Sunday, September 27, 2009

Tri-3, Wk3, Day 144 - Friday


I'm usually wiped out on Friday's hence, the waiting until Sunday night to enter my Friday blog. No complaints about productivity levels this weekend. I caught up on administrative sort of duties on Friday night then hit embryo for around 15 hours on Saturday. There was really a lot to do in that class and I'm not finished yet. Today (Sunday) the focus was on Pathology and a little bit of Physiology.

I've heard before that good dental health contributes to a lowered rate of heart disease and in physio the teacher commented that flossing can add 3-5 years to a persons life. He also said the particular bacterial flora we have in our mouth is more unique than a fingerprint. Interesting stuff.

In embryo I read more about some strange diseases and really, the embryo book is a little tough to look at sometimes with so many malformed infants and premature babies that never made it. I found it interesting that over 50% of all fertilized eggs end up being spontaneously aborted. I've already been amazed at how many things have to go right just to get a person anywhere close to normal but man - right out of the gate you've got less than a 50% chance of even getting past a little mass of cells.

One condition which afflicts about 1 out of 10,000 people is a complete reversal of their internal organs. Orthopedics was interesting last week. Like many of our teachers, our Ortho teacher also has a practice in addition to teaching. He mentioned a young female that came in and was experiencing abdominal pain and had previously concluded over $1,000.00worth of test to try and figure out what was wrong. The doc did a simple ortho test which mainly consisted of her breathing deeply and was able to diagnose a rib out of place. He fixed the rib and she was fine. No more pain. So, one test at a cost of $0 and $40 or so for the adjustment and she was finished. Path, Diversified, Embryo, Micro, Public Health seem to be the classes to keep getting prepped for.

Speaking of prepped - I better get ready for tomorrow! :)

oh yeah - today's pic is just the cover of some embryo book I found on the internet - We're a long way off from getting to the phase of development depicted in the picture :)

Friday, September 25, 2009

Tri-3, Wk3, Day 143 - Thursday


Dead tired and I went to bed at a pretty decent time last night. I could have probably fell asleep at 6 p.m. but didn't get to sleep around 9:30. Right now I'm thinking I should have opted for the 6 p.m. bedtime.

For some reason we have our diversified practicals starting next week as well as our test next Friday in Path. Micro will be coming up soon also. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving break.

Today's picture is calcification of the aortic valve. A view looking down onto the unopened aortic valve in a heart with calcific aortic stenosis. The semilunar cusps are thickened and fibrotic. Behind each susp are large, irregular masses of dystrophic calcification that will prevent normal opening of the cusps.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Tri-3, Wk3, Day 142 - Wednesday - PHYSIO!


87%! - That's what I got on today's physio test. Our physio teacher has some pretty high standards - 97% and up was needed for an A!!! What the heck?! Oh well. I know I can do better. Out of the 26 or so reasons I had for going to Logan, one of them was that I instinctively knew that in order to get through the program that I would have to improve and become a better person.

Hey - btw - my brother just gave a talk dealing with chiropractic this past weekend up in Bloomington, MN and if you'd like to see a little excerpt you can click on the following link -

I think I might be able to put that up as a permanent link off to the side somewhere...
I *should* be tired since I got up at 2:30 this morning to get extra studying in for today's test but, I've had quite a bit of coffee and soda today.

Next test is in Pathology - I kind of wanted to avoid pathological type pics for today and instead, wanted to find something healthy! :) So - today's pic is a simple pic of Heatlhy Lungs and a Healthy Heart ....of course - these organs are outside of the owners body so ....something went wrong! ;)

Tri-3, Wk3, Day 141 - Tuesday


Blogging early Wed morning for my Tuesday entry. I got up around 2:30 a.m. this morning to get some extra studying in for my physio test today. I sure hope it goes well. I kind of have in my mind to at least get 80% or better in each of my classes but, that would only get me a grade of a C in physio. I just need to get this test over then shift the focus to pathology & embryology since those test are coming up next. I think Micro II is around the corner as well but I don't have an exact date for that test. We start out today with two hours of philosophy but that class seems a bit more like a professional development class since our main project is to write up a complete business proposal. I think I'll be able to get some extra physio review in during that class - no review during diversified because that's when we spend time adjusting each other. Logan Basic is after that and I'll need to be paying attention in that class which leaves my one hour lunch break to review as much as possible before our test.

