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Today I learned about altitude sickness. You can get altitude sickness starting at about 8000 feet. Symptoms include headache, fatigue, dizziness, nausea/vomiting, and swelling in the extremities. Symptoms will usually subside after you have a day or two to adjust to the altitude. In rare cases you can wind up with pulmonary or cerebral edema (fluid in the lungs or brain). High altitude cerebral edema can kill you. If you go up slowly (1000 feet per day) you won't have a problem.

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Wednesday I learned that there are 2 different types of allergy tests you can get done. In one type, you get pin-pricked with little particles of different allergens to see which one(s) you react to. In the other, you get these big strips pasted onto your back. The strips have like 20 of the most common allergens on them, and you leave them on for two days (gross) and then get them removed and the doctor sees what things you are allergic to. I do not like the sound of either of these.

Thursday I learned that the wish bone on a turkey is actually called the furcula. It is part of the sternum/clavicle region and it helps support the wings in flight. I like to break the wish bone because I am superstitious about wishes, but I don't like to do it because I am terrified of bones breaking. This year I did not get to break the wish bone, and I also did not get my birthday wish on my birthday cake. This may be a bad year.

Today I learned what sweet potato pie tastes like. It tastes mostly like pumpkin pie, but a lot less gross.

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Today I learned about conjoined twins. I had always heard that conjoined twins form when the embryo doesn't separate fully, but apparently there is also a theory that the twins form after the embryo has already separated; the cells seek out like cells to join to, and sometimes instead of finding cells in the same body, they find cells in the other twin and the two become fused. I know this theory is not as accepted as the first, but I don't know if it's like plausible or if anybody halfway intelligent dismisses it entirely. To me, though, it doesn't seem that likely. I mean, why wouldn't you ever have conjoined twins where, say, the head of one twin is growing out the back of the other? Or what prevents non-identical twins from becoming fused in the same way? Maybe the cells that find each other have to be almost identical--they have to come from the same body part or have the same DNA or whatever. I don't know. I'm not a scientist.

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So sleepy....must blog...

I learned about Prednisone today. It is a synthetic corticosteroid drug that can used to be treat autoimmune disorders, inflammatory diseases, and organ rejection. Side effects can include hyperactivity, upset stomach, and infections. Also it tastes really bad.

Twenty five

Today I learned about clumsiness. I was wondering (FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON) what, physiologically speaking, makes a person be clumsy, and so naturally I looked up "clumsiness" on Wikipedia. This sends you to articles on dyspraxia and motor skills disorder. Basically, clumsiness is rooted in disrupted neurological connections in the brain and/or problems with the inner ear. Clumsy people have trouble planning out the sequence of movements they will need to carry out OR actually carrying out those movements after they've been planned. You can have problems with speech, fine motor control, and/or whole body coordination.

Dyspraxia often comes along with some other symptoms or disorders. Dyspraxic people often have an increased or skewed tactile sense which makes them more likely to be bothered by, for example, uncomfortable clothing. There also tends to be overlap with dyslexia, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders. I would have liked to use the word "comorbidity" in there somewhere just because I used to really like it back in my Psych days.

Obviously there are other muscular/motor/CNS type disorders that would result in clumsiness--ie, you drop things a lot because your muscles have been weakened from MS. That's sort of secondary rather than primary clumsiness though, I think.

I didn't come across anything personally enlightening. Those motor disorders don't apply to me, I don't think. I walked early, talked early, didn't have any physical problems at all, really. I have just turned into a spaz somewhere along the way. I'm probably not careful enough. Somebody get me a bubble!

Three

Today I learned about vasovagal syncope. On last week's Scrubs, we find out that JD has this disorder, which results in him fainting whenever he poos. Hee! I myself am a fainter but have not had the misfortune of fainting on the can. My fainting spells have occured during a worm dissection, after getting an ear infection poked at by my doctor, after getting my pre-college shots, at the eye doctor, while cleaning the bathroom, and, most recently, while shoveling snow. WTF.

Vasovagal syncope occurs when your blood pressure drops as the result of stress (physical or mental/emotional). Most people don't have this reaction and therefore do not pass out. Lucky bastards. Pooing, peeing, and sometimes even repeated swallowing can stimulate the vagus nerve, which causes this reaction, as seen in our poor Dr. Dorian. I didn't see anywhere if this is hereditary, but I bet it is because my dad does the same as me but even worse.

Fainting is kind of a bitch, for anyone who hasn't experienced it. It's embarrassing, you feel crappy afterward, you can really get hurt if you're standing up when it happens (ie cracking your head on a desk on the way down), and I personally have a tendency to twitch and flail while I'm out...this past time I bit my lip pretty damn hard. On the upside, I have rad dreams while unconscious and also you can get out of school early if you conk out in front of your whole science class. Score!