I'm not sure if this will be helpful for you, but I really liked this book when I was completely lost. I have a feeling you may be past this point in trying to pick a specialty, but this may be a good place to get a better understanding of the field. If you don't have access to this book and want it, PM me and I'll send you a copy. Also check out this post with comprehensive spreadsheet that another student put together.. it is pretty amazing

 

One things I often tell underclassmen is that it is better to shoot for the "harder" specialty because you can switch over to the easier one if you change your mind. However, going the other way around is often impossible. So a lot of people start residency in general surgery and change their minds about it and switch to anesthesiology. This is very common and anesthesiology is a very welcoming field to people who've changed their minds after starting residency. I would say if you're really torn and on the fence about general surgery vs anesthesiology know that you could always go for anesthesia later. You probably will not be able to choose where you go location wise, but you won't be locked of out the specialty if you decide to go with gen surg first.

 

I actually matched into anesthesiology (current MS4). Obviously take everything I have to say with a grain of salt... but I think anesthesiology is a great specialty. I'm surprised that you've heard people complaining that their job could be done by midlevels. At my program (and on my interviews) I've honestly never met an anesthesiologist who didn't love their job. Perhaps the rotation site you're at just doesn't have the complexity of cases that are seen at other places. I think the biggest thing about anesthesiology is that you have to be ok with many cases being a standard routine. Everyone agrees that you can teach a monkey to intubate and turn on some gas, but being a physician really matters in those cases where things aren't routine. Being prepared for those critical/scary situations is what the training is really about. Also, the anesthesiologists I work with are always trying to perfect what they are doing in their usual routine. Often they are trying to tweak things so patients are as comfortable as possible when they wake up. Anyways, I will admit that anesthesiology isn't for everyone, but I wouldn't rule out the specialty because a few people you've met are unhappy. Anecdotally, I find that the field has really high job satisfaction compared to other specialties (among residents and attendings).

 

Also not sure if this is going to be a big deciding factor for you, but I know many well regarded MD anesthesiology residency programs are DO friendly. One program I interviewed at that I remember most clearly being very DO friendly is case western. In terms of competitiveness, I would say anesthesiology is relatively easy. You do not need to be top of your class to match into this field. Refer to the spreadsheet above for numbers on competitiveness. My personal experience is that I got interviews from many of the top programs without being very competitive (bottom half of my class for sure and nothing especially impressive on my application to compensate for it).
 


Best of luck to you!

So as a fairly recent graduate, and a fellow planner, here are some things I wish I would have done to prepare for pa school. First and foremost, get yourself into a proper mindset for school. You will likely need to study more than you ever have before. Know going in that you will need put aside at least a few hours EVERY night to review your lectures and study. If you end up not needing to study that much, fantastic! But if you are like most of us it will be crucial to have good study habits to ensure you do not fall behind on your work and keep pace with the course load. As far as I know all programs will start you in anatomy doing dissection on cadavers so reviewing you anatomy if it has been a while can be a huge help. Anatomy will go very fast and throw a ton of information at you without slowing down. For the rest I will give general advice but if you can tell me more about your background I can give you more specific advice.

For things to read before hand here are a few books I recommend:

• https://www.amazon.com/Gross-Pathology-Handbook-Guide-Descriptive/dp/1550595687
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Surgical-Pathology-Expert-Consult/dp/0323065163/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_0/147-7260257-7513605?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0323065163&pd_rd_r=5e2c1867-c483-4073-880a-aa30679f4f85&pd_rd_w=7J5fC&pd_rd_wg=6m21Y&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=A7PFNK4CSCH15N3QYV1J&psc=1&refRID=A7PFNK4CSCH15N3QYV1J
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Surgical-Pathology-Dissection-Illustrated-Guide/dp/0387955593/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_1/147-7260257-7513605?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0387955593&pd_rd_r=5e2c1867-c483-4073-880a-aa30679f4f85&pd_rd_w=7J5fC&pd_rd_wg=6m21Y&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=A7PFNK4CSCH15N3QYV1J&psc=1&refRID=A7PFNK4CSCH15N3QYV1J
  