For today's test, we're going to have 75 questions and 60 minutes to complete the test which comes out to 48 seconds a question. It's *really* going to be tight. I'll probably spend 3-5 minutes drawing out diagrams to help answer many of the questions and think I'll just rip the cover off the test and use the back of that paper for my illustrations that way I can have a single piece of paper out & to the side of my test instead of continuously flipping back and forth throughout the test to find a specific drawing for a specific question.

I never did get an online blogged review of the material which has tended to help before.

Today's picture is of the "Hamburger Shift" ...I'll be darned - just getting that picture to put up helps me to understand a few things and also ties in a couple other concepts. For the Hamburger Shift you'd basically only need to remember that carbon dioxide and chlorine move in the same direction while bicarbonate moves in the opposite direction but now I can see that when the CO2 moves into a cell that it combines w/ water to give carbonic acid which then dissociates into a bicarbonate (which leaves the RBC) which is a viable reason why chlorine then enters to RBC (to keep the charges blanced). But, better than that is the acid dissociates into H+ (as well as the bicarbonate which leaves the cell) and the extra hydrogens is what causes the pH to drop thereby causing the environment of the RBC to become more acidic. I then recall from biochemistry a concept known as the Bohr effect which states the affinity of oxygen to hemoglobin is diminished in an acidic environment so as the CO2 enters the RBC, which it would do in the capillaries when picking up CO2 waste products, then the H+ is released, causing the pH to drop then the hemoglobin (or oxyhemoglobin) will have a greater tendency to release it's oxygen which is what the tissue cells need anyway - the extra release causes a greater concentration of O2 which then may readily diffuse across cell membranes to get to the tissue cells which needs the O2 to keep functioning. It's all pretty cool. :)

I remember when I was first learning about the Bohr effect I kept making up little stories about it. I'd say a car was the hemoglobin and the tires were the oxygen which is a nice analogy because each hemoglobin (Hb) can hold up to four oxygen. I'd say the car is driving along then it enters a tunnel which has a high concentration of acid in the air so the tires fall off the car. :)

Or you could think of a relationship between hemoglobin and oxygen - they get along just fine but whenever the get into an acidic environment their relationship just falls apart.

There is another chemistry reaction here but I can't recall the exact name. The principle is summed up by saying when you push the universe, the universe pushes back - I think that was the gist behind the principle. Now, I'm thinking maybe it was a different principle. But, I can see how the reaction is driven (CO2 + H2O > H2CO3 > HCO3 + H+).
In the tissue cells there is a preponderance of CO2 which will drive the reaction to the right. At the end of the reaction is the HCO3 which is the bicarbonate ion which has a negative charge and the H+ which drives down the pH.

We then just need to keep in mind the three ways that CO2 is transported back to the pulmonary system to get reoxygenated and ...let's see.... I remember 23, 7 and 70 -
23% of the CO2 gets transported by hitching a ride on the hemoglobin (then called carbaminohemoglobin) . 7% of the CO2 is dissolved in the blood plasma and 70% of the CO2 travels by way of HCO3

Wow - it's getting late - gotta run! :)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Tri-3, Wk3, Day 140 - Monday


Is it really week three already? Holy cow...
It's kind of amazing when your job can pick you up. I was kind of in the doldrums over the weekend but by the time I got to my Basic class everything seemed right again. For me, school is like my job so it's nice having a place to work that is actually able to pick you up! :)

First big test is this Wednesday in physio. 75 questions. I've been told this is the 2nd hardest of the five test we'll be taking with our last test over the renal system being the most challenging. Monday is going to be my longest day with classes starting at 7:20 a.m. and ending at 5:45 p.m. The last hour will be for physio tutoring which I went to today and it was really fantastic and very useful. I might even do another YouTube video and try to emulate some of the stuff I learned today. I'm around 4,200 hits on my Brachial plexus video and still getting nice comments. The collateral and recurrent arteries I just put up is lagging a bit behind with only 24 hits but, those arteries are a little more specific and will probably only going to appeal to doctorate students.

