Monday, November 29, 2010

Medical Books

Remember my kick that I was on with the autobiographies? Well I've moved onto the wonderful world of medical genre books.
I won't go into them too much but I love reading the different cases they talk about. I look up what I don't understand and write it in the book. It's like another night of watching E.R. only in book form and with much less drama. I love reading a doctors thoughts on what they do. The struggles they have or the joy they find in orthopedic surgery.
So far I've read Complications: A Surgeon's notes on an Imperfect Science: by Atul Gawande. And Hot Lights, Cold Steel: by Michael J. Collins.

I would completely recommend either of these books to anyone interested in the medical field but probably Complications over Hot Lights, Cold Steel though.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Homework

Homework assignment for Thanksgiving break: de-junk room. Serious de-junking too.
And it's begun.
I think there must be some health code violation for keeping the mask used to knock you out before a bone marrow transplant. I've had that mask for 9 years exactly. Sentimental, but sick.
What about this, my very first retainer from 5th grade. Really? Why would I keep that for so long?!
Old letters from my cousins. Those are absolutely hysterical to read. For sure keeping them.
My 3-animals in 1 sculpture. Yes that's right. Body of a penguin, neck of a zebra, head of a toucan.
I found a memoir book about myself that I had to write in jr. high, and I wrote that I was going to get married in either the San Diego temple, or the Hawaii temple. Oh yeah, I'm going all out. I hope you all can make it to my wedding.
I found art I did when I was 9 years old.
I also found these clown dolls that were mine and Heathers, and I want to say these came from Grandma Crosland. But I'm not positive. They're small, stuffed body but with a porcelain face. Just check out these beauties.
















I think all this de-junking will be good for me. If nothing else, extremely interesting.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Urinary System

I know you were hoping that I'd have some outstanding connection with the urinary system to the gospel, but today I don't. I'm sure I could think of one, but I must admit, I haven't enjoyed this system as much as the previous ones I've studied. There are a few concepts that are hard for me to wrap my mind around. Like blood osmolarity. That one takes a good few minutes for my mind to register what's exactly happening.

I have to say, my favorite part of anatomy and physiology is being able to understand how the body works. The physiology part of it. When watching Untold Stories of the ER, I know exactly what goes on when someone takes a diuretic. I know what channel it's blocked, and why a diuretic makes you pee like crazy. My anat and phys study buddy Emily and I have also started having E.R. slumber parties every Tuesday night. We watch a ridiculous number of E.R. episodes and all the while we have our laptops out researching medical terms that we don't know, or drugs we haven't heard of. It's very informative and the most productive I've ever felt while watching a t.v. show.

I'm also reading a most interesting book titled, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande. I will post more about this once I finish the book so stay tuned.

I guess all I really have to post about is medical stuff. Ah the consumings of my life.

Monday, November 8, 2010

The Digestive System

So I had another connection of Anatomy and Physiology to the gospel. I know what you're probably thinking... but I don't care. I'm going to tell you anyways.
Let me introduce you to the digestive system according to my teacher.
Obviously it's not anatomically correct. It's more a diagram for functional purposes. Let me try and explain this. In the stomach there are 4 different types of cells that are all stimulated from the brain. Once the G-cell is stimulated it releases gastrin which stimulates the ECF-cell and the Parietal cell. The ECF-cell releases histamine which also stimulates the parietal cell. The Parietal cell releases HCL (hydrochloric acid) which makes the stomach acidic. The Chief cell releases pepsinogen which reacts with the HCL to make pepsin. Once food moves through the pyloric sphincter it activates the S-cell from the HCL and the I-cell is activated from fat. The S-cell releases secretin which goes back to the Parietal cell and tells it to turn off. It also goes to the gallbladder and the pancreas and stimulate them. The I-cell releases CCK (cholecystokinin) which tells the pyloric sphincter to close and also activates the pancreas and gallbladder. The Liver makes bile and moves it into the gallbladder. So when the gallbladder is stimulated it releases the bile into the small intestine for digestion. When the Pancreas is stimulated it releases alpha amylase, lipases, proteases, and bicarbonate. All things that help digest food.

Okay so you don't really need to understand all of that. But I'm sure you're wondering how that could possibly connect.
Yesterday in church we were reading in Jeremiah and the scripture Jer 31:33 says, "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put the law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." The phrase underlined specifically jumped out to me.
You can see that when you eat food, your digestive system goes crazy. This activates that, which stimulates this, which reacts to this, which stimulates this which releases that...
When we allow the laws of the gospel into our lives, it essentially effects everything. If we truly allow the gospel in our lives we will get this snowball effect of things working together to help perfect ourselves. For example, say we really think about charity and we work on that specifically, it'll develop in us a love for others, which will lead to service, which will lead to humility, which will lead to growth in some other area and the cycle will continue on until we have fully digested the gospel into our inward parts.

Well, that's my connection of the gospel to another anat and phys topic. I hope it made sense. But even if it didn't, it made a light bulb go off in my head.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Lets re-sync please

Off sync. That's what I was today.
Started off with the lowest test score of my college career, all from that wonderful class of Science Foundations. 
How does one manage to get a 96% on the last test, and suddenly veer off to a 68% with the same amount of studying?
Okay so I know I need to put more effort into studying for this class. It's just that it's a foundations class... and I don't care about it...and it's suppose to be an easy 100 level class.
I can pull out A's in anatomy and physiology left and right, a much harder level class but I guess it's because I put all the effort into that class that's needed. And I absolutely love/soak everything in. 
So I need to somehow force myself to give a portion of the same magnitude of studying that I use for anat and phys into science. 

But for the rest of the day I just could not get into my usual energy. Science homework was a fail once I went up the 3rd floor and gave into socializing. 
Even the normal hour of anatomy and physiology today I was just done with. (shocking I know, I love that class.) But then add on the 3 hour night anat and phys class.... ugh I cannot wait for tomorrow. For the weekend!!  For Thanksgiving break!!! (obviously I'm having a weak moment right now.)