• https://shop.lww.com/board-review-series/c/189?sortBy=tenant~purchasedtotal1+desc
  
  These will all be helpful books during your didactic, clinical, and early career; so I find them worth the investment. The gross description book is simple and straightforward for getting an idea of descriptive terms. Reading the intros to both westra and lester can give you a great intro to the basics of grossing. I would not worry yourself too much about the details of grossing but doing a quick skim through them then now will give you some familiarity later. Reviewing the dictations for all the different organ systems and getting an idea for how they are formatted is a great step. Te board review series at the bottom is nice for summarizing some things and as exam prep with there practice questions.
  
  There are free options too for grossing information if you google. A few examples are:
  
  
• https://www.pathology.med.umich.edu/cutting
  
• https://voices.uchicago.edu/grosspathology/
  
• http://pathology.ucla.edu/gross-manual
  
  You can also watch some videos online about grossing to get a visualization of what it is like to gross. Here is a great example video of grossing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDpH9dKs8wg&t=2s .
  
  And I know you did not ask but for during your school year I highly recommend both pathoma and sketchy medical videos. Unfortunately I did not know about sketchy medical when I was in school, but I have reviewed it with some colleagues and I love their videos so much! Pathoma was a lifesaver for my exams.
  
  If you want to PM me for additional information feel free! Best of luck and congratulations on being accepted!

Trust the process. You'll learn what you need to learn.

BRS is nice and dense, but somewhat outdated.

Your best resource, by far is going to be Pediatrics in Review (and for NICU, NeoReview). They provide excellent review articles for any topic you might wish to learn about. Read these articles often.

Nelsons is the reference "bible" if you will, but I don't know if I'd drop the dough on paying for a full Nelson's. Nelson's Essentials on the other hand, is quite digestible.

You mentioned Pocket Medicine, and there is a Pocket Pediatrics, but I've never used it. Harriet Lane is definitively the standard reference but a bit thick to stick in a white coat pocket (every halfway decent program has like 4-5 of these strewn about the resident work-room).

The good news is, you can sort of pick and choose what reference texts you want. For board prep you'll get the usual "laughing your way", PREP, and medstudy, etc. I also think it's not a bad idea to pick up a text correlating to your field of interest.

For instance, I like critical care. So I picked up Roger's Handbook of Pediatric Intensive Care (the much more portable version of the larger text).

Hope that helps!!

I came out of a program with an unknown name, but those that knew it, respected it. we had an extremely high volume for surgicals and cytopathology. Its not all about the name. But the name helps. For one, you'll get more interesting cases. You are a referral site as a larger institution, and you'll be at a program with "experts" on subjects. (maybe not totally true)Another benefit of a larger program is usually money in the department. Whether its money invested into informatics, molecular, or manpower, larger programs will usually have larger budgets.
Think of sub-specialties now. Very common fellowships are cytopathology, hematopathology, and I guess some surgical subspec. like GI, GU, GYN, derm, soft tissue, and Breast. But there are literally dozens of different fellowships (I didn't mention any of the CP ones) to choose from and different places to do them. It does help if you are an internal candidate.

Visit CAP, USCAP, ASCP and join if you can. I think some of them have medical student logins or would be free. You can see some stuff about being a pathologist that doesn't involve histology from these sites as well. speaking of histology, go ahead and read this book

Join AMA and visit the FREIDA website.

I would encourage you to look at programs with at least 3 per class as a minimum.

most importantly, talk to your institution's residency program director for pathology. They will be a great asset.

I was actually torn between path and pulm crit care. I think it just shows that you enjoy critically thinking.

This is an unpopular opinion at my school, but I loved big Robbins. It has all of the information that is included in my school's lectures and my USMLE review book, as well as more in depth explanations of the material. I liked to read the chapters all the way through and take notes/make flashcards as I was learning the material, but then when reviewing, I just skim the pages for the topic I'm interested in and find a really quick summary of the important points in the "Key Concepts" sections and the images/tables in each section. I did read Lilly for heart disease during my M1 year, but during M2, I almost exclusively used Robbins + anki flashcards. It has helped prepare me really well for all of my exams so far in medical school.