It's all about respiration from here until Wednesday - well, that and the 12 other classes I have between now and that test.

I got notice that my guest blog on an elliptical site got posted today. Here is the link - http://www.ellipticalmachines.net/guest-post-scott-elliptical-machine
It's kind of funny but the email I sent to the editor of the site is what ended up getting posted. She liked it and her opinion is what matters. I recall her mentioning that it seemed real and I'd have to agree and maybe the email was the best way to go right now.

I'll just put a quick pic of the pelvis up showing the sacrotuberous ligament which is the same picture I sent the editor, Valery so she could have an idea of some of the stuff I talked about in that email/blog. :)

Maybe I'll review the respiratory system on tomorrow's blog. Looks like I'm only getting around 4 hours sleep tonight - might need a nap after classes tomorrow followed by an all-nighter of physio - we shall see.

ok - my pic is in png format and that isn't acceptable here - OK - here is a picture of my parents! :) They were the ones that gave me the brain to learn all this crazy stuff. Nice looking couple, aren't they? (they get their good looks from me) ;)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Tri-3, Wk2, Day 139 - Friday

If I were to post this blog on Friday all I could have said was "wiped out". I think I'm still a little frazzled and not exactly sure why.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Tri-3, Wk2, Days 137 & 138, Wed & Thur


I got my first doctor bag today :) The first instrument we put in it was a reflex hammer. I liked the one shaped like a giraffe and thought it would be nice to use with kids but it was 5x more expensive than the standard hammer - so we went standard today :)
The little bag was pretty darned nice as well. I think it was meant for a sphygmomanometer normally sold without a bag but, it was just the right size for the hammer and a few other things I need for my orthopedics class. I can't recall the names of the other instruments I'll need to pick up, I know there are three more things and I do remember that one of them cost around $175 but, fortunately, that one comes with a case ;) These simple tools are for an orthopedics class. I suppose it will help to desensitize us for when we have to buy the really expensive doctor tools next year.

I also cavitated a lower lumbar region today which was really cool. HVLA - High Velocity, Low Amplitude and I certainly had that going on today in my diversified class. OK, so it was an ilium adjustment but, I still thought it was pretty cool ;)

A couple of the classes are immensely entertaining. Sometimes I almost think of them as shows that one might pay money to go see but that's just how some classes are. In the class known as Logan Basic, we learn about a technique pioneered by the founder of the school but it's co-taught by two teachers and they'll go back and forth while presenting the slide show ...er, powerpoint presentation.

It's the same way with our Diversified class, there's two main teachers as well as a host of other teachers that continually walk around the room to help everyone get their technique down and answer any questions. It's a really nice set up. The two main teachers have a long standing friendship so they're always kidding around with one another which makes for a lot of levity in the classroom.

I'm not sure what to post today. We have our first test next Wednesday in Physio II and a lab due on Tuesday. I've got around 250 flashcards I've made up on my laptop using that nifty program from FlashMyBrain.com. I've got a heck of a lot of reading to get done this weekend.

