This might have be Thursday, April 26th
Good morning. This is me. We’re pretty happy this morning and in about 15 minutes we’ll go snuggle with Sweetie Pie. Hmm, just heard him cough … I hope that he’s not waken up yet. We haven’t been doing too much of anything. I went to school, but we found that our email was messed up so that we couldn’t respond back to a woman who has been writing a little. Her name is Barbara. We tried to find help, but that didn’t work. We’ll try again later in the morning. We posted had our breakfast and that’s about it. We’re going to try and avoid a countdown for being able to jump in with Sweetie.
We took a few moments to read over our writing work from yesterday. I hate to sound boastful, but I kind of liked it. Not that it had overwhelming value on world peace or anything, but it was just kinda nice. *Giggle* I felt at home with the author.
Hmm, just got done with some banking things. I think I can take $1,700 out to pay Rich. He would like cash, so we should go to the bank today. I don’t know if we have to go in the bank, or whether, we can just take money out of the account from the car teller. That would be the easier of the two, I suppose, but I’m not sure if they allow that much out … better go in. And, remember our identification. Sure was nice having that sit there though. There was a feeling of being in control – or driving the car. I wasn’t worried about little bumps as much because we were backed up. We will work it up. We did talk to Rich the other day about making rent payments. Even though we’d been against charging him, there was this other part that was saying … hmm, this could be a possible income source. And, we sure like the extra money to be doing some fun stuff, or being able to give to the boys. It makes me feel like a million dollars to hand $100 over to Joe. Hmm, better get $1,800 out of the bank to cover that too. I think that leaves about $400 in there I think there is a car insurance bill, a payment to Dr. Marvin and maybe one more $50 that hasn’t gone through yet. We’ll have to see. It should leave me with $100-150.
Hmm, maybe today is the day we get the new cell phone. We checked on-line yesterday for the manual, but it seemed awfully long to read without having the phone to be checking out what it was saying … figured we better wait on that a bit. Hmm, I see somehow Missy found a place from the outside of our forearm to be laying … YEEKS!
Forgot about our friend only 5 minutes shoot!
Pshwoo. That was a tough job but someone’s got to do it. First, you gotta let his body know that you are there which means he has to scruntch over a few inches. Then he goes hhhuh and stuff like that just barely inaudible and then it is just a progress for 15-20 minutes where the sounds and movements eventually become more dedicated to pulling the whole machinery forward. I’m umm thinking the back rub is working … not sure, maybe I’m just going in the wrong direction? No, can’t be back rub is like essential.
Hmm, we just had a getting up malfunction. He wandered in and out of the bathroom and toward the kitchen, but he wasn’t truly dedicated to the cause I think. Cuz somehow or another we found ourselves back in the bedroom, he was sitting down on the bed, and we were giving another encouraging rub. I won’t tell you what was happening yet, but it sounded sort of like he was getting snorkeled up. Hehehe, he’s so silly … Well, one way or another it’s about 6 am now and he’s in the shower. Good Boy!
Ohoh … where are THOSE coming from. I sure hope I don’t got what he has! Ahhh,
Missy is doing her best to get the whole household up. Chief … he’s a little different … I expect him about the time we get to the kitchen table. He’ll want to lay down with us. Hmm, this is unusual … twice now Missy has laid down on the outside of my right arm and rested her head on our forearm as we are typing. I would think that’s sort of uncomfortable because of our bouncing, but she seems ok.
She might be too tired to negotiate getting me to move that cup. Silly kitty. Hmm, her eyes are sorta up and sorta closed. I think she’s listening to Rich in the bathroom. He’s moved out of the shower now. She seems distracted almost like Lordy … what am I supposed to be doing now? Her schedules are all messed up.
Well, we trust Rich is going to come out of the washroom all energized and such. I can’t believe he stays tired too long, because he will want to get some business done. Well, if that doesn’t work, we may have to try sexing him again … I know that gets things started right away hehehe. Well, maybe we’ll let him be, but it sure give me an extra little kick! He said that he will be taking care of a lot of personal things today. I think he might have a meeting up north, but that he will be meeting his son and they will be car shopping. He also has to pick up the paperwork from the lawyers toward his divorce. I’m thinking that he’ll be more ok now that his son is with him. Rich could never stop giving to his kids for a million jillion years. That’s pretty darn cool. In my marriage, my ex hadn’t wanted to spend on anything, that was a hard thing for me to understand more afterward, I think. This last week with that little money spent … I figured wow this is top living … even though I know that I was budgeting from my head dollar for dollar. When I wrote the email to Rich, which was then again taken back … it was instrumental that I be able to continue purchasing quality, not just the cheapest thing being made. That’s always been a good feeling thing to us.
WooHoo Sweetie Pie’s out of the shower!!! BRB
*Sigh* That was nice. We just sat down with Sweetie Pie for about an hour … it’s 7:15 am now. He had opened up his computer and started taking care of business … at first, he was letting me know what he was reading, or needing to accomplish, but as he went on, he was giving me less and less information. So, he might start a sentence and then fade off and start something different without telling me how the last had gone. The result is the slow gentle sound of his periodic speech was putting me asleep. Figured I better not do it that way. So, here we are again.
