Endocrine strikes back

One of the horrible things about studying hard for upcoming exams (so I've been told - ha ha) is that you get this awful feeling that the information that you're forcing into your mind is inexorably forcing out stuff that was previously in there.

My Smaller Half was sitting in with an endocrinologist a day or two ago, so of course over dinner we chatted about all things endocrinologistish. Since I happened to have passed my endocrinology exam back in April, I was keen to strut my stuff and show her how much I know. So naturally when she mentioned that there were a lot of patients coming in with hyperthyroidism I got excited and did an infodump. Unfortunately I basically ended up babbling like an idiot.

PTR
Oh! Oh! Did anyone have that thing? Where your skin goes a funny colour?

Smaller Half
What??

PTR
You know! With the hormone! You know! Preproopiomelanocortin! It gets cleaved! Into melanocyte stimulating hormone and the other one. C! C!

Smaller Half
What??

PTR
C! It's got a C in it! It controls the thyroid!

Smaller Half
TSH?

PTR
Yeah that's it! No wait, I'm confused.

Smaller Half
I think you mean Addison's disease. That's your adrenal glands, not your thyroid.

PTR
Oh.

Smaller Half
If I were you I wouldn't say that kind of stuff in front of the consultants next year.

I find it pretty depressing that the only thing I could remember was that piece of trivia about preproopiomelanocortin - a totally useless piece of knowledge which I got wrong anyhow.