man sessions that I am required to attend for my rotation at the Royal Blackburn Hospital. I thought the session was very helpful and Dr. Butler did a great job preparing the… Continue reading ABCDE’s 
Call me silly, but I get these four drugs confused all the time. To me, these drugs all look like slightly-varying combinations of A’s, M’s, L’s, D’s, and O’s. If you describe them, I may know which drug you’re talking about, but I just have difficulty choosing which name fits with the drug I’m thinking of. So here they are…… Continue reading 4 Confusing Drugs That Sound Alike 
In my med school experience, Female Reproductive Endocrinology is one of the more challenging things to learn in physiology, since hormones rise and fall, and interact with each other in different ways in different phases of the cycle. But when broken down to 28 steps, the process is easier to understand.
… Continue reading Female Reproductive Endocrinology in 28 Easy Steps 
After studying medicine for nearly two years, I’ve come to the conclusion that doctors are always hungry, or at least when they are naming medical conditions. Whether it is a fancy Latin word that ends with the letters “-itis” or named after some famous scientist in the past, there’s countless ways one can describe diseases and symptoms. However, in the medical world, somehow, nothing describes diseases better than with food. Here are some of the more common ones I’ve come across in my studies… Continue reading Doctors and Their Food 
When we talk about female hormonal drugs, the biggest treatments that come to mind are for breast cancer, menopause, contraceptives, and fertility. BREAST CANCER As estrogen often causes breast cancer to grow, breast cancer can be treated with hormonal drugs. There are two major ways to tackle breast cancer via hormonal therapy. One, you can either suppress breast cancer’s response… Continue reading All About Female Hormonal Drugs 
In med school, we learn about the beauty of the human body, yet how ugly it can become at times. We learn how everything in the body fits together to work in harmony, yet how everything can fall apart at the same time. After taking pathology, I realized so many things can go wrong with the body in so many… Continue reading All About Gynecological Pathology 
Physiology is a really interesting class (and a challenging one). While anatomy teaches where everything is in the body, physiology teaches how everything works in the body. For this new block, we have a new visiting professor from Temple University School of Medicine and a new unit: Gastrointestinal Tract. We’ll learn about the whole process from the time we put… Continue reading Gastrointestinal Hormones |
My name is Benji and I am a fourth-year medical student at the American University of the Caribbean, located on the Dutch side of the beautiful island of St. Maarten. I am currently completing my clinical rotations in the US as well as the UK. I hope you enjoy my site as I share with you this exciting and challenging phase in my journey. Thanks for visiting Diary of a Caribbean Med Student!
    
If you would like to help me keep this website up and running, any donations will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Benji
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