OK - Here's a pretty cool pic - we've got two brains - guess which one is healthier (assuming they were in living bodies) ;)
You guessed it - the one on the left is healthier. See all that space on the brain on the right? We saw a brains in the cadaver lab similar to the brain on the right which was from a patient who had dementia but the brain in the picture is actually of an 82 year old male with atherosclerotic disease. This is important to understand because we aren't talking about any kind of neurological or brain disease, atherosclerosis deals with the cardiovascular system, you know, the heart and arteries. A major place for plaque to build up is in the carotid arteries and those arteries are pretty important to your brain. If we impeded the blood flow to the brain we may end up with a brain looking like the one on the right. Be sure to click on the image to get a full sized view. :)

OK - one day left of this week - school, study, sleep, repeat - only 13 weeks left after tomorrow :)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tri-3, Wk2, Days 135 & 136, Monday & Tuesday


Darn studying got in the way of blogging yesterday. I got in a pretty good 8 hours of studying, at least with all my material in front of my and up on my computer. I can tell my focusing has gotten better since I've started in school. I kind of miss the girl that used to sit next to me for all my classes - we generally talked daily on "strategizing" on how to take care of everything we needed to get done for school and having someone to talk with in the same boat you're in was a great help.

I wanted to put up a couple pictures today from pathology. One will be of atrophied muscle cells - a nice pictoral representation of "use it or lose it". The other is a picture of liver cells and the damage that can be done to them via the use of acetaminophen, more commonly known as Tylenol. Actually, the cells of the liver are either dead or dying due to using too much Tylenol. I guess the advice here would be to use only when absolutely necessary, if at all.

I checked a couple different online sources (here's one of them, http://www.liverdisease.com/painkillers_hepatitis.html) and it stated small doses are safe and cited 4mg or eight 500mg tablets over a 24 hour period would be safe. Small dose or not, it's still the liver that will deal with the ingestion of any acetaminophen. Interesting picture though, don't you think?

With acetaminophen, we're looking at a chemically induced cell injury which then falls under the subheading of being indirectly cytopathic and is the result of the formation of free radicals during the metabolism of acetaminophen. So, if anyone is taking anti-oxidants then keep in mind that something like Tylenol would be the ANTI-anti-oxidant. ;)

Atrophy is an adaptive response to stress and the reasons for an atrophied muscle could be decreased workload, loss of innervation, diminished blood supply, inadequate nutrition or loss of trohpic stimulation. The teacher gave a neat example of atrophy by comparing it to a car dealership - in difficult economic times, a car dealer may need to discontinue a few models and maybe lay off a few employees but at least the dealership is able to stay alive and continue it's existence. Sometimes cells do that. Cells can throttle back their level of function which, while maybe not optimal, at least they get to stay alive. Also, it should be noted that when things get better, say economic times improve in the case of the car dealership then employees can be called back and new models re-introduced. It's the same way with a cell. This would be an indication that the diminished capacity of the cell is reversible - which is a GREAT thing :)

You could say cells have two options when faced with stress - adapt or die.
Actually, becoming injured would come before death and then the injury is either reversible or irreversible.
Some ways cells adapt are
  • atrophy - throttle back size & functional capacity
  • hypertrophy - enlarge and (usually) increase functional capacity
  • hyperplasia - divide and grow via cell division
  • Metaplasia - change into a new type of cell better able to handle the stress
I think it's safe to say that I'm really liking pathology. The metaplasia is particularly fascinating. Cells, metamorphosing into something new to better handle the stress. I'm particularly interesting in the bronchi of the lungs. Normally, those cells are ciliated columnar mucus-secreting epithelium but, under long standing irritation (say, by cigarette smoke) then those cells can change into squamous epithelium which is better able to withstand the smoke. A positive thing is that metaplasia is a reversible adaptation.

I think another phase or adaptation (?!) would be Dysplasia but ...that is generally a change to an aberrant cell or cancer. I guess I better get back to learning the physiology of the lungs - it's getting interesting and physio is a class I'm really going to have to study everyday because we have class everyday with a two hour helping on Wednesdays

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Tri-3, Wk1, Day 134, Friday


Looks like we hit the jackpot again with Teachers - We had our first pathology class on Friday for two hours. The teacher is great, very funny and, like all the rest, excessively intelligent. :)
I just need to do a better job of staying awake - more sleep and daily exercise should help. By Friday evening I was so tired I fell asleep somewhere between 5 & 6 p.m. and next thing I knew, it was 1:30 a.m. I didn't do anything really productive during that time of day and ended up going back to sleep around 7 a.m. for another 4 hours.

