Adipose tissue

 I promise to never compliment a woman (aside from my significant other) on her large gathering of adipose tissue ventral to her thoracic cavity. 

That would be rude. 

But I can't help but notice. I'm just a guy 🤷.

Study Music

 I've fround that I enjoy listening to music while studying. However, I've also found that it almost exclusively has to be instrumental music

Some may think of classical (orchestral / symphonic) of as instrumental music, however there are many other forms.

There are two types that give me trouble while studying. First are songs that are covers of songs with lyrics that I know.

Second is Rodrigo y Gabriela. They are a guitar playing duet. They get going so hard that focusing on studying can be challenging because I just want to rock out. 

Mozart and Beethoven are probably my favorites, but I've created a playlist of overall favorites. If you subscribe to Google YouTube Music, you can find it by searching "Instrumental Playlist for Studying."

What White Privilege Means to Me

As a white male who grew up in an affluent area, I've struggled with this question. It gets talked about in some of my social circles. 

One of those circles features a group of about 15 white guys around my age (40s and early 50s). They are overall a pretty right-leaning, conservative bunch. Based on that description, it's not a surprise that they balk at the notion of white privilege. 

"I worked for everything I have," is the consensus. 

And that, from one perspective, is probably true. They rose on their merit, saved their money instead of spending it, invested wisely, and have reaped the benefits. All admirable and desirable qualities.

Here's the flip side: were people with different skin color, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender excluded from competing with them for the education, employment, and financial systems that helped them in their success?

And, did their families and ancestors have access to education, employment, property, and financial systems that excluded competition from the (probably incomplete) list of people in the previous paragraph?

That's all. It's not that they didn't work hard, it's that others who may have worked just as hard and been just as productive and innovative weren't invited and were excluded from doing so.

Divine or random creation?

 A much more sensitive topic and probably controversial to some people is the complexity of the body and how that came about. Those who believe in the letter of the Bible and creationism believe that God created life and therefore every structure and function therein. 

The staggering number of components and functions that are interrelated is staggering. Take, for instance, epithelium. There is the apical-basal polarity (crudely, that's the top and bottom of, for instance, skin tissue) but then there's also the basal lamina which is a noncellular sheet just beneath / outside of the basal surface which acts as a border crossing for molecules - it determines what gets into the epithelium from surrounding connective tissues. 

Then there are the fluids that connect or lubricate. 

And so on. 

Is it divinely created - every single atom placed in perfect order to create each molecule which were then placed in perfect order in combinations to create each cell (and all of the components of each cell, which is an incredibly complex body in and of itself) and then each cell placed and ordered into tissues and each tissue placed and ordered into each organ and the organs placed and ordered into systems which together function as the being? Did God do that?

Or, did billions of years of random evolution go from one organism to another, slowly mutating due to environmental circumstances to grow into all of these components, failing and succeeding zillions of times to end up as the wildly diverse population of humans that we are today? 

Tissue study: making epithelial flashcards

 I'm currently studying about tissues. A classmate asked me about my methods of studying. I mentioned flashcards and pneumonic devices. Another thing that I just thought of as I was creating a flashcard was opposites.

For example, there are 6 main functions of epithelium:

1. Protection
2. Absorption
3. Filtration
4. Excretion
5. Secretion
6. Sensory reception

However, not only for memorization, but understaning the funcions better is to group them. The easiest pairs to make are absorption & filtration and excretion & secretion. 

While epithelial tissues can absorb beneficial nutrients, they also filter out bad stuff (we hope.)

While epithelial tissues excrete waste, they also secrete beneficial fluids.

I also think that protection and sensory reception can be grouped together. After all, while protection can be a barrier to harmful elements, those outside elements can be sensed to trigger a response from the body (hot stove -> pull hand away.) 

So maybe I'll reorder them on my flashcard:

1. Protection
2. Sensory reception
3. Absorption
4. Filtration
5. Excretion
6. Secretion

***

In making flashcards, one of hte hardest things to do is decide what goes on a flashcard. For example, I'm in the first section of the topic and already have 11 cards because, for example, there are different kinds of epithelia, then each type of epithelia has its own composition and characteristics, and those components have THEIR OWN components and characteristics. 

