Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Student of Scatology

It's a two-post day today, apparently, but I just had to share a few quick things from the day. First, in the morning, we learned about the digestive system, culminating with an hour-lecture on diarrheal diseases (big killer in the third world). A whole hour on diarrhea! I thought I could talk about bodily functions for a long time, but an hour on diarrhea. Awesome. Unfortunately, immediately following the lecture, came lunch.

Second, in the afternoon we learned about the respiratory system, which is my least favorite system as it involves math. Not that I don't like math, I just would rather keep math and science separate. There's only so much brain power up there. Anyway, I was looking at a chart of the different types of respiratory movements including laughing, sobbing, hiccupping, sighing, etc, when I came to the end-- valsalva maneuver-- and yelled to my study group, "There's a name for the breathing you do when you shit?!" Indeed, the valsalva maneuver is the "forced exhalation against a closed rima glottidis as may occur during periods of straining while defecating." Apparently, outside of the TV world, we say "defecate" rather than "shit," as I learned when my table-mate turned to me and said "real classy" after I used the wrong word. I miss TV. Sigh.

Now off to learn about the urinary system. No, seriously.

PS. For a more detailed and hilarious account of the hour on diarrhea, check out my classmate's blog.

(Apparently, the only other person interested in health communications in this class had the same idea to blog about this crazy experience. Brilliant minds...).

1 comment:

Shannon said...

valsalva maneuver... i totally missed that. GAY SEX, on the other hand, i did not miss. shannon