Tri-3, Wk8, Day 168 - Friday

Weekly Class Attendance: 97%

TGIF? It's hard to tell because I feel so burnt out. It's the kind of thing you would think a good nights sleep would fix but I've had two ample nights sleep in a row and still feel exhausted. Oh yeah, weekly attendance, right up top....

btw - My Dad is absolutely amazing and I truly appreciate all the help and work he does for me. Mom too, I was just impressed by how quickly Dad helped out with a situation here at the house. :)

I skipped one class of diversified to study for my Basic midterm and got lucky because enough other people skipped the same class for the same reason and the class was canceled. Enough said.

Class Summaries for Friday

1. Pathology I - (2 hours)

• This is one class where you have to work hard just to get a D. This would be evident by the number of people from the trimester ahead of us that weren't able to get through and are taking the class again.
• We're studying Hemodynamic Disorders which basically consist of the follow...
• Edema - the accumulation of fluid in tissue or body cavities caused by mechanisms that involve the blood flow, composition of plasma, the vessel wall and the adjacent tissue.
• Hyperemia & Congestion - hyperemia is an active process involving dilation of the arterioles, whereas congestion refers to passive stagnation of blood in the veins.
  
• Hemorrhage - (bleeding), an escape of blood from blood vessels or the heart. Hemorrhages can be classified according to the site of origin, i.e., Cardiac, Arterial, Capillary or Venous
• Hemostasis & Trombosis - Both processes are based on the coagulation of blood. Hemostasis ("stopping of hemorrhage") is the physiologic process designed to stop the bleeding from ruptured blood vessels. Thrombosis is a pathologic form of coagulation of circulating blood inside intact vascular spaces.
• Infarct - Infarcts develop as a result of obstruction of the arterial and venous blood flow or hypoperfusion of tissues.
• Embolism - Emboli are particulate, fluid or gaseous material carried by the bloodstream from the site of their origin or entry into the circulation to other parts of the body. Emboli are classified according to the material from which they are formed.
• Shock - an important clinical conditoin caused by circulatory collapse that occurs under many conditions, always resulting from a hypoperfusion of tissues.

2. Public Health (1 hour)

I know we got another handout today. I think the teacher may have talked about Milk some more and maybe a few other things.

3. Physiology II (1 hour)

I'm not sure this teacher could go any faster. It's fast to me anyway. Basically, I've got to learn all the hormones in the body and a lot of detail about each one of them. I know there's an RAA system I need to get down which pertains to the kidneys ...I have a TON of work to do in this class ...so much that it's hard to know where to begin.

4. Microbiology II Lecture (1 hour)

More handouts and we have our second test this coming Tuesday. I printed out 14 type written pages of notes ...I got 13 pages of notes before my computer crashed. I already installed the new Windows 7 Ultimate operating system and don't seem to have any more luck than I had with Vista. I'll just have to do the best I can for now.

Like last semester, this is one of my weaker classes. It's much different than pathology even though my grade isn't much better in path .....

5. Microbiology II Dry Lab (1 hour).

Hardly anyone attends this class and I think it's because it doesn't (or can't) count for a grade. We're taking 32 hours for credit this semester and the two dry labs we have each week is what makes my total hours 34. It's a pretty easy class to sit through as we generally just watch movies and DVDs.

Today's DVD was on Alzheimer's Disease. I think science pretty well agrees that the genesis for the disease has to do with a buildup of Amyloid Plaque amongst the nerve cells in the brain which inhibit transmission of nerve impulses from one nerve cell to the next.

This dz is of particular interest to me because my grandma is taking medication for the dz even though she hasn't exactly been diagnosed as having the dz. Yet - when prescribing a prescription a doc has to put down a diagnosis in order to justify the script. According to relatives, my grandma's doctor said that she didn't think grandma had Alzheimer's but is at that age where she could ....

This is just downright annoying to me. Basically, My grandma's MD just doesn't have jack squat she's able to do except for the anemic little bag of tricks at her disposal which solely consist of medications. I think it's pathetic. If she doesn't have the dz then don't prescribe mediation for something she doesn't have. In the week I spent with her I didn't see any clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's. The only complaints she had were ones that corresponded with all the side effects of the medication she was taking - what a croc! Grrrrr.....

6. Microbiology II Lab -

Pretty simple lab today, we just played with some streptococcus (s.) specifically, we played with

• streptococcus pyogenes
• streptococcus agalactiae
• streptococcus faecalis
• streptococcus pneumoniae

and... all we had to do today was make a gram stain of one of the streptococci. I had a good gram stain of my bacteria but wasn't able to make it out on the microscope, nor was my teacher. I stayed late and tried again along w/ my teacher under a 2nd microscope but no luck so, we just called it a day and will try again next week.

That's it.

I have a philosophy handout scheduled to be worked on tomorrow at 10 a.m. I have to schedule more things. While it's important to get to all my classes, a real key is going to be to complete some focused study times. I know for certain, things can't be haphazard and just done on a whim but rather my efforts really need to be focused, well thought out and have a schedule adhered to.

Obviously, I'm just speaking for myself. Whatever I've been doing so far, whether it's my best or not, simply isn't good enough and has to improve.

Today's picture is of amyloid plaque and tangles in the brain neurons. The tangles are another part of the Alzheimer equation, I just forgot about them until I found this picture. The tangles are like little threads of protein inside the nerve cell body which, along w/ the amyloid interfere with normal cell impulse propagation.