If big Robbins is still too dry/time consuming for you, the Rapid Review of Pathology book contains a lot of information in an outline format that is very conducive to pre-test review.

For me, Pathoma was good for a few lectures (hematology, maybe cardio), but like you, I find it too time consuming for the information payout when compared to other review methods. I would say that if you have the time, definitely watch the videos, but don't use it as your only method of studying. This is just my personal opinion, but I know that sometimes people post here looking for a lot of different study strategies in order to find one they identify with. Good luck on your test!

This book is not too bad. Has a profile for each specialty, as well as specific advice. I picked up the old version cheap a while ago.

The AAMC Careers in Medicine page is actually pretty good too. You have to sign up and log in to see the material, but they go through lots of stats. A new version of Charting Outcomes from the Match will likely be published by the NRMP/AAMC this year or next, and will have valuable data regarding each specialty's competitiveness.

But as far as "playing the game" goes, it's a much simpler game than the med school admissions process was. You don't have to have extensive lists of extracurriculars, and a lot of it boils down to a few big things you need to do.

• Do well on Step 1, obviously
  
• Get lots of good grades in the clinical years
  
• Get involved in research
  
• Get good letters of rec, which usually results from doing well on rotations
  
• Getting inducted into AOA can be very helpful
  
  Those are really the biggest things, and it applies to virtually every specialty. The more competitive a specialty is, the more you will need to excel in each of those areas.

AP: (um, we have anatomic and clinical pathology divided in the USA)

Can't recommend Molavi enough. I think the best thing to read after Molavi is to read it a second time.

The real question is, one you've read that, what to read next. I agree with u/frogamazog, a big book like Rosai would be helpful. I always liked Fletcher's histopathology of tumors but I can't tell you it's superior to the alternatives.

But what I was after, and didn't always find, was a book that WASN'T comprehensive, that was readable by someone in their first 2 years. I found the biopsy interpretation series to be helpful as a first and second year as they were pretty readable, and...I was quite bad at pathology. Show me a low power image when I was a first year, I didn't know what I was supposed to see. The 20x and 40x photos sorta forced me to look in the right places.

My short list, which should be debated; I mean, maybe I just suck:

-lung: biopsy interpretation of the lung. for non neoplastic, new katzenstein

-liver: biopsy interpretation, mike torbenson's version is great

-derm, elston and ferringer. for non neoplastic, this one

-gi I'll go biopsy interpretation again before the tome that is odze

-thyroid: I actually don't know what's best here and would appreciate advice as any diagnostic skills I had here are rapidly being lost

-head n neck: biopsy interpretation aerodigestive was fun.

-heme: whew. I don't know a good starter book. Thoughts? Once WHO 2016 2017 update drops I'd be tempted to tell people to just start there. Jaffe's book is pretty readable but it gets dense.

-neuro: prayson's is pretty readable. There's an old smears book that's good for smears.

eyes: if you're gonna write an intro book on a niche field, here's the template

-BST: khurana's essentials in bone and soft tissue pathology. not too heavy.

I'm amazed that you nominated him for "most evil person" on the basis of this one quote. Wikipedia's bio on him describes a man who "was captivated by 'the many mysteries of the brain'" and tried to further our understand of how it works for the benefit of everyone. Some excerpts:

> During the Spanish Civil War he joined the Republican side and served as a medical corpsman on the Republican side while he was a medical student.
...
Some consider one of Delgado's most promising finds is that of an area called the septum within the limbic region. This area, when stimulated by Delgado, produced feelings of strong euphoria. These euphoric feelings were sometimes strong enough to overcome physical pain and depression.
...
Other than the stimoceiver, Delgado also created a "chemitrode" which was an implantable device that released controlled amounts of a drug into specific brain areas. Delgado also invented an early version of what is now a cardiac pacemaker.
...
Delgado hypothesized that the [stimoceiver] method used on Paddy [the chimpanzee] could be used on others to stop panic attacks, seizures, and other disorders controlled by certain signals within the brain.

