Sunday, August 23, 2009

Adrianne Miller - New Friend :)


It looks like I've had my first official comment left on my blog by Adrianne Miller, a student at Life University. They've got a pretty cool website name - life.edu, http://www.life.edu/

From the pictures in the website, things look pretty modern at Life U. It was founded in 1974 so that makes sense.

Adrianne mentioned submitting one of my blogs to a site called EzineArticles.com and I just looked it up. Looks interesting. My break would certainly be the time to undertake such an endeavor. I was also wanting to get up some more YouTube videos. I think the next one will be on the axillary artery which should be pretty simple.

Wow, I'm up to 2,295 views on my Brachial Plexus video.

It's taken me a few days to unwind after finals and I'll be leaving tomorrow to visity my grandma in Minnesota.

I'm not sure how to reply directly to the comment left but, I do wish her well and thank her for her comment :)

Today's picture is taken from the life.edu website. :)

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Tri-2, Wk15, Day 131 - Tri-2 Completed


I had seven alarm clocks set this morning and I slept through six of them. The last one which went off at 2:30 a.m. was the one that finally got me up.
I did pretty well on todays final and got a 26/30 with an overall average of 80% in the class but, at Logan in the DC program, an 80% only qualifies for a C+. A friend in class was able to manage a straight B with an 86% average. I guess 87-92 must be the percentage needed for a B+.

I'm kind of like a zombie right now. Got a little cleaning done. I need a good night's rest.

I was able to pick up a copy of the Dean's List from school today. I'm going to display the names of all our Honor Roll students on the wall above our corkboard and then I'm going to get my name on that list.

Today's picture is of Rocky - it's how I'm hoping to feel once all the final grades have been posted :)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tri-2, Wk15, Day 130 - FINALS continued...

Still Tuesday - evening - only one final left - 7:30 a.m. tomorrow - it starts in 13 hours - I've been up since 10:30 last night so I will have to get some sleep between now and tomorrow morning.

We've lost quite a few people in our class. There's been a number of people who have dropped classes prior to the finals while others weren't able to get high enough grades on the finals to pass all their classes.

So far, 13 of the 27 hours worth of classes I've taken have final grades posted and I'm at 13 hours attempted - 13 hours earned. I'm looking for 27 attempted/ 27 earned.

I avoided studying physio and biochem the days before those test to focus on Neuro and Microbiology. In spite of no formal studying the day before I still managed at or above the median curve in both classes. I have gotten through Neuro - that one was HUGE and, based on the scores posted for Microbiology, I should be getting through that class as well.

Officially, four final grades have been posted;
Gross Anatomy II
Phisiology I
Professional Development
Philosophy II

I'm now waiting on;
Neuroanatomy
Biochemistry II
Microbiology I
Diversified I

Of the four grades I'm waiting on, Diversified I is the only Final I have yet to take ... 13hours & 54 minutes from now.

I am praying - praying for focus & to do what I'm capable of doing. I'll let the chips fall where they may and take it from there.

I'm thinking getting to bed by 7 or 8 p.m. and getting up at 1 a.m. (or sooner if possible)

I am looking forward to TRI-3! :)

Monday, August 17, 2009

Tri-2, Wk15, Day 130 - FINALS continued...

TUESDAY -8/18/2009
Today we had two more finals - Neuro and Pysio - I know I'm through physio and neuro hasn't been posted yet. I slept from about 2 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. today. I'll be up all night working on Micro and Biochemistry for tomorrow. If I made it through neuro then I should be home free to Tri-3, (assuming I learn enough microbiology tonight)

For today's picture, I think we'll keep the praying hands going. I don't think my main Tri-2 partner made it through physio which is rather sad.

Tri-2, Wk15, Day 129 - FINALS continued...


in about 2 hours I have my 7:30 a.m. neuroanatomy final which last until 9:30 then I've got my physio final at 11:30 and that last until 1:30

neuro - 60 questions plus 5 bonus questions

physio - 101 questions

Today's picture should be self explanitory. :)

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Tri-2, Saturday Studies

just keeping track of the time I spend today - I was a little lackluster with any studying in the a.m. hours but have been hitting it since noon - here's what's going on.

