The hubby flew to LA yesterday to take another section of the medical licensing exam today {Tuesday}. It’s an eight-hour test. Yuck. Not my idea of fun. I admire his work ethic and intelligence so much! Say a prayer for him today, please? Thanks!

Before he left, he wrote a special quiz just for you! I thought it only fitting for us to take a test the same day as him!

Let me know how you score…

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I get tested all the time over anything and everything under the sun, so I will now pass some questions on to you. The person who gets all the answers right will get… my sincere respect and adoration.

Now I know that asking treatment would be too hard, so I will try and stick to diagnosis only. I tried to make these not too hard.

Quiz yourself, and then check the answers below.

1. High Fever, Severe Headache, Neck Pain, and a Rash. Most likely diagnosis?

2. Missionary returns from Africa with fevers every other day. Diagnosis?

3. Alcoholic comes in with severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. Diagnosis?

4. Most common cause of a sore throat and fever?

5. #1 leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.?

6. A woman who is over 35, takes birth control, and smokes is most at risk for what?

7. A man comes in with blue lips and a normal temperature, and his pulse oximeter (oxygen saturation) is 99%. What is the diagnosis?

8. A woman comes in with severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, bleeding from every orifice, and liver failure. What happened? Bonus: What is the only option at this point?

9. A 35-week pregnant woman comes in the ER who has received no prenatal care. She is not in labor, but complains of nausea, vomiting, and a severe headache. Her blood pressure in 165/100 and her labs show elevated protein in her urine. While you are deciding how to proceed, she has a seizure. What is her diagnosis, and what should be done?

10. A 76-year old gentleman is in the hospital after having elective hip replacement. The day after surgery, he is confused and thinks it is 1945 and he is in Germany. He was completely normal earlier in the day. What is the most likely cause?

11. Bonus question – What is the best way to survive medical school?

ANSWERS

1. Bacterial Meningitis.

2. Malaria. Interesting thing about malaria – it is often cyclical fevers, rather than continuous high fevers.

3. Hallmark symptoms of pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas. Most common causes are alcohol and gallstones.

4. Most common cause is a simple viral pharyngitis. Strep throat is more common in kids, but still only makes up about 30% of kids that come in with a sore throat. Adults – about 15%.

5. Tobacco. Not just lung disease, but a multitude of cardiovascular problems and several cancers.

6. Blood clots. Estrogen-containing birth control pills and smoking are both pro-clotting.

7. Carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide takes the place of oxygen on your red blood cells, making your lips blue due to the lack of oxygen, yet confuses the pulse oximeter by giving a normal reading.

8. She ingested a large amount of acetaminophen (Tylenol) in a suicide attempt. By the time she has all these symptoms, her liver is shot and the only option now is an emergent liver transplant.

9. This woman is presenting with signs and symptoms of pre-eclampsia that has now progressed to eclampsia. Because she will soon progress to multi-organ failure, the baby must be delivered immediately, likely by C-section since she is not in labor.

10. This is a hallmark case of delirium, or acute confusional state characterized by a fluctuating level of consciousness. This is not a fair question, as the list of things that can cause this are about a mile long – infections (often UTI in the elderly), substance withdrawal (alcohol, others), medications (i.e.- anesthetic, pain meds), underlying mental illness, and electrolyte abnormalities.

11. Have a loving, supportive wife, and boys that tackle you when you get home.

Hope this was interesting! ☺

-Your friendly blog-o-sphere almost doctor