Seizures

My niece, Molly is now two and half years old.  From the day she was born we knew she was special, but at about 4 months old we started to notice she was different from other babies.  Doctors believe she has a genetic disorder, but she is still too young to tell what exactly is wrong with her.  We know she has vision problems and has been in glasses since they discovered it.   She still refuses to walk (although she can) and she doesn’t talk yet.  My sister recently noticed that she would have moments of zoning out and when she mentioned it I told her that I had learned in my class that it can be a sign she is having seizures.  She took her to the doctor and they decided to do an EEG on her to determine whether or not she was.  She got the results back right before Thanksgiving and they said they determined some abnormalities, but they could not determine if the cause was seizure related.  Good to know I was able to bring some useful information to the table. 

So at my work we use yahoo messenger to communicate with each other throughout the office.  Every morning when I sign on it comes up with the top news stories for the day.   It comes up with all different kinds of stories and the one I saw today that caught my eye was about ten random facts you don’t know about kissing.  It discussed the amount of muscles used for a peck, which is two in case you were wondering and a more passionate kiss uses all the muscles of the face.  The one that caught my eye was talking about how kissing releases the same neurotransmitters as sky diving and running.  I was curious about this so I did some research.  What I came up with is that your lips and tongue are very sensitive areas and are packed with nerve endings.  Kissing causes those nerve endings to be stimulated and release the feeling of passion.  The endorphins released are those similar to parachuting and distance running.  I could not find the specific neurotransmitter in questions.  I did however find some more fun facts.  While kissing you experience euphoria because the body produces a substance that has 200 times greater narcotic effect as compared to Morphine.  So apparently kissing is the thing to do so don’t miss international kissing day on February 5^th. J

HALLOWEEN!

I just got done carving pumpkins with my boyfriend's family.  I love halloween and I get really into it.  I also love pumkin seeds so I came home and decided to  look up some recipes for cooking them up.  I happened to stumble accross this article that says pumpkin seeds are very good for you including boosting your nerve impulse transmission.  Very interesting! 

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_16448578

Below are my two pumpkins I carved this year.  Love it!!

SORE!!

So I started working out again, Finally! I have taken a break from my usual fitness routine because I have been so busy, but I started to realize that a lot of my stress could be reduced if I started working out again.  I am very happy I did but now I am feeling the effect and my entire body aches.  At least I now know where the soreness comes from.  When you work out you cause microscopic tears in the muscle fibers and also cause a buildup of lactic acid in the muscles.  Both of these in combination are what cause you to feel sore after a workout is over.  During our resting period our muscle fibers rebuild and come back stronger than before.  So I am looking forward to being stronger in a few days time!!

Little Peanut

So I just found out that one of my best friends is pregnant.  She has known for a couple weeks now and is almost eight weeks.  It made me recall lecture and how at about 8 weeks the embryo's skeleton is made up of hyaline cartilage.  At about this time the bone tissue is developing and replacing the cartilage, also called endochondral ossification.  I just remember when my sister was pregnant with my neice she had her first ultrasound at about eight weeks and she looked like a little peanut.  It's crazy that in such a short amount of time developement is so far along. 

Stress= Zits

So the stress of the last couple weeks has officially shown up on my face.  Acne is something, that according to our notes, is supposed to tapper off after puberty.  Unfortunately for me I am almost 27 and still dealing with acne.  I have very oily skin to begin with so just the slightest change in my hormones causes a major disaster on my face.  Excessive sebum in the sebaceous gland causes it to plug up and form a zit.  I have tried everything and it seems I will have to suffer through the zits.  Thank goodness for make up. 

Week from Hell!

So it was our first exam this week and I don't think more things could have gone wrong in my life.  Not only have I been stressed about school and trying to deal with that I found out last Monday that my boyfriend, with whom I've been in a long distance relationship with for the last few years, spent the entire summer cheating on me.  Prior to finding this out I found out my Grandma in Ohio has been in the hospital with chest pains and has blood clots in her lungs. And just to add insult to injury, my manager at work decided to talk to me about my work performance just after I had shared all my recent problems with her.  So basically if I could just have a do over for last week that would probably be the best thing ever.  Moving on and looking forward to things getting better from here on out :)

It's official, I have a cold :(

So I came back from my Labor Day weekend camping trip with a sore throat. I blamed it on the camp fire smoke and figured it would go away after a few days time. Turns out I was wrong and I was actually feeling the effects from the start of a cold. Come Saturday morning I woke up with body aches and my head full of sinus pressure. I keep dripping snot all over the place, which got me to thinking why and where does all this mucus come from. It’s like a faucet turned on in my nose? I then remembered from lecture the goblet cells in our epithelial tissue and how they produce mucin. After further research it turns out that all this mucus coming out of my nose is a good thing. The extra mucus produced is there to move the foreign particles out of our bodies. Turns out my immune system is just doing its job and I should be thankful for this otherwise annoying side effect!!

High blood pressure at 24?

Yesterday I found out a friend of mine collapsed in his office. It turns out he had neglected to take his blood pressure medication and was on the brink of having a stroke at the very young age of 24. He was rushed to the hospital and it scared the crap out of him (as well as everyone who cares about him). It got me thinking, how could someone so young already be on high blood pressure medication? High blood pressure is also known as hypertension has several factors that affect it including being overweight, lack of physical activity, too much alcohol consumption, and stress just to name a few. Knowing that my friend is a store manager for a bank (a job that comes with a lot of stress and pressure) and also has a tendency to drink more often than he should explained quite a bit. Looking at the homeostatic state of our bodies, high blood pressure is our body out of balance. There is too much blood forced against your artery walls, and to tip the scale in the opposite direction you have to make lifestyle changes or have help from medications made to help lower this force. This was a real eye opener for me because there are no symptoms for high blood pressure, and it’s actually nicknamed the “silent killer”. Now that I know this I will be more careful to keep an eye on my own BP, and so should everyone else!!

To Blog It Is!!

Initially I had decided to create my journal in a composition notebook, but after viewing a fellow classmate’s blog during class I decided blogging was for me! I think it was the picture she had of books all over the bed that drew me in. Unfortunately my bed looks the exact same way. Since I take classes online as well (and my current bedroom situation doesn't have much room for a desk) my bed also contains my laptop. So here it goes!



To start off I will post my original journal entry. Originally created on August 26, 2010



Back to school! It came so fast. I took four classes this summer so I had an entire two weeks off before the start of the new semester. AHHHH!! My first week of A&P is behind me, but there are many more to come. That is how I made it through the entire summer semester. One down nine to go, and so on. Fortunately it went by fast, but it feels like I’m starting all over again. One good thing is that this week was mostly review since I just finished BIO111! Structure dictates function seems to always stick in my head. I better enjoy it while it lasts, because I’m sure to be lost here before too long. Excited and nervous all at the same time to be starting a new semester!