Physio Review
Ch 1 Quiz - 12:00 - 12:35
Intro to the Human Body, 68 questions - Scored 67/68 or 98.5%

Ch 3 Quiz - 12:47 - 2:36
The Cellular Level of Organization, 76 questions - Scored 72/76 or 95%

Ch 10 Quiz - 2:40 - 2:56
Skeletal Muscle, 41 questions - Scored 40 /41 or 97.5%

Ch 20 Quiz - 2:58 - 3:14
Cadiovascular System: The Heart, 68 questions - Scored 67/68 or 98.5%

- break to update Google Group -

Ch 21 Quiz - 4:18 - 4:32
Hemodynamics, 59 questions - Scored 55/59 or 93.2%

well, that's 312 questions answered for physiology and 301 answered correctly for a grade of 96.4% which probably translates to a B on the actual Final on Monday. Need to move on to Neuroanatomy after a short break to eat and update our Google group and send out Tri-2 Class Picture information :)

Neuro Review - 6:00 -
Ch 22 Blood Supply of the CNS

It's Sunday now - I kept hitting Neuro and some Biochemistry last night - Just need to keep studying today. I'm getting a bit tired of sitting at my desk but will work to get on the treadmill every hour or so ...

One grade was posted from the Finals - Philosopy and I got a 29/36 on the final which was my highest grade of the trimester in that class, so that will help out a bit. I should also be OK with my Gross II classs. I have to get a 41% or better on tomorrow's Neuro Final to get through that class.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Tri-2, Wk14, Day 128

Long day - went to bed around 1:30 a.m. & was up by 4 a.m. and got back to studying -
Two finals today - 9 a.m. was Philosophy II - 2 p.m. was for Gross II
From 4:30 p.m. until around 7 p.m. we had biochem tutoring with a pretty good crown of people showing up for that one - maybe about 1/2 the class.
Tomorrow is Physio tutoring which starts at noon.

No final grades have been posted yet. I'm looking for 28 hours attempted and 28 hours earned :)

Next trimester ....we've got 32 hours worth of classes. Here are the classes for Tri-3

Embryology
Physiology II
Microbio II with lab
Pathology I
Public Health
Professional Development
Philosophy III
Orthopedics I
Diversified Tech II
Basic Technique I

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Tri-2, Wk14, Day 127

Studying for Finals :)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Tri-2, Wk14, Day 126 - Classmates - WOW!

Getting up at 1 a.m. this morning for final polishing of my biochemistry studying was well worth it because I ended up with the second highest score in the class!

But, that wasn't the nicest thing that happened. The class all pitched in and all signed a card for me in appreciation for work I've done regarding our Google Groups and other various websites. I was also kind of stunned to see six $25 gasoline gift cards inside the greeting card.

Pretty amazing. I'll really have to start stepping my efforts up - all around.

I tried scanning the card to post as today's picture but did it in the wrong format and now my computer doesn't want to recognize my printer (every so often they bicker like that) so, I'll try again tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow ...it's my last regular day of class for Tri-2
Can you believe it?
It's gone by so fast!

No pic today - I'm very tired yet, full of gratitude :)

Tri-2, Wk14, Day 125 - Fatty Acids


It's about 3 a.m. and I've been studying for the last two hours or so. When I heard my alarm go off, I was scared to death that it was morning and I'd missed my study time.

pyruvate-citrate cycle
I was thinking about that pyruvate-citrate cycle and basically, it's a means for synthesizing or creating fatty acids. To avoid excess glucose (carbs) from being synthisized into fatty acids there needs to be a demand for ATP. We're going to end up with Citrate inside the mitochondria which are found inside our cells. The mitochondria is the place where the TCA Cycle takes place. The TCA Cycle is a MAJOR source for producing ATP molecules, ATP means energy and every crank of the TAC Cycle produces 12 ATPs and one molecule of glucose provides enough carbon atoms (six of them) to result in two cranks of the TCA Cycle which results in 24 ATPs (12 ATPs per cycle and two cycles per glucose or 12 times 2)

So, if you have an ATP demand then the flagship metabolite, Citrate, will go through the TCA cycle and no fat will be formed. How do you create an ATP demand? It might be easier to answer how NOT to create an ATP demand. To NOT have an ATP demand (or to minimize the demand for ATP) then one should not move very much and stay very still. To create a demand for ATP, one should move around. Exercise creates a high demand for ATP.

