I wrote mostly in the bottom margins of my First Aid 2005. The annotations looked like footnotes, of extra information relating to the subject of that page. For instance, I wrote about Menetrier's dz on bottom margin on the stomach/GI path page.
The script was very shorthand - ie:
Menetrier's = hypertrophic gastric ruggae -> protein loss.
Sometimes it would be elaboration of material on that page. For example, that picture of the liver dz man - I drew extra arrows pointing to his flapping tremor, his hypogonadism, his spider telangectasias, etc.
Other times, if I had room on the page, I would draw the mechanism or a face or figure showing the physical symptoms of the dz. This makes you remember it. I drew little circle sketches of the glomeruli next to each of the glomerulopathies. Certain pages were really plastered with writing, particularly the heme/anemia, GI, and lymphoma pages.
Another good place to write is the right-hand margins that is mostly wasted on pneumonics. Sometimes I erased the most annoying mnemonics with an eraser, and wrote something else in that space. Anytime I had another book out (ie Robbins, BRS, etc) I would have the relevant first aid chapter open at the same time, and write things in that I thought might be important. For example, I copied several graphs from BRS physiology into the physio section of FA (ie the Zones of West - V/Q curve), and I remember drawing on the synaptic receptor graphs found in the Pharm section of First aid.
I wrote with slow print handwriting, using a thin black gel pen, being careful not to smudge.
