A update to my previous post!

I wrote a blog about hydrocephalus and then today while perusing the news I found a story about a texas baby named baby Klaus. He is 11 months old and has severe hydrocephalus. For some reason no neurosurgeons would help this family and now his head has swollen 130% larger than it should!
Finally a physician has stepped in to help this poor baby and so far since installing a shunt, his head has shrunk 12 inches.
It is tragic, they fear he may be blind, deaf and disabled, but as the dr poignantly says in the video at the bottom of the news story, you never give up on a babies brain!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/11/29/2010-11-29_doctors_in_texas_rally_to_save_baby_klaus_born_with_massive_head_due_to_excess_f.html

Its megamind baby!

That is what my 4 year old exclaimed when she saw this picture from my A&P textbook! I don't know who megamind is, she tells me its a movie.
This adorable little one however has hydrocephalus, which is an abnormal accumulation of cerebral spinal fluid in the brain. It is a condition that one can be born with or acquired later on at some point in life. It can be life threatening, and damaging to the brain. In newborns the skull is not fused so there is some room for the fluid building up. At this point a shunt can be inserted to drain excess fluid out of the skull. In adults it can be very dangerous because the skull is fused and can lead to brain damage much faster from the excess pressure buildup.
I had a friend in high school who had a shunt placed as an infant because he was born with hydrocephalus. He was lucky and had no deficits as a result. He was very smart and ran cross country. Once his shunt became infected and had to be hospitalized, he did recover though. I know he had said he had to have surgery to revise his shunt when he hit puberty and grew several inches. I am guessing the shunt didn't grow with him!

 

Home stretch!

Just a handful of weeks left in class, I am ready for a break! This class has been such a marathon and its not over, one more semester to go! I try not to think to much about that fact. I truly think of this much like a marathon, if I think about how far I have left to go, I wont make it to that final mile!
Its so much work to study for an A, exhausting actually, but that is the goal I gave set for myself and have been accomplishing.

We have a test on the central nervous system in a few days so I am in full study mode, as soon as I finish this psych paper, and algebra test! Such a balancing act, and I suck at it!

We have gotten to see Katie now twice and it is so amazing. I am so very grateful for this opportunity, and so glad I chose to come to this college. Not many at my level of education get the chance to see something so cool.

She is 91 years old and seems so far to be in fantastic shape! I wonder how she died and marvel at the muscles and organs that carried her through 9 years short of a century!
I caught myself on the first night, resting my fingers on top of her hand while Molly was showing us something. Much like I would if I was comforting her or something. I know she doesn't need comforting anymore but it seemed only right, for what she is giving us! I looked at her hand, age spots and so grandmotherly. I get way over sentimental sometimes but I thought this hand must have held little hands across the street and cooked food for loved ones. So much, someone does in 91 years.
I imagine she was wonderful and did amazing things, even if it isn't true, because I don't want to think anything less.
   

My first Stitches!

I can think its cool,  now that it doesn't hurt so bad.....

2 stitches

I had a very normal flesh colored round mole there, for as long as I could remember. This summer it started getting red and itchy and sometimes painful. Then it suddenly deflated! Thats the only way I can describe it, it looked empty. At my checkup I told the doc about it, and he decided since it had been changing and irritated, that we should remove it.

I had a punch biopsy, which basically consisted of them taking a little cookie cutter to my leg. She then stitched up the spot that they cookie cuttered the mole out of, and wahlaa!
It hurt more than I expected, and the stitches bled more than I expected but I did stand in line for 45 minutes to vote after that appt. (when I was supposed to be laying on the couch taking it easy for a little bit) There are some things that must not be ignored however!

They called with the results, No suspicious cells! However she did say it was actively growing deeper in a non cancerous way.....No wonder it was irritating! I wonder if the pathologist could see cells in differing stages of mitosis or something, to make that call!

Bells Palsy

Bells Palsy, is a paralysis caused by damage to cranial nerve VII. It causes paralysis on one side of the face and is harmless but for the damage it can do to ones psyche.

google images

This girl is not me, but is a good example of bells palsy.
I had bells palsy twice in the span of a year! I consider myself lucky to not have permanent drooping as I have seen people who have had permanent damage from multiple attacks.