IF Citrate cannot be used in the mitochondrian to run through the TCA cycle, then ATP is out of a job! It's kindly asked to leave the mitocondrian and goes back out into the cytoplasm of the cell. It's an outcast and then degenerates into the molecules from which it came. One of these molecules is Acetyl Co-enzyme A (Acetyle CoA) which is the starting material used to make fat.

Citrate is out of a job when we eat too many carbohydrates, then Citrate is decomposed and becomes the starting material to make fat.

Pyruvate-Alanine Cycle
What if we don't eat enough? After about 4 hours after a meal, we start to get more fuel from stored sources such as glycogen and if we continue without eating, such as we might experience in the time span between dinner, sleeping and breakfast in the morning (maybe 12 hours or so) then we can start to use amino acids (constituites of proteins) from our muscles to be used for fuel.
Skeletal muscle gets converted to alpha-Amino Acids to alpha-ketoacid to glucose which ends up as pyruvate, then the pyruvate gets converted to alanine and leaves the muscle cells to head over to the Liver.
The liver is made up of proteins - why doesn't the liver just use its own protein!?!??
The liver may be dumb but, it's not stupid - when an organism is using up protein from it's own tissue, it's literally eating itself - catabolism! just like cannibals which is where the word comes from. If the liver starts to eat itself then it's not going to be good for anything. So, the muscles are more expendable and we take our proteins from muscles to send to the liver to be metabolized into glucose then injected into our blood plasma and raise up our blood sugar levels.

Besides, skeletal muscle cannot inject glucose into our blood plasma, it lacks the necessary enzymes - so, skeletal muscle sends out what it can - ie, alanine and Liver takes it from there.

When we go through this process, we stay alive and keep glucose in our blood but not only are we catabolizing our own muscle, we're entering metabolic acidosis and the kidneys are going to need to excrete ammonia ions to help stabilize pH levels.

Better to eat a meal - the liver has better things to do than to be preoccupied with making glucose out of alanine.

Fatty Acid Mobilization
What else can our body do when our blood sugar levels are low? The pancreas releases the hormone glucagon. Glucagon travels around our system until it meets up with adenyl cyclase which is found in the cell wall of adipocytes (fat cells). Outside the cell, we have glucagon. Inside the cell, the glucagon interaction with adenyl cyclase gives rise to cAMP which is the intracellular version of glocagon. cAMP sets off a series of reactions which breaks up triacylglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol which can then leave the cell and become Free Form Fatty Acids (FFAs)

Fatty acids are not carbohydrate precursors. But, they will provide ATP (via oxidation) for gluconeogenesis. (gluconeogenesis is essentially, glycolysis backwards)

So, what can we do with fatty acids? Through a cute little four step process, called beta-oxydation, we use two of the carbons from the fatty acids to produce Acetyl-CoA. What's so special about Acetyl-CoA? It's one of the things we need to make Citrate! And - citrate is a nice starting point for the TCA cycle. The production of acetyle-CoA inhibits glycolysis which preserves glucose.
Still ...We need that energy demand in order to elicit the generous TCA cycle.

OK - I think I've figured something out ...maybe not... let's see ...

The liver makes ketone bodies (ketogenesis) from FFA, those ketone bodies inhibits synthesis of FFA from Fat Cells. Also, Insulin, which is released in response to rising blood sugars, inhibits the production of FFA.

It's about 5 a.m. now - I have to leave in an hour - I'll need to review lipoproteins before I leave for school at 6 a.m. From 7 to 8 a.m. I'll be studying for my philosophy test which is immediately before my biochemistry test. Half of our class will also have to have their Diversified practical, then philosophy, then biochem, then professional development.
Highest priority is biochem, next is philosophy.

oh yeah - picture of the day ...it's gotta be the Mitochondria!
This is a pretty nice picture illustrating the mitocondria. In the upper left corner we see the entire cell then the small mitochondria floating around in the cell is taken out with that grey arrow and shown by itself. I've heard talk that at one time the mitochondria may have been an organism all to itself. The number of mitochondria in our cells can be determined by how much we use them - and what are they for? It's where the TCA cycle takes place! The TCA cycle is used in response to a demand for ATP - We demand ATP by our daily energy requirements. If we're lazy and don't demand much energy we probably won't have a lot of mitochondria in our cells - be active & exercise then we have a demand for ATP, more mitochondria and then Citrate can keep it's job and crank through the TCA cycle and that means it Citrate won't end up becoming fat beneath our chin and around our waist. :)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Tri-2, Wk14, Day 124 - Pyruvate-Citrate Cycle

So far, grades have been nice -I think today we had four things to be graded - one quiz, one lab and two test. I got 100% on both the quiz & lab, a B on the physio test (confirmed) and either an A or B on the Micro test (estimate, it was pretty easy for me) :)

Today's pic - I was looking for the pyruvate-citrate cycle and this was as close as I could find. It's got a lot of extra stuff that isn't very important for the pyruvate-citrate cycle.

