Breaks and Sicknesses

So, it has been a while since I have been able to blog. That's not to say I haven't been active though. I left off talking about my busy Friday ahead. Well, that Friday was BUSY. I attended my first MUSC lab meeting where a college senior, another lab intern, discussed an article. This article discussed how another group of researchers were examining rat behaviors and how strokes affected them. As a collaborative group, the eight of us were thoroughly confused by the article. Eventually, Dr. Adkins was able to figure it out for the most part and tell us the just of it... which I still didn't really understand. It's hard to keep up with the scientists because they all use so much terminology that I don't know yet. It's getting better and better though as I adapt to the "foreign language". Then, after the meeting, I quickly changed into my Roper Scrubs. I worked a couple of hours in labor and delivery where I got to hear numerous fascinating stories. I had never really considered the concept that not all mothers get to keep their babies. Sometimes, the police will come to the hospital with a patient that is currently in jail or else a patient who will deliver the baby will have to give the baby straight to the police because she is not an eligible parent. I did not get to see any exciting deliveries. I was supposed to, but the baby was sitting so high up, but somehow she was "bulging" that they were considering doing a c-section if she did not deliver soon. When I left she was still bulging and very much ready to deliver, but her contractions just weren't consistent enough. After that, I went into school on Monday (my day off) and then had one day in the lab on that Tuesday. Tuesday, I went in and plugged in a lot more data on Excel. That was my last day in the lab though because on Tuesday afternoon I got my wisdom teeth extracted. Thus, Tuesday to Sunday, I was basically on the couch and unable to do much of anything. To say the least, my Thanksgiving break wasn't anything too great. Then, on top of all of that, last night I managed to get a fever, horrible chills, a soar throat, stomach nausea, mouth sourness, and awful congestion. Therefore, I slept through my shift this morning. But I will be going back into the lab tomorrow morning, Thursday, and Friday (to make up my missed shift today). Thus, it has been pretty crazy, but I'll be happy to get back on track!

Friday- Triple

So far, today, I have gone into the lab at MUSC, learned how to use Excel for the data I collected, and started to chart all of the data; it was a bit tedious, but I was able to finish a lot of what she assigned me quickly and efficiently. Once it was time for me to go, Dr. Adkins gave me my article that we will be discussing this afternoon in the lab meeting. I'm a little nervous, but I definitely think it will be a good experience for me to listen in on. After the meeting is over this afternoon, I am working at Roper again. Tonight,  I will be working in Labor and Delivery so I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping someone will be in labor and I won't just have to sit tight. It's not as busy working at night in Labor and Delivery because most of the time the babies are delivered in the morning. Overall, it has been a pretty crazy week with all the scheduling because I have had to do all my usual work plus 2 extra shifts in just two days, Thursday and Friday. Needless to say, it has been worth it because of all the great excitement!

Thursday- Double

Yesterday, Thursday, I went to lunch with Dr. Hamilton (the woman I did my junior internship with) to catch up, to hear about her life as an OB/GYN, and to ask if there would be opportunities for me to work with her again in the near future. It was quite a successful lunch. We covered everything from teenage life to her hectic life to an amusing graphic story showing that her job isn't always tons of fun to about any and everything you can talk about in an hour and 15 minutes. I truly admire her for all of her her hard work and keen work ethic. She handles everything with such poise; she really makes a good role model for me.
The second part of my day, I worked at Roper in the ER for a couple hours. It was another exciting day in ER, like so many are. I heard an interesting story about how a man asked a nurse to print him a map to the slave market in Charleston because he was trying to take his wife to it, so he could get rid of her (the slave market in Charleston is obviously no longer active), I saw an adorable 97 year-old woman who was having heart troubles, I helped clean down and sanitize rooms, I got to see how the psych room operate because there was a patient in there who tried to commit suicide (he also spilt his urinal all over the floor and left skid marks on his sheets... it was gross, but he can't help that he's that sick. It's sad), I talked with the nurse and a patient who most likely had appendicitis, and I saw a woman get a CT scan. I also got to go with nurses when they moved the 97 year-old woman to the cardiology floor. It was such an incredible day. I enjoy working in Roper Hospital and getting to interact with the patients so much; there's always something exciting there.

Cortical Simulation Article

Today, I read an article since I didn't get to go into MUSC. The article was definitely challenging, more so than the others I have read. It talked primarily about "CS" which is the abbreviation for cortical simulation. The doctors tested how CS would and wouldn't affect rats that were severely injured or hardly injured. They realized that it was pretty affective. Stimulating the cortex to help the rat with rehab varied directly. When the rat was severely affected by the stroke, more stimulation was needed and rehab had to be more carefully administered. When the rat was barely affected or injured by the stroke, a lesser amount of stimulation was needed. It also talked a relatively large amount about synaptic plasticity which I found out is "the ability of neurons to change strength". Thus, in rehab and through stimulation, the rat can recover from his or her stroke. So those were the main things I learned from the article. The numbers were another challenge to configure, but with a little patience, I was able to figure them out for the most part. That's basically it for now. I have an exciting few weeks ahead consisting of lots of time at MUSC, some trips to Roper, and a couple of lunch meeting with different doctors.

Article-

Motor cortical stimulation promotes synaptic plasticity and behavioral improvements following sensorimotor cortex lesions

DeAnna L. Adkins a,b,⁎,1, J. Edward Hsu a,1, Theresa A. Jones a,b a Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin, TX 78712, USA
b Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, TX 78712, USA Received 29 August 2007; revised 16 January 2008; accepted 29 January 2008
Available online 20 February 2008 

Double Shift

Today, I had school off so I was about to work a double shift at MUSC. I went in at 10:00 AM and saw research techs train the rats with the reaching rehab. They would stick a banana pellet out and the rat would have to reach for it. After about an hour of watching the research techs do that, Dr. Adkins took the three of us to what she thought was going to be a seminar. It ended up being an informal meeting so after about 15 minutes, she passed one of the research techs a note dismissing from the meeting, advising us to head back to the lab. Thus we walked back to the lab and the research techs went back to training the rats and I watched the behavior videos and collected data for about an hour. Then, the lab manager, Terry Muir, came in and I got to meet him. He worked behind me, sectioning the brains. He told me I could help him do that anytime so that was exciting. Finally, Dr. Adkins returned and I left for lunch with my mom. Tomorrow, I will continue to collect data and hopefully finish my assigned disks. Then, Thursday and Friday, I will be off at Model UN in Virginia for a long weekend!

End of October

This week I collected a lot of data for both Pre OP and Post OP rats. I've gotten much faster at it. I also reviewed the previously mentioned article with Dr. Adkins. We ended up talking about the different parts. I learned that transference is the idea that one learned motor activity can be transferred to another. Soon, I will be learning how to use a program for the data and I will start working some after school. More to come!

ID!