I don't think that he meant by "political control" any kind of authoritarian mind control of the populace, like something out of dystopian SF. People in this thread are bringing up CIA programs like MKULTRA, but I see no mention that Delgado agreed with or was involved in those programs. It sounds more like a proposal for a more humane alternative to prisons and asylums: instead of locking someone up for being a kleptomaniac or sociopath or drug addict, fix their brains instead and let them free.

I haven't read his book Physical Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilised Society (although it's now on my reading list), but here's a blurb:

> In this Delgado has discussed how we have managed to tame and civilize our surrounding nature. Now it was time to civilize our inner being. ... The tone of the book was challenging and the philosophical speculations went beyond the data. However, the intent was benevolent to encourage less cruel, happier, better man.

And from an Amazon review:

> Dr. Delgado was one of the pioneers of deep brain stimulation research, a technology that is used today to reduce suffering in cases of chronic pain, epilepsy and Parkinson's disease. It never was and is not today capable of turning people into the mind-controlled automatons found in sci-fi thrillers such as the Manchurian Candidate or the X-files. The book offers a lucid and concise description of Dr. Delgado's work up to 1969 and a provocative look at possible applications of this technology (from a 1960's perspective). A recommended read for any Neuroscience or Neural Engineering student.

I hope the knee-jerk replies here celebrating his death and hoping he suffers in Hell, as well as everyone who upvoted this to third-highest in the "most evil" thread, are just assuming "mind control = evil" and don't actually know who he was.

We need more people like José Delgado.

Edit: Physical Control of the Mind is available online. I highly recommend Chapter 21, "Ethical Considerations," as well as the rest if you're likewise fascinated by his work.

> In the early 1950s, a patient in a state mental hospital approached Dr. Hannibal Hamlin and me requesting help. She was an attractive 24-year-old woman of average intelligence and education who had a long record of arrests for disorderly conduct, She had been repeatedly involved in bar brawls in which she incited men to fight over her and had spent most of the preceding few years either in jail or in mental institutions. The patient expressed a strong desire as well as an inability to alter her conduct, and because psychiatric treatment had failed, she and her mother urgently requested that some kind of brain surgery be performed in order to control her disreputable, impulsive behavior.
...
Medical knowledge and experience at that time could not ascertain whether ESB or the application of cerebral lesions could help to solve this patient's problem, and surgical intervention was therefore rejected. When this decision was explained, both the patient and her mother reacted with similar anxious comments, asking, "What is the future? Only jail or the hospital? Is there no hope?" ... People are changing their character by self-medication through hallucinogenic drugs, but do they have the right to demand that doctors administer treatment that will radically alter their behavior? What are the limits of individual rights and doctors' obligations?

Part 2:

Anatomy and Physiology

• Gray's Anatomy. My friend suggests getting both a modern version and if you can, one of the classical editions. She does not like the Barnes and Noble or some of the other "collector editions" because she thinks the illustrations are too small to read, despite the elegant binding they come in.
  
  
• The Anatomy Coloring Book My friend greatly recommends the entirety of this series of books.
  
  
• Human Anatomy and Physiology by John W. Hole. My friend owns the 2nd edition (1981) version of this book. She can't speak for the newer, modern version but she says this is an excellent college-level text on human anatomy and physiology.
  
  
• Human Anatomy & Physiology (Marieb, Human Anatomy & Physiology). This is a more modern text that my friend has and suggests.
  
  

  Other Medical Texts (Pathology, organic chemistry, biology, nutritional science, etc)
  

  
  

• Clinical Pathophysiology Made Ridiculously Simple by Aaron Berkowitz
  
  
• Robbin's Basic Pathology
  
  
• Food and Western Disease: Health and Nutrition From An Evolutionary Perspective
  
  
• Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism
  
  
• Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition
  
  
• Real Food For Pregnancy by Lily Nichols
  
  
• Nutritional Grail: Ancestral Wisdom, Breakthrough Science, and the Dawning Nutritional Renaissance
  
  
  
• Dr. Klein's Organic Chemistry (textbook)
  
  
• Campbell's Biology (textbook) - Any newer edition will do. She also suggests the biology coloring book as an additional exercise book.
  