Receptors, Feedback, and Effectors

 I like that my Anatomy prof is constantly phrasing her questions as critical thinking questions. For example, what does oxygen do for the body? Someone answered that it helps keep us alive. Yes, but how? I thought for a sec and recalled that it is an integral part in respiration (creates ATP) and deals with the exchange of electrons and protons to help maintain homeostasis.

Feedback is interesting - negative feedback vs positive feedback. It's part of maintaining homeostasis. There is the receptor, the control center, and the effector. The control center determines the set point or range for a set point of a variable (such as temperature.) The receptor monitors the environment and responds to stimuli by sending signals for needed changes. The control center receives the input from the receptor and sends output to the effector on what to do.

Negative vs positive feedback cannot be thought of as good vs bad. It is simply the type of process the body uses to keep itself in balance. Negative feedback goes in the opposite direction as stimulus and is more common, like shivering to warm up or sweating to cool down. Positive feedback responds in the same direction as the stimulus, like platelets coming to plug a cut.

Here's something cool - do you know what platelets are? They're the things sent by blood that clot a cut. Platelets have receptors that activate when they attach and send signals for more platelets to come and attach. 

Q: do they also send signals for the healing chemicals?

A: platelets send signals for the growth signals / hormones - growth factor. Once the wound is healed, then signals are sent that break down the platelets.

Other positive feedback: labor contractions get stronger and stronger. If it was a negative feedback, the body would try to stop that process.

Temperature signals are sent to the hypothalamus section of the brain.

We're talking about positive feedback and thinking about birth when the following quesion occurred to me: if gestation is typically 40 weeks, why are babies that have gone through the same duration of gestation different sizes? If cell division is cell division, then why wouldn't a smaller baby be born just at an earlier date? Shouldn't all babies go through the same growth within the same time frame?

Modern Learning Platforms

 One of the best things about modern education is the online learning tools. Both McGraw-Hill and Pearson have tools that allow you to use drag and drop to rank or label. Even better is "check my work." 

For me, getting a problem wrong is annoying (and sometimes infuriating,) but knowing why I got something wrong dampens the blow. And that's what the homework provides: instant feedback on problem solving. 

Old / traditional way: do homework. Turn in homework. Teacher grades homework. Teacher gives homework back days or weeks later. 

New way: do homework getting constant feedback about my progress.

I can't find a way to make the old way better. Can you?

***

Oh, Pearson calls these "dynamic study modules." I forgot that you can not only answer questions and get feedback, but you can rank as either 

I'm sure

I think so

Not sure

I don't know yet

It also then tells you were to find the answers or where your weaknesses are and where to focus your studying. 

McGraw-Hill also would create practice tests for me, so hopefully Pearson's app will do that, too.

Second Day of School: BIO 226 Anatomy & Physiology

 So far, so good! I was pretty happy last night after doing my pre-lab questions for 233 and getting 10/10. It wasn't rocket science (it's biological science, ha!) but it's nice to get off to a good start. I definitely had good grounding from last semester. It's terrible 

Right now, my 226 prof is going through the syllabus. Seems straightforward. Defining, identifying, and understanding interrelationships of various tissues, structures, and processes in the body. I actually looked at the book and one of the labs is to dissect a rat. I'm pretty disappointed that we won't be able to do that in person. 

Reality check: if I'm going to be a nurse, I'm going to have to grow accustomed to the insides of bodies. 

***

As we've been going through the course syllabus, Prof started talking about the books needed for the course. The students overwhelmingly either don't have the book yet or don't know how to deal with that.

It is one of those times when I have to summon a lot of patience: not all of my classmates had my school experience where it was expected that the book(s) should be purchased ahead of time and ready for the first day of class.

***

I'm getting antsy. We're 100 minutes into class and still going through the syllabus. I get it - course policies for tardiness, assignments, etc. Another self-reminder that my classmates are probably not already college graduates and still have to be reminded about this stuff. Still really annoying (sns). I'm ready to start the course. I know that I can't be late to class, that I have to be present for class every day, that I have to do all of my homework, that if I'm having problems that I shouldn't wait until the last day of class to talk to the prof. Seriously - if these people are planning on being nurses, how isn't this already natural?

I guess it's part of the education and training - the learn how to learn and how to be accountable for one's actions. 

***

Ugh . . but shouldn't reading the syllabus be up to the students? I'm going nuts.

She's talking about failure to communicate when things are going wrong. Life skills. I guess it's good to teach for those who simply haven't had these lessons growing up. 