The essense is this: Pyruvate is the end result of glycolysis (close enought to the end)

let's see - glucose is simply a carbohydrate. When we ingest those carbohydrates they can end up as glucose.
hmmm, trying to think of a simple way to explain it - it's much easier to explain in person.

I think i'm just in a hurry, i wanted to get in bed by 9 so I could get up at 1 a.m. to get back to the studying - Test for tomorrow include ....
1. Diversified
2. Biochemistry
3. Philosophy
4. Professional Development

nothing on Thursday (I think)

Official Finals start on Friday with Philosophy & Gross Anatomy II Finals

Monday - Neuroanatomy & Physiology Finals
Tuesday - Biochemistry & Microbiology Finals
Wednesday - Diversified Final which starts at 7:20 a.m.

I should be done and free of Tri-2 by 9 a.m. on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

Monday, August 10, 2009

Tri-2, Wk14, Day 123 - 2 More Down

Had Neuro & Diversified test today - tomorrow is Micro Lab & Physio -
Got Gross II practical back today and scored a nice 48/50!

7 more days - 12 more test ;)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Saturday Studies - Biochemistry

Today's picture refers to the number one thing on ...

The March of Dimes' 10 Steps to Getting Healthy Before Pregnancy

  1. Take folic acid
  2. Get a check-up before pregnancy
  3. Eat right and maintain a healthy weight
  4. Stop smoking and avoid secondhand smoke
  5. Stop drinking alcohol
  6. Don't use illegal drugs
  7. Avoid infections
  8. Limit exposure to hazards
  9. Learn about genetics
  10. Avoid stress and get fit
Today was mainly all about biochemistry. I was able to type in 5 full test worth of problems on rememberize.com which is a free flashcard site I use. 175 questions & answers total with many of the questions looked up as references cited. Today's effort should help considerably for our upcoming test on Wednesday.

Tomorrow I'll have to focus more on Diversified and Neuroanatomy since those are the two test we have on Monday.
Tuesday looks like Microbiology and Physio

Lot's of really big test coming up - nothing is certain yet but I've got a decent chance of moving on to Tri-3. I certainly hope that's the case.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Tri-2, Wk13, Day 122 - Sleep, Strep & Staph


The sympathetic system of Poop & Relax (or Rest & Recup) took presidence today. I don't exactly recall falling asleep but I guess it was around 3 p.m. and that little nap lasted until about 9:30 p.m.

It looks like I wasn't the only one struggling with the neuro lab slides yesterday, some people spent up to 5 hours labeling things and nobody was able to finish. We all collaborated today to share information and bolster our slides by sharing.

Today was biochemistry, neuroanatomy lab & microbiology lab. We got to see the results of throat cultures taken earlier this week. YUCK! such nasty stuff - As Table 1 shows at www.TextBookofBacteriology.net, there are 24 commonly found bacteria on the surfaces of the human body. I believe we were looking to find staphylococcus aureus and streptococcus pneumoniae which is found in the throats of approximately 25% of the population. Having seen pictures of these little buggers and resulting wounds should these bacteria get into the body makes me want to buy massive quantities of Listerine.

Today's pictures - the one in red is the streptococcus pneumoniae, the one with brown little circles are the staphylococcus aureus (hey Mom - notice the letter 'o' in both those words?) ;)
hehehe

Yeah, it was mainly biochem today - two hours of the fascinating subject. I'm not recalling exactly what we did off hand so I'll need to refer to my notes which, is what I need to be doing if I can't recall anything (think I'm still waking up) :)

Ah, yes ...we learned about Purine and Pyrimidine synthesis which are both nitrogenous bases used to make nucleotide structures. Big or polynucleotide examples include DNA and RNA. Mononucleotide examples are ATP and GTP, Dinucleotides include NAD, NADH, FAD, FADH, etc.

We also covered the mineral Iron as well as some neurotransmitter synthesis.