Beside getting him coffee, we really weren’t doing too much productive. The secret here would be to convert our energy into something appropriate.
Hmm, that was a good idea! We went back to school and then wrote Barbara an email from her Yahoo account. Hopefully, it will be ok if we write to that one. I’m going to have to fix the other though, because I need to receive and send periodic emails to the professor. I think it has to do something with Java Plug-in’s … but, in this area, I’m no good. Maybe it would help to read a couple of the last paper … really, it is lack of nerve that holds one back … I can do it if we can get in there.
Oh man … that was a little scary … we had already done the research, but couldn’t find it in our word docs, then we found it in our saved AOL email. Good, good … let’s make short order of this. I have to concentrate, I did get a communication back from the professor and she said, 250-500 words would be sufficient. So, we are going to try to be more succinct. At max, that would be like about a page long single spaced. Ok, let me try doing the paper now.
BEGIN PAPER HERE …
I have just stepped on a nail and a series of events is going to take place in short milliseconds. We are going to feel the pain and that pain is part of a warning system that tells us that we need to “withdraw from harmful stimuli” (pain, Encyclopedia Britannia, 2007). Our response to the painful stimuli might be affected by “social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and genetic factors, among others.” I recall watching movies where Native Americans or people from Africa go through rituals where pain is induced as requirements for maturity or spiritualism.
There was one film watched and remembered from 30 years ago, where the Native American culture attached large bird claws to the chest region and the participant laid back from a post similar to a May Pole and spun until he achieved an altered state of consciousness. Certainly, somebody from this culture would react differently to stepping on a protruding nail than if I had. And, due to my diabetes
and foot sensitivity, I might respond differently than another learner.
In general, we all have “pain receptors located in the skin and other tissues” and for acute pain like that of a mechanical puncture, two affects take place one through primary nerve fibers and the second through the electrical impulses we receive along nerve tracks to the spinal cord (physiology of pain, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007). The “A delta” fibers are the bigger and quicker fibers that cause a faster impulse and those impulses synapse on the “dorsal horn neurons in the spinal cord (2007). One set of pathways from there goes to the brainstem and thalamus, which makes us conscious of the pain and the other goes through the spinoreticular tract, which promotes an arousal and sets the scene for an emotional response (2007). The spinothalamic tract also carries pain impulses ending in the reticular formation of the medulla oblongata and pons also affects aspects of the temporal and spatial regions (nervous system, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007).
The effectors are bodily organs that “become active in response to stimulation,” (effector, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, 2002), so in this case it might seem that the thalamus, medulla oblongata and pons fit this description. The receptors are “a cell or group of cells that receives stimuli” (receptor, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 2002), so that it would seem that the A delta fibers carrying synapses to the spinal cord would fit this description. Pain receptors are nerve fibres located in the skin and other tissues and can be excited by mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimuli and assist in releasing serotonin and histamine (Physiology of pain, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007).
Another affect of stepping on a nail is that a reflex occurs which is local and causes us to withdrawal from “a sudden noxious stimulation of the skin” and affects the body by a rises in blood pressure, the quicker beating of the heart and respiration, and other sympathetic nervous effects such as the loud vocal sounds such as swearing or howling (human nervous system normal conditions, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007). Neurochemicals or “endorphins” are sent out to act as an analgesic for relief of pain and is activated by stress or shock (physiology of pain, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007). It seems different balances of endorphins is part of why some people react more severely to pain than others.
One last affect of stepping on a nail, which again is an acute pain, is that the skin is affected even by light touch as if the body was questioning anything that might produce reoccurring pain. This is an effect of an over sensitization of continuous impulses being fired and also affects the motor neurons as to the withdrawal reflexes mentioned earlier and will as well affect the cerebral neurons (pathological conditions, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007). It also seems that according to the size and severity of puncture that the dorsal-horn neurons become more or less excitable or hyperexcitable. The hyperexcitability can be then inhibited by tactile stimulation of areas near the puncture (spinal cord, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007), which is why we put pressure or rub the area in question.
In studying pain is that scientists have discovered that pain can be reduced by providing electrical stimulation to the nucleus to the central reticular formation of the medulla. This has been then applied to help stop chronic pain in cancer survivors by implanting electrodes in the brain (nervous system human, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007). Another usage of knowledge in the reduction of pain is found through studies on acupuncture, which can be another form of analgesia because of the transfer of pain by “descending inhibition of neurons of the spinal tract” (2007).
References
effector. (2002). Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved April 20, 2007, from http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com
nervous system, human. ( 2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 20, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-75623
nervous system, human. ( 2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 20, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-75627
nervous system, human. ( 2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 20, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-75629
pain. ( 2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 20, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-5453
pain. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 20, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9058009
receptor. (2002). Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved April 20, 2007, from http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com
posted by Ann Marie @ 5/05/2007 08:32:00 AM
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