  

  Formularies, Pharmacy
  

  
  

• Herbal Formularies for Health Professionals, Volume I, Volume II, and Volume III by Dr. Jill Stansbury
  
  
• Fenner's Formulary: Containing Formulae for the Preparation of All the Elixirs, Emulsions, Essences, Flavoring Extracts, Glycerites, Solutions, ... Preparations, Now in Use by Byron Fenner. A classical formulary, it is also available in PDF form from forgottenbooks and the SWSBM.
  
  
• Remington: The Practice and Science of Pharmacy
  
  
  

  Classical Herbals
  

  
  
  

• Culpeper's Herbal
  
  
• King's American Dispensatory
  
  
• The classical herbals listed on Henriette's Herbal Page
  
  

To add to this /u/violeur-chein I found a few decent looking books on UK amazon

Physiology for nurses at a Glance - £16.51 The cheapest, but no reviews so idk how good it really is.


Fundamentals of Applied Pathophysiology: An Essential Guide for Nursing and Healthcare Students - £27.33 One review, says it's a broad but shallow book, kinda what you're looking for.

Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology: For Nursing and Healthcare Students - £25.32

The last one seems to have the best reviews, & seems to not require any prior knowledge beyond high school bio level. Reported to give a pretty comprehensive coverage of each subject.

That's just a little searching, but hopefully gives you ideas or something to compare to.

The BEST (in my opinion) resource for someone who needs to be spoon fed histology and pathology (raises my own hand) is Robbin's Atlas of Pathology. It is a very double-edged sword resource though, because it has much more than is just on Step 1 but if you know what images have yield it will walk you through why the images are the way they are. A good strategy I had was to look up in the book every image that UWorld presented me.

​

The link can be found here:

​

https://smile.amazon.com/Robbins-Cotran-Atlas-Pathology/dp/1455748765/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g3905707922?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0&ie=UTF8

​

There is also an Anki deck full of Step 1 Histo floating around somewhere as well. It is super good for reviewing in the last couple of weeks.

​

David D, USMLE Tutor

Med School Tutors

There isn't much in the way of TSM doctors in Spain (a Contral Clinic around Malaga www.medivitalclinic.com), but the information on how to use TSM is free, so if you can get the Naltrexone then it's fairly easy to use the TSM protocol. Naltrexone is available in some places in Spain without prescription, but my guess is that if you ask the pharmacy for a referral to a doctor that has prescribed it recently that may be all you need to get a script/prescription for it.

Here's a link to the book "The Cure for Alcoholism", it's a free PDF:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/60fs7gmvbyzs1kk/Cure%20for%20Alcoholism.pdf?dl=0

I don't think there's a free Spanish version, but here's a link to the Spanish version on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015BU19LW

But the protocol is simple. Take the medication an hour before your first drink of the day, ONLY on drinking days. Start with a reduced dose in case there are transient side effects and increase to a full pill when you can (this is paraphrased from the book). That's it.

For community support, go to r/Alcoholism_Medication or http://optionssavelives.freeforums.net/

To get to your private messages this link should do the trick. I'll send you a PM so you have one to read if you don't already.

https://www.reddit.com/message/messages/

Hi there,

Some suggestions for ya!

The Quest for Consciousness by Christof Koch. Minimal neuroscience background required, but the more you know, the more you'll derive from this book. Focused on illustrating how complex networks can manifest behaviour (and consciousness). Outside of Koch's regular pursuits as an electrophysiology, he worked alongside Francis Crick (ya that one), to study arousal and consciousness. It's a fantastic read, and it's quite humbling.

Rhythms of the Brain by Gyorgy Buzsaki. Written for neuroscientists and engineers as an introductory textbook into network dynamics, oscillations, and behaviour. One of my favorite books in the field, but it can also be the most challenging.

