Saturday, October 31, 2009

I can't breathe

So I've been getting a lot of grief that I never post anything on my blog. To be honest it's because I have nothing really to write down because the only thing that seems to be preoccupying my time is the pathophysiology class that I've been taking. Although the stuff that I'm learning is interesting to me, I doubt that I could make it appear so. But if you want to hear from me that might be what you are getting. So feel free to skip this next part if you aren't interested.
Have you ever read a really good book/series of books or rented a show on DVD only to find yourself getting lost in the story and loosing touch with reality because you were so consumed with what was going on in the characters lives and, oh my gosh I need to know what happens to Harry Potter in the next chapter I can't put this book down who care if I haven't showered in days they are so close to finding the answers. If you can not relate to this please skip the rest of this paragraph so that I am not further embarassed. If you have experienced this before and just figured it's becasue the story is so compelling and interesting, think again. I now have a strong belief that the loss of one's self in something else correllates more with the ammount of time spent on it, not with the degree to which a plot is considered riviting.
So this past week I've been studying the lungs and the pulmonary system and disease. The tricky thing that I've realized when you are studying the body and disease is not to picture it as a part of the process of your body but as the process of someone elses body, for safety sake distance yourself from the subject. The reason for this can be explained in the fact that this last week as I was studying respiratory rates and pressures and how the pressure in your lungs has to be less than atmospheric pressure to get the oxygen to even pass into the capillaries in your lungs. And the affilliation of the hemoglobin molecules to oxygen has to be higher than it would be for carbon dioxide to even expell the carbon dioxide from your body. And that the respiratory centers of the brain need specific stimuli from the chemo/baroreceptors in your left atrium and aortic arch to make sure that the respiratory rate meets that of the needs of your body. And while I was struggling to understand all this and how it works I realized that I was getting anxious and starting to hyperventillate because how would my body know what to do if my brain didn't understand the concept of breathing and all the mechanics of the action. If I don't learn this and soon I might just die in the next moment. I need to figure out how all this works so that my body will know how to keep on living. Now keep in mind I have been studying this stuff non stop for the past week, to say I was consumed with it would be an understatement. The very fact that my body has been living and breathing on it's own for the past 27 years, with out my knowledge of how it works, didn't even cross my mind.
So what did I learn from school this week: the more you delve into your own education, the more you loose touch with reality.


P.S. Just so you know, I ran a spell check on this and it says everything is fine, which has never happened before and I doubt to be true. Since I don't have the patience to edit my own stuff, I'm going to leave this as it is.