Tri-3, Wk9, Day 170 - Tuesday :)

I think I could fall asleep in a matter of minutes if went to bed now. Of course, I guess I've been up since about 2 a.m. so that could account for some of it. I was wanting to call my parents tonight to share some decent news with them but I'm not sure where my phone's at and now that I think of it, I'm not sure if I've had my phone since the end of last week ...

I'll have to look for that this weekend.

I got some nice news regarding our last Pathology test and did rather well on today's Microbiology exam. I got a 66% on the last Path test which was an improvement over the first test by a few points. I'd found out that another student that sits a few rows behind me got the same score. The other guy is a very serious and smart student so I felt pretty good about being able to match his score. For him, it was also an improvement over the first test. Today our Path teacher told us that most people did worse on the 2nd test and the class average was a 67%. So, I was right in the game and improving to boot! :)

I recall the biochem final having a class average of 50%, calculus at U of I having an average in the 40% range and organic chem having a 45 or so percentage average at most universities so it kind of depends on the difficulty of the class and these are no Mickey Mouse classes we're taking here.

Micro was very nice and I scored a straight up 74%. This is our third semester with this same Microbiology book and the improvements have been very satisfying. I remember starting out with some grades as low as 44%, then moving up into the 60% range and finally passing without needing the teachers curve and now I'm up to a C all on my own. If I keep this up I should finish the class with a solid B. That would be absolutely fantastic! :)

What did we do today? I don't even remember my classes & will have to check my notes :)

Today's Class Summary

1. Pathology - Still on Hemodynamics :)

We only covered six slides in our Hemodynamics ppt today but spent the entire hour talking about those six slides. Here's a good one - DIC, and that stands for disseminated intravascular coagualtion. What's that? Well, according to our powerpoint, it's a microangiopathic hemolytic anemia or consumption coagulopaty. Now, aren't you glad you asked?

Let's see... DIC is not a disease but rather a complication and as I recall it's a condition of bleeding and clotting at the same time - aka - hemorrhage & thrombosis. I really don't know much more about it than that. I recall the teacher using an analogy at one point of pressing a tomato through a screen and you'd get a lot of gunk & juice out of the other side and maybe this was the condition he was talking about - I'm not sure.

We have something known as Virchow's Triad which cites three related reasons for Thrombosis, those reasons being

1) Endothelial Injury, which I talked about yesterday

2) Abnormal Blood Flow

3) Hypercoagulability

We studied the characteristics of patients at high risk for thrombosis ...ideally, I should be able to relate which piece of the Virchow's Triad goes with each characteristic - I'll do the best I can with that part but, here are a list of characteristics

1. Tissue damage (surgery, burns)
2. Prolonged immobilization
3. Myocardial infarction
4. Neoplasms - solid or hematopoetic
5. Trousseau syndrome - pancreatic adenoCA
6. Prosthetic heart valves
7. DIC (we mentioned this one already) ;)
8. Smokers - endothelial disruption
9. pregancy/postpartum - hypertension, therefore endothelial
10. Oral birth control pills - endothelial
11. hyperlipidemia -
12. Sickle cell dz - microvascular occlusions
13. atrial fibrillation - turbulence (abnormal blood flow)

Predisposing factors for thrombosis

1. endocarditis
2. myocardial infarction
3. atrial fibrillation
4. cardiomyopathy

2. Orthopedics - Working w/ the Petrometer

Using two little compass looking devices called Petrometers we can accurately measure lumbar flexion, extension & rotation. I understand a similar device is available at hardware stores for around 8 bucks but, those don't have a means of "zeroing out" the device and aren't quite as good in legal proceedings. So, to make lawyers & judges happy (as well as providing pts with the very finest eqpt available) we paid $135 for our Petrometers. Actually, that $135 was cheaper than what last semester students paid. We were able to negotiate a better price by committing to buy at least 50 Petrometers. :)

These are really nifty little devices. When flexing forward, the sacrum tilts and using the Petrometer we can eliminate the contribution of the sacrum and isolate lumbar flexion.

I'm looking forward to testing my parents and getting some baseline numbers for them. The degrees of motion we're looking for with each motion are as follows

• Lumbar Flexion - 60 degrees
• Lumbar Extension - 25 degrees
• Lumbar Lateral Bending - 25 degrees
• Lumbar Rotation - 45 degrees

any motions less than those recommended ranges probably indicate an issue.

3. Diversified II

We met in the classroom today and simply looked over x-rays all hour. We haven't had a single class in radiography but we sure have spent a lot of time looking over x-rays. It was rather interesting. Some things, like the trachea, show up as shadows as well as any gas or air pockets in the intestines.

4. Embryology -

hmmm ....hmmm - OK - I opted out of this class to study for Microbiology and finish up a powerpoint presentation we were supposed to give for our professional development class. I've got a solid B going in Embryology and not such a strong grade in Micro so, I opted for Micro.

5. Physiology -

It looks like our next test, Exam 4, will be next Tuesday :)

What the heck did we cover today??? I remember hearing about a lot of hormones I'd never heard of before in my life ...

I know a little bit about the pancreas, here are what some of the cells in the pancreas secrete -

• Alpha cells secrete glucagon
• Beta cells secrete insulin
• Delta cells secrete somatostatin
• F-cells secrete pancreatic polypeptide

Glucagon is 29 amino acids long and stimulates liver glycogenolysis, increases gluconeogenesis and stimulates lipolysis

...so much stuff here -

We need to know the ins and outs and differences between Diabetes Mellitus & Diabetes Insipidis

Some miscellaneous hormones are known as eicosanoids which are 20 carbon faccy acids and water soluble (i think) - two broad families are Leukotrienes and prostaglandins.

We also have prostacyclins & thromboxanes. Besides T-cells we have four other hormones from the tymus and a half a dozen more growth factor hormones.

At the end of the powerpoint, we have NINE tables worth of hormones to know ....far too many to list here tonight. I'll learn them though, just not tonight.

6. Microbiology II Lab -

We played with Streptococcus today and innoculated 12 different test tubes and 6 petri dishes

7. Microbiology II Lecture -

Did well on our test today :)

8. Professional Development -

Well, we were scheduled to give our presentation today but, it just didn't happen so I'm sure we'll go next week -

That's it. It's almost 9 p.m. and I am really ready for bed ....

debating if I should make up some flashcards before bed. ...thinking 30 minutes devoted to physio flashcards ....mmmm - got a Public Health test on Thursday - OK, I'll make up flashcards for that :) Heck - other than tonight, i only have tomorrow to prep for that test!

Today's picture is of a Petrometer.