Treatise of Man by Rene Descarte. Personal favorite, simply because it highlights how far we've come (e.g. pineal gland, pain, and animal spirits).

Synaptic Self by Joseph LeDoux provides the fantastic realization that "you are your synapse". Great circuit/network book written with a lot of psychological and philosophical considerations.

Finally...

Physical control of the mind--towards of psychocivilized society by the one and only Jose Delgado. (In)Famous for his experiments where he stopped a bull charging at him through amygdala stimulation- along with some similar experiments in people- Delgado skirts the line between good intention and mad science. It's too bad he's not taught more in history of neuroscience.

I used Dr. Satar (pathoma) to supplement path and physiology. His program is amazing!!!

My other half is in med school so I stole his "First aid" book. That thing is super helpful: First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 2018, 28th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1260116123/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_np.ZDbN2E99SM

Also used sketchy pharm and osmosis a ton. (A lot of the osmosis videos can be found on YouTube) There is also another guy on youtube I used: Dr. Armondo Hausdungan.

For all my primary care courses I supplemented with the Fitzgerald, APEA, and Leik books doing all the sections in each book for whatever was going on in class.

Came here to say Oliver Sacks (neuroscience).
I picked up a used copy of the DSM-IV casebook; it's very cheap since the DSM-V has come out. Diagnoses may be outdated but the stories are still there!

There are casebooks in other fields, too-- Surgery, multiple specialities, medical ethics, [pediatrics] (http://www.amazon.com/Files-Pediatrics-Fourth-Edition-LANGE/dp/0071766987/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_9_EQ6W?ie=UTF8&refRID=1WJ16SB6971PCJ94TK2S). Your college library ought to have new-ish ones you can read for free.

I'm also encouraged by reading scientific journal articles in medical fields (research is exciting).

Other stuff: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks isn't about a doctor, but it's about a patient and the HeLa cell line that's been so important to medicine. My decision to go into medicine was affected by The Plague, a novel by Albert Camus about a plague-stricken city. (Main character is a doctor, though not exactly a modern MD.)

Very institution dependent, so it’s hard to give general advice. Some places you carry a pager and field clinical questions. Other places it’s pretty much self-taught and you show up for didactics once a day. Just show up and be interested, and you’ll be fine. If you’re looking for something to read, start with this book for an overview of clinical pathology.

Also, love the username.

I used Doctors In Training videos! I put myself on a schedule using Cram Fighter . Then I would read that section in Step Up To Medicine. Lastly everyday I would do a random set of UWORLD questions. The actual test will be random so make sure to practice this way. During the last 4 weeks of studying (I studied for 7), I did an NBME or a UWSA. These are good to show you how the questions will be asked and what topics are important. DO NOT take your score to heart, I never scored above a 230 and I got a 262. Most important thing is keep learning from your mistakes and moving forward!

✨INTJ ✨interested in Cardiology or Palliative Care

I knew this sounded familiar. I came across The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty by Brian Freeman, MD a couple of years ago and found this chart relating personality types and specialties: 1 and 2. Just something fun to look through!

Step-up to Medicine, it's a review book on Internal Medicine (Amazon). It's one book in the "Step-up series", but its the most well-known and respected.

​

I personally did not use the Step-up books because I felt Q-banks were a better use of time. Up to you though...

you mean rubin's pathology? good idea. that's more appropriate than the books i deal with. i personally deal with books from residency to practice, while that books is on the medical education side and would be more appropriate for an undergrad.

http://www.amazon.com/Rubins-Pathology-Clinicopathologic-Foundations-Medicine/dp/1605479683/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344551799&sr=1-1&keywords=rubin%27s+pathology

i can get you that book 20% + free shipping if you want

Every PGY-1 at my program gets a copy of Molavi which is a great intro text but is obviously more focused on surg path and less applicable to forensics. DiMaio has a good, affordable book that's more specific.