I'd better get to studying - somewhere on the order of 10 test next week, basically two test per day, every day until the end of this semester. It's hard to know where to start.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Tri-2, Wk13, Day 122 - Thursday


9 days and about 15 test left - gotta focus - using today's blog for accountability - it's a little after 3 p.m. now - I want to make productive use of at least 6 hours today for studying - it's about 3 p.m. now -

3 to 4 p.m. - Labeling Neuro slides - 23 things labeled
4 to 5 p.m. - keep labelling - total of 28 things labeled ....somewhat difficult
5 to 6 p.m. - total of 38 things labeled ... I need to quickly switch over to something else for now. ...no complaining, just switch to a new topic - i'm thinking ...hmmm physio - knock it out by 7
6 to 7 p.m. - complete Physio Lab #5 ...
ok ...let's try again - got distracted with Morningstar.com & directinvesting.com ....
got something to eat as well - back to physio
7 to 8 p.m. - complete Physio Lab #5 ...

7:45 p.m. - Physio Lab DONE! need to go for a walk ...brain hurts ;)

8:45 p.m. - back from my walk and just watched my brachial plexus video on YouTube - I got my 3rd favorable comment today and my video has been watched over 1,300 times. :)

Walked 1.5 miles with biochem notes in hand :)

Today's picture - this is a really amazing cadaver picture of the back of the head - amazing dissection and I'm guessing, it's not a view many people get to see.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Tri-2, Wk13, Day 121 - Poop & Relax

Poop & Relax is the antagonistic analogy to Fight or Flight.
Fight or Flight is the common phrasing used with references to the sympathetic nervous system. Poop & Relax is the phrase my neuroanatomy teacher used many times today when referring to the parasympathetic nervous system.

That class is something else. I need to make sense of all the different combinations of the following words ...

preganglionic, postganglionic, parasympathetic, orthosympathetic, afferent, efferent, autonomic, paravertebral, prevertebral ...

Individually, these words don't seem too bad, it's the various combinations and subsets that get me. I've got to get to bed - it's midnight again.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Tri-2, Wk13, Day 120, Tuesday - Rocked GrossII Practical!


What a piece of cake this Gross II practical was compared to the first Gross II practical!
OK, I'd like to gloat but I really need to focus and study - it's 4 p.m. now - This part of the blog is to help me keep accountable. We've got 3 more chapters to cover in Neuroanatomy and I'd LOVE to get all the questions for each chapter answered tonight. I'm not sure how realistic that is but I really want to give it a shot - I'll edit this post later on tonight with an update of my progress. I'll be working on Chapters 22, 23 & 19 tonight.
Thanks again go out to Mom and Dad for helping make these good grades possible :)

11:30 p.m. Well, I was steadfast in my efforts and finished chapter 22 up around 10 or so. I was getting things ready for tomorrow when I noticed a take home quiz we got today in Neuro that's due tomorrow. I'm pretty much dead tired though and need to get some sleep. I've got a two hour break tomorrow and will work on the quiz w/ classmates.

We learned some interesting things today in neuroanatomy. We talked a bit about the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (that's another one of those words w/ the 'o' in the middle).
Each day we make about 450 to 600 ml of CSF and the cranial and spinal cord regions only hold about 150ml so there's a turnover of CSF about 3 to 4 times every day. CSF is made in the brain, in areas called the choroid plexus.
Most water bottles come in half liter sizes which is 500ml so the brain makes that much or 20% more than what's represented by a water bottle every day.

The brain weighs about 3 pounds but, when suspended in the CSF, it is bouyant, like a rubber ducky floating in a bathtub so the weight of the brain that the body has to bear is actually a little less than 3 pounds. This buoyancy helps take pressure off arteries and nerves.

There's so much more I'd like to share but I really need to get to bed. I guess we're up to 19 test over the last 13 days ...heck - i still have a workout blog to get done

Today's picture is just of the word Focus.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Tri-2, Wk13, Day 119 - Monday - COUNTDOWN


Let's see ...12 days of class, 15 test scheduled
12 days, 15 test ...
and I believe we're missing at least one test from that schedule
Biochem Quiz & Gross II Anatomy practical tomorrow ...my fingers still smell like dead bodies.

Eat, sleep, study, school, repeat.

Today's picture relates to proprioception but I don't really have time to talk about it. ;)