I think that my bells palsy is brought on by stress as both times I was under great duress. However it doesn't always happen when I am under great stress because so far A&P has not caused a relapse...Altho I am cautious when I say this, as I have only just begun this 2 semester odyssey!
I woke up after a very very stressful night and got ready for lunch with a girlfriend. On the way to lunch I noticed while applying lipgloss that I couldn't seem to rub my lips together to smooth it over. I was puzzled and thought maybe I never had been able too. I had a good lunch and as far as my friend can remember, I looked perfectly normal. That evening my daughter said something funny to me, and I happened to pass by a mirror as I was smiling and I was HORRIFIED! I thought I was having a stroke! I rushed myself to the ED and they calmed my fears with a CT scan and sent me on my way with prednisone. Prednisone is a steroid and I believe is critical to a good recovery. I dont know if it was the steroids but one thing that stood out markedly while I was recovering was I was obscenely tired! I slept so much! I also remember how upset my little girl was at the time, she would cry when she saw me and say she was so sad my smile was broken!

The second time I was struck, I felt very very tired that day and I awoke from a nap and could feel a certain numbness in my face! I again rushed to the ED and managed to get on steroids very quickly. The drooping was not as severe this second time, and I believe the quick steroid treatment is credit to that.

Sometimes when I am tired my eye blinks slower than the other one and people can notice they seem to be out of sync but otherwise my face looks pretty good considering!

We are headed out of muscles and into nerves so I thought it was a good time for this story! I am interested in finding out more why this may have happened to me and the mechanism behind how the nerve damage causes the paralysis although I am finding a better understanding with what I know about the muscles now and neuromuscular junctions!

There are no pictures of me with bells palsy, I was embarrassed and didn't leave my house for weeks the first time it happened. I try to pay attention to how I feel and I have a days supply of prednisone just in case it happens again! That way I can quickly start meds and prevent severe drooping!

All about the muscles

I haven't much to say about the muscles yet. I want to understand them better! I have so many questions and ideas.....like why has my bicep been twitching obnoxiously for 2 hours while I try and study! I also want to know about muscle fatigue and why that happens. We are supposed to cover that next class!
The nervous system is pretty intertwined with muscles and the how and why of paralysis really interests me so I am looking forward to getting deeper into the nerves and how they control the functions of things.
Are cat dissection started this week which I find thoroughly enjoyable despite the smell....I wish I could remember what we named our kitty!
I separated the scapula from its under and overlying tissues a bit and got a great view of the spine and the infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscles!

I can tell you when its going to rain!

The other day I was sitting in the student center and my wrist started to hurt...BAD!
It almost brought tears to my eyes....
I broke my arm my freshman year of high school, I am almost positive of this. I dont know for sure because my parents had no money and didn't take me to see a dr. (I know you did the best you could mom....we talked about it this week, but it makes for a good blog post about bones)
I was running after school at my first band practice and a stupid 7th grade boy tripped me! I was holding drumsticks with one hand and so I caught all of myself with my right. It made an interesting crunchy pop sound and I couldn't use my hand very effectively. I could not turn my hand from a palm down to a palm up position without physically doing it with my opposite hand, and as soon as I let it go it would flop back over to a palm down position. It started hurting after an hour or so and it got bruised and swelled. 
The aftereffects lasted about 6-8 weeks, and eventually I was able to turn my hand and keep it there, but it still feels a bit odd even today, 13ish years later. I never knew exactly if it was broken but I would say it was highly likely.
It was probably simple and non displaced, because if it was broken...it healed pretty well considering.
This leads me to last week. It was hurting bad! I couldn't take it and I was feeling worried as to why it would be flaring up so bad. It hurt in exactly the same spot of the probable break.
I went outside to get to my algebra class and low and behold a front was blowing in....We were getting some very nasty looking weather! About an hour after the weather stabilized my wrist started feeling better and is fine now. I remember having similar pain during weather before but never as severe. Maybe it is Colorado, IDK...I had always heard about people having flare ups of arthritis and other conditions when the barometric pressure dropped. I would have been interested to see how fast and far it dropped that day. I saw online that others had felt similar pain in old break spots so I guess I am not alone! So long as thats the only time it hurts...and I will always know when to grab an umbrella!