Definitely worth looking into mast cell and histamine issues if Zyrtec helps you. Have a read of this https://www.amazon.com/Never-Bet-Against-Occam-Activation/dp/0997319615 and check out his YT video if you want to learn about MC disorders.

Here's the one I was talking about:
http://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Certification-Recertification-Examinations-Assistants/dp/1605477265/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1380770283&sr=8-2&keywords=pance+review

Here's the Davis, which has better reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Daviss-PA-Exam-Review-Focused/dp/0803629516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380770187&sr=8-1&keywords=pance+review

Here's my personal favorite:
http://www.amazon.com/Step-Up-Medicine-Series-Steven-Agabegi/dp/1609133609/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380770247&sr=8-1&keywords=step+up+to+medicine

Hey u/excogito_ergo_sum, you should definitely look into mast cell activation syndrome based on symptoms and what meds have helped you. I highly, HIGHLY recommend reading this book about MCAS. Yes, it's $20 and not available in most libraries, but it is SERIOUSLY life changing. Best book I have read since I've been sick because it explains so. many. things. about mysterious symptoms and why the medications you're on are helping. Quite specifically, H1/H2 receptors are what Dr. Afrin (the author of the book and leading expert on mast cell activation syndrome) uses first in treatment - you are already on Zyrtec which is one of them. Next step is hydroxyzine, which you are already also on.

I decided to be extra, and went to Amazon Deutschland. This is all English Language, American Medicine. Your practice likely will have some subtle differences.

Washington Manual:

https://www.amazon.de/Washington-Manual-Medical-Therapeutics-Paperback/dp/1975113489/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1WTILRB0WLCUP&keywords=washington+manual+internal+medicine&qid=1564359495&s=gateway&sprefix=washington+manual%2Caps%2C223&sr=8-1

Pocket Medicine, 7th Edition (man, I'm now so many editions behind):

https://www.amazon.de/Pocket-Medicine-Massachusetts-Hospital-Handbook/dp/1975142373/ref=sr_1_3?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=2ZPC8XFN2EVIV&keywords=pocket+medicine+the+massachusetts+general+hospital&qid=1564359554&s=gateway&sprefix=pocket+medicine%2Caps%2C232&sr=8-3

​

And, I'm ID. So...

Sanford

https://www.amazon.de/Sanford-Guide-Antimicrobial-Therapy-2019/dp/1944272097/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&keywords=sanford+therapy&qid=1564359652&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Tried to find the Johns Hopkins for ID and couldn't.

Those are more reference than than anything else, but are helpful.

Personally, I like Rubin's better than Robbins. To me, Rubin's has more readability all-around. For example the section headings within a chapter are big and bold and they highlight the takeaway point from whatever disease you're looking up. Also the pictures and charts are more digestable for me because I'm more of a visual learner. I like Rubin's Sixth Ed, but the 7th is currently out and you might want to try that one if you're worried about being current. Although lectures should provide the most current information.

Robbins Basic Path isn't bad, but readability again was an issue with me.

Rubin's Path

Robbins & Cotran Review Book has some great (and difficult) questions for pathology.

https://www.amazon.com/Robbins-Cotran-Review-Pathology-4e/dp/1455751553

First of all, I'm sorry that you don't feel very good.

But there exist diseases which can lead to the array symptoms that you describe. Here are the ones I know of:

1. Mast cell disorders. Mast cells are a particular type of immune cell that cause multi-system problems if activated inappropriately.
   
   This includes Mastocytosis, which is well established. There is also Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). Unfortunately, this it has only been described very recently (first consensus definitions in 2011) and is hard to diagnose. For more on this, see the book aptly titled ["Never bet against Occam's Razor"][1] by LB Afrin. And finally, there is [Hereditary alpha-tryptasemia][2], which has only been discovered 4 months ago.
   
   In all cases, the most relevant diagnostic marker is "Tryptase". It can be measured from a simple blood sample.
   
   Note that of the symptoms that you describe, osteoporosis stands out as oddball. A mast cell disease can, however, account for it.
   