I'd really like to get another YouTube video up. I've been working on a video for the brachial arteries, the collateral and recurrent arteries that go around the elbow and which ones anastomose together.

OK - I went ahead and shot a video for the collateral and recurrent arteries in the arm and am going to post it to YouTube, then I'll put a link in here for anyone that's interested :)

OK - done w/ that - the drawing is a little rough but it gets the main points across and is better than nothing for anyone initially trying to learn this stuff. You can check out this video by going to my main page at http://www.youtube.com/gr8sc0tt
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For today's picture I'll just add a view of the arm and some arteries :)

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Tri-3, Wk1, Day 133 - Physiology!


Today we only had two classes due to many of the teachers being required to proxy National Boards test. The first class was Public Health and the 2nd class was Physiology II.

Some days I seem to be more productive than other days. I've done a lot of busy work but haven't really bitten into the Physio studying like I had hoped. I have gotten some new flashcards made up and updated another set I have going for physio. That class is worth 6 credit hours and meets every day of the week and for two hours on Wednesdays. The teacher is fantastic, as I've mentioned before but there is a heck of a lot of material coming at us every single day. I'm recording the classes with my Flip video recorder and have the first three hours of class burning was we speak to a DVD. The teacher, Iggy, rattled off a series of questions at the start of class and I was kind of like a deer in headlights and didn't have all the answers which always kind of concerns me. The sound quality of the recordings is a little weak when played back through the computer so I wasn't able to make out all the questions and answers but, once the DVD is made then I should be able to hear everything and complete a set of flashcards using FlashMyBrain.com to make sure I know everything he was asking.

Our first test in physio will be over the respiratory system so, we're just talking about the lungs, right? Yeah, pretty much but, the detail is much more than I ever realized. In addition to the three physio books I have Iggy has provided us with a 180 slide powerpoint presentation. I must say, however, that Iggy does the absolute best job of making use of powerpoints. Too many teachers sit behind their podium and ramble on endlessly about what is seen in each slide without ever interacting with their class and quickly switching from one slide to the next. Iggy takes as much time as necessary with each slide to make sure everybody has a fair opportunity to understand what's going on. This is not a class to be missed - ever.

In a more basic physio class one might learn that air is breathed into the lungs and eventually gets to little air sacs called alveoli and that's where oxygen is exchanged with carbon dioxide.

Yeah....

We might even get a neat bit of trivia concerning the lungs in that the surface area of all those little alveoli is about the size of a tennis court ...

Well....

True enough. But, how many layers of cells does gas have to pass through to go from say, the alvioli to a capillary? I believe there are four layers to be crossed, namely
1. alveolar epithelial wall of type I cells
2. alveolar epithelial basement membrane
3. capillary basement membrane
4. endothelial cells of capillary

four layers of respiratory membrane which are approximately 1/2 micron thick.
and with Type I alveolar cells, we should also know they go by the name of squamous pneumocytes and that they account for 95% of the alveolar surface.
Type II alcolar cells account for the other 5% of alveolar surface. They are also known as septal or great pneumocytes. They have the ability to differentiate into Type I pneumocytes to repair damaged pulmonary membranes and secrete alveolar fluid containing a surfactant - flashback to biochemistry - we talked about surfactants there also!

From the mouth or nose down to the depths of the lungs we need to know what's being passed along the way and what kinds of cells make up the various tubes along the way. As slide 38 in our powerpoint points out - we must note the changes in epithelium from stratified (oropharynx) to pseudostratified columnar (trachea), to columnar, to cubuoidal in the terminal bronchioles, to simple squamous in the respiratory zone.

Huh?

