Hirschsprung's and Orotic Acid

*sheepish* Hello all! I've been firmly on vacation the past few weeks and I'm afraid that I've let my blog slide completely. I didn't even put up the pictures from the Rum Factory as promised! Which, by the way, feels much farther in my past than it actually is. The sounds of the ocean and the paper cuts from my notecards seem...faint at the moment. I've reintegrated in my old life all too easily. Although, interestingly enough, even though I'm back to working full time, helping my family pack and move, driving my younger siblings around everywhere and still finding time to get some good reading in and study occasionally I still feel like I'm on vacation compared to my time in term 1. *wry grin* I wonder why that is.

So, to explain the title of this post. I am ridiculously pleased to report that I've already had knowledge that I retained from term 1 pop up in my life. First up is Hirschsprung's. The story is as follows. I was out with my sisters to watch a movie and we met up with some of their friends:

Friend 1: *notices my t-shirt with hospital name on it* Oh, hey, I spend quite a bit of time there as a kid.
Me: "Yeah, most of us in this city have."
Friend 1: "No, *pulls up shirt to show rather large abdominal scar*, I spent a significant amount of time there."
Sister: "Did you have your appendix removed?"
Friend 1: "...along with a bunch of other things."
Me: *thinking that the scar was way to large for an appendectomy* "What did you have?"
Friend 1: "Something called Hirschsprung's. "
Me: *the voices in my head perked up - we know that!!* "Oh, that must have been tough."
Friend 1: "You've heard of it?! Wow. You are the first person ever that I've met that knows what that is."
Me: *grin* "I'm in med school."

Oh. Yeah. And in case any of you were wondering, Hirschsprung's Disease, or congential aganglionic megacolon is a defect in which neural crest cells fail to migrate to parts of the colon and so the areas proximal to the defect become enlarged and so children tend to have to undergo multiple surgeries.

I, sadly, spent most of the movie reviewing embryo in my head and generally being pointless happy that I remembered the disease.

Next up on "I Know That!" is orotic acid. I work in a lab and happened to be around when some people were discussing an organic acid screen. When it was mentioned that there was a large orotic acid peak my biochemistry saturated brain managed to supply me with information. Elevated orotic acid levels, accompanying by high levels of ammonia, would indicate a defect in ornithine transcarbamoylase - the second enzyme in the urea cycle - since the buildup of carbamoyl phosphate would be shuttled in the pyrimidine breakdown pathway and lead to the increased orotic acid. And sure enough, the next phrase was "we don't have an ammonia level on this kid though". ^___^

Yes, yes, I know it's silly to be happy about these moments, but hey! I've only had a few months of med school and I didn't expect any of what I learned to show up so soon.

Although, thus far, no one needing CPR as dropped dead at my feet - a fact for which I'm supremely greatful. >.>'

I don't have any new picutures of Grenada so I leave you with a cute picture of my sister's cat.
Now one free cat with each box!!

Yes, she did actually crawl into the box upon her own accord. >.>'
Listening to: 鉄腕バーディー DECODE 02 op/ed