   
2. Celiac disease. This is an immune reaction to gluten, which is contained in wheat.
   
   Some forms of celiac disease are known to cause epilepsy. I have also seen a case of depression that improved dramatically on a wheat-free diet.
   
   For some cases of epilepsy, the ketogenic diet can yield dramatical improvement. It seems reasonable that some of this can be attributed to celiac disease.
   
   A wheat-free diet is something that a patient can try immediately. However, do note that in order to diagnose celiac disease reliably, a blood test is performed while eating gluten. If somebody pursues this route, I always strongly recommend to first get tested and then leave out gluten, not the other way round.
   
   [2]: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/hereditary-alpha-tryptasemia-faq
   [1]: https://www.amazon.de/dp/0997319615
   

Should I get the First Aid for USMLE Step 1 now or wait for it to be updated in January... I'm going to be a first year but have heard its a useful tool for studying regardless

I loved the Robbins & Cotran Review textbook. Note also the review textbook is different from the basic path textbook and also different from the robbins atlas (which is exclusively histo and morphology & questions on the same) https://www.amazon.com/Robbins-Cotran-Atlas-Pathology-3e/dp/1455748765

There is no legal pdf of Pathoma.

Have you tried the Robbin's review? It has been very helpful for me.

https://www.amazon.com/Robbins-Cotran-Review-Pathology-4e/dp/1455751553

Robbin's Review of Pathology or WebPath are good for questions.

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Choosing-Medical-Specialty-Edition/dp/0071790276

This book might be helpful

The first holiday my wife was in school, I got her this book on choosing a medical specialty. The year she graduated, I got her a collection of papers that were specific to the specialty she matched into (her idea, not mine haha). When she started rotations, I got her an iPad--they weren't necessary for her rotations, but she got a lot out of it.

Check out Mast Cell Activation Disorder and a book by Dr. Lawrence Afrin:

https://www.amazon.com/Never-Bet-Against-Occam-Activation/dp/0997319615

I don't know if that is what you have, but it might be worth a look into this.

Is this what you're talking about? Need to get some path review questions

https://www.amazon.com/Robbins-Cotran-Review-Pathology-4e/dp/1455751553/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

https://www.amazon.com/First-USMLE-Step-2018-28th/dp/1260116123

The Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy 2019: 50 Years: 1969-2019 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1944272097/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VC9xDbX23W3FH

For study:

• USMLE First Aid is probably the most popular book for studying for the boards (end of year 2).
  
• Seconding the idea of noise-cancelling headphones.
  
• Single-serve Keurig. If you want to buy her K-cups, the Green Mountain Nantucket Blend is my personal favorite. However, I hate how terrible K-cups are for the environment, so you can buy her a reusable filter if you want.

I was diagnosed and treated by Dr. Afrin after some of my other doctors learned of and began to suspect MCAS.

Regarding where to start, Afrin would be an excellent choice, but I hear he has a waiting list over a year long for new patients. I have some physicians in my family, and most of the diagnosis-searching was done by them, I was not very involved with the process. My primary symptoms are depression and severe fatigue (though the two can become difficult to separate), and during this time (~1-2 years ago) I was mostly too exhausted to do anything other than lay in bed 24 hours a day listening to audiobooks and sometimes watching netflix when I had the energy. I can try to find out about other doctors that might be able to diagnose it.

The price I see on amazon is $14.99 for the kindle version, so either I'm out of touch with the reality of book prices or it's being sold expensively elsewhere.
If you can't afford it, I'd advise trying to find somewhere to pirate it from, the purpose of the book is to spread awareness of MCAS, profit is probably a secondary objective.

Anywayway I hope what I've written makes sense, I took a bunch of supposedly non-psycoactive industrial hemp extract a while ago from what has just turned out to be one of those less-than-reputable online vendors I talked about in another comment because I ran out of CBD from my usual source today and needed these until I could get some more and they came on while i was writing this and I am now high as fuck. I'll edit my top level comment tomorrow with some additional information and try to get back to everyone over the next few days (my fatigue is better but far from gone, can't say how long this will take), I didn't expect this much of a response!