I guess it's more acceptable for a reader to say huh as opposed to someone that's actually taking the class. I'll just take each part piece by piece and we'll get to know this better together ;)

epithelium - skin! - this is any tissue composed of cells that line the cavities and surfaces of structures throughout the human body :) (thank you wikipedia)
oropharynx - the area from the soft palate on the roof of your mouth to the epiglottis or hyoid bone (depending on your resource), the word pharynx also means throat.
pseudostratified - with a word like "pseudo" in it, you know it's gotta be fake! and it is - stratified cells are layered but pseudostratified cells just look like they are layered but, in reality each one connects to a basement membrane.
trachea - this is better known as the windpipe. This runs from the larynx (voicebox) down to the 5th thoracic vertebrae and in front of the esophagus (food tube to stomach)

well ...this keeps getting more and more in depth the more I look at things and I'm getting tired.

like I mentioned, this stuff is detailed right down to the individual cells. I'll keep chugging along ...

I think for today's picture I'll put up a nice picture of the lungs :)
Tomorrow should be pretty cool. I'll have my first class of Pathology along with Public Health and the omnipresent physio class :) then Micro II, along with Micro II Dry Lab. It sounds like we'll be watching movies twice a week for our Micro II Dry Lab - every Wednesday and Friday. Certainly not a difficult thing to do. Actually, the first show we were watching this past Wednesday was pretty interesting. hmm, we also have a wet lab for microbiology where we'll get to spend more time playing with bacteria :)






Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Tri-3, Wk1, Day 132

First off, best wishes to Grayson Guyer from High Point, NC who will be starting at Logan in January in the ASP program!

Grayson, you'll want to check out this site I put together at http://loganstudents.webgarden.com/
It has links to all the Google Groups I've been putting together with old test, notes and all kinds of resources to help you succeed at Logan. For that matter, any chiro student is welcome to any info I have that might be helpful.

Be sure to send me an email (or blog comment) when you get to Logan. I currently have 12.6GB worth of resources ...over 23,000 files ranging from Tri-1 to Tri-9 as well as material for electives & National Boards.

As intimidated as I was about this Tri-3 semester, things were pretty fun today. No shortage of laughing in many of the classes.

btw - I might also recommend www.FlashMyBrain.com which is yet another Flashcard program I've downloaded and paid for (only about $30) but you can play games and quizzes with your flashcards and the program only gives you so many cards at a time (you decide how many) and when you score high enough on a game, then you can add more cards.

I think Dr. Filson may have been wearing his St. Louis Cardinals World Series ring today. For those who don't know, Dr. Filson was the Cardinals chiropractor the year they won the world series and *everyone* involved with the organization got one of those championship rings. I sit back in the third row, to the side and the ring still looked absolutely HUGE!

The #1 chiropractic technique is one called Diversified and Logan Basic (invented by the founder of Logan) is the 13th most used technique which is pretty good considering there are well over 100 techniques. Most of the other techniques seem to stem off some of these previously mentioned foundation techniques. I learned the activator method is an extension of the basic method but you use a tool w/ the activator method. The creator of the activator method was also a graduate of Logan.

Logan offers around 15 or so techniques which compares quite favorably to many other schools.

Anyway - I've got flashcards made up for Microbiology for 7 antiviral agents and 21 different diseases I need to know for our first test.
Physiology was pretty good today. Dr Iggy is probably one of the best teachers you can find anywhere. Ignatov is his actual name (I think) He's from Russia. Our Microbiology teacher is from India. One of the ASP teachers is from Iran - he moved here when he was 17 ...how does somebody do that?! Only 17 and he moved solo to the US ...non-the-less, he is a *very* brilliant individual.

We started out with two hours of philosophy and that name philosophy is almost a bit misleading. The full name is Philosophy & Principles and much of what we learn deals with the principles behind chiropractic and quite a bit of the science behind chiropractic. It was nice to learn that our Tri-3 philosophy teacher is also one of the teachers who writes questions for the National Boards exams, as well as Dr. Gutweiler who writes questions for the biochemistry exams.

Today's pic is of the home state of our upcoming doctor, Dr. Grayson Guyer! :)