brain, bones and blood

I’m going through my nursing reading (I have a lot to catch up on and I have  a test tomorrow) and I’m finding some  possibly interesting elements to include in a story. Now, I know that this is probably not what you want to see after I’ve disappeared for a week but it’ll have to do for now. I’ll try to get some more posts written soon.

1. Seizures. Although TV almost always shows seizures as these events where a person is shaking constantly and such, they aren’t all like that. In some seizures (called absence seizures) the person is merely staring off into space and look like they are daydreaming. In another type, called atonic seizures, the person loses all muscle tone and falls.

2. Meningitis. BActerial meningitis is the most serious, although there is viral and fungal meningitis  as well. Basically, bacterial meningitis occurs most frequently in areas where lots of people live in small crowded  spaces, like dorms, army barracks, ect. This infection has decreased due to a vaccine.

3. Tongue piercing. Sounds strange, but they have been attributed to infections, including meningitis.

4. Heart Stopping: The heart can continue beating even if the atria stops, and unless this person was hooked up to a heart moniter, few people would realize it even happened. (80% of blood diffuses out of the heart just because of pressure differences.)

5. Problems with No Gravity:  Long bones need weight bearing to stimulate red blood cell production. If red blood cells aren’t produced, the person will have anemia. (Iron deficient anemia actually.) (Reason why I’m saying this is that a completely weightless environment would force the person to take iron pills.)

6. Phantom limb pain: Sounds awesome, the idea that an amputee will experience pain on the effected extremity when it isn’t there. However, this is most common in patients with chronic limb pain (before the surgery happened) and is rare in those who had traumatic amputations.  Also, it’s more common after an above the knee amputation. Pain is triggered by touching the residual limb (stump) or by temperature or barometric pressure changes, concurrent ilnesses, fatigue, anxiety or stress or urination. In some cases of severe chronic pain, the phantom limb pain can be triggered by almost anything.

7.  Saving body parts: I’ve always heard that if you cut off a part of your body, put it on ice because they might save it enough to replace it. However, if you cut off a finger, you don’t just drop it in a cup of ice water to save it. You actually want to put it in a watertight bag, then put it on ice (1 part ice, three parts water specifically). If the finger gets in contact with water, it could damage the finger whihc would result in the people at the ER not putting it back on.

I actually just learned a bunch of stuff about amputation which I might share in another post. No, I’m not some morbid person. I have a character that got his arm cut off before the story. You’ll see.