***

We got into the class. Like most classes, the first day and first couple of weeks will be review. We talked about definitions of anatomy and physiology, about the hierarchy of the organization of life (chemical < cellular < tissue < organ < organ system < organismal; the less than sign is used to show that the list is actually bottom-up.) 

Then she talked about necessary life functions: boundaries, movement, responsiveness, digestions, metabolism, excretion, reproduction, growth.

Then she showed us a picture of what's called a "simplified body plan" which was a neat way to organize the systems that work together for life functions: air, water, food which circulate and then excrete air, water, and waste.

One thing that I'm fairly certain that I should learn as I get into these classes is how to draw anatomy. Not that I need to be Davinci or anything, but just to be able to make drawings of the parts and systems. During my CNA class, we had to learn all of the pulse sites on the body (temporal, carotid, apical, radial, brachial, femoral, popliteal, pedal.) I found that I was able to learn it much faster by making a stick figure diagram, then fill it in. If I can do that in a better way for more detailed body parts, then I think I'll not only memorize for assessment, but learn them so that I know them for professional application.

First Day of School! Microbio 233

 First day of school of my second semester. 

I can already tell that this is a more committed cohort than either of my BIO / CHEM 121 classes. In those classes, people didn't turn their cameras on nor were they particularly willing to engage. 

Today, people have their cameras on and are forthcoming with their experiences and goals. 

That makes me really happy. It was hard feeling like I was either the only person or one of just a couple of people who were engaging and taking things seriously.

***

Update

That didn't take long! Almost the entire class reverted back to turning off their cameras after the introductions. As soon as the lecture started, the cameras turned off.

Oh, well.

2021 Blog Goals

 Have you ever seen the movie, The Social Network? The beginning of the movie is perhaps my favorite part - when Jesse Eisenberg playing Mark Zuckerberg creates the FaceMash site that compares the pictures of girls around Harvard.

Putting aside the politics of the site, I love how he blogged simultaneously to his hacking and coding. 

In my first semester, I found myself often using the class discussion boards to think aloud about problems. Therefore, I'm going to use this blog as a way to think through my classes and anything else I want to ponder aloud. 

Feel free to contribute! 

Transitional Realities

 My kids, like most or all of your kids, have been learning "remotely" since March 2020. CPS (Chicago Public Schools) has a plan to return on February 1st 2021. We have all been looking forward to that for a very long time.

It's not exactly that we're sick of each other, but that it would simply be nice to spend some regularly scheduled time apart. 

However, there is definitely going to be a cost to everything going "back to normal." 

Today, I took a picture of my daughter working on her iPad with our dog asleep at her feet. That will be a thing of the past. Eating lunch together. Hearing what they're learning. Seeing the teachers on the screen along with the other students. It has been a rare peek into the school lives our my children.

So, if you're like me and the kids will be going back soon, make sure you take a few pictures - both with your camera and with your mind. We will not get this time back. It will be a time that we look back on fondly in many ways. We'll miss the time that we spent a year together.

Back to School!

 Long overdue is the "announcement" on this blog that I've begun my pursuit of a career in Nursing. 

Helping others is something that comes naturally to me. While never up for Homemaker of the Year, caring for my wife and kids for the last 14 years has been some of the best life experience I could have gained for this career. For real - I've handled a lot of body fluid over the years. A lot of brown, yellow, and red. And probably some white. 

This coming Tuesday, January 19th 2021, I will begin my second semester at Chicago City Colleges - Malcolm X college. In the fall, I took and was able to get As in BIO 121 and CHEM 121. It is my goal to not get anything besides an A in my classes all the way through. Humble, huh?

While those were challenging courses, they were merely intro courses. This semester, I'll take BIO 226 and 233 - Anatomy & Physiology and Microbiology, respectively. My ability to maintain that high level of academics will tell me how realistic that pursuit of perfection is.

On top of my two courses, I also achieved a certification as a CNA - Certified Nursing Assistant. It was a 5-week intensive course. Unfortunately, I came down with COVID-19 the week of the final and had to not only delay my final exam for a month, but that cost me the possibility of officially entering the RN program this spring. The good news is that I'm still able to take courses that I would have had to take for my degree. Perhaps that will allow me to work as a CNA while I'm in nursing school.

That is the other side - that I am going to start looking for work. Hopefully, I'll be able to find something close to home, but we'll see! Wish me luck!