Pee Drinkers

If that title doesn't catch your eye, nothing will... This week is going to look a lot like eat, class, study, eat, class, study, meeting, class, study, eat, sleep (instead of GTL, the med school routine seems to be ECS - eat, class, study although some of my cooler classmates do go to the gym every day!). So instead of writing about class, I will tell you the weirdest / most interesting thing I learned, and then I will update you on cool things as they happen. No more day by day reports, because its going to look like ECS and thats just super boring.

So last week we were discussing birth defects in Genetics and got to talking about sequences. A sequence is a disorder that is caused by an initial problem that then causes other mechanical problems during the course of a fetus's growth / development. Like a small chin will cause a tongue that is too far back and that will cause a cleft palate, etc, etc, etc (aka Pierre-Robin Sequence).

But more interestingly, Potter's Sequence (also - gotta love the name even though the outcome is pretty sad) is when a developing fetus's kidneys don't work properly. Because of the kidney problems, these babies don't urinate enough, (and here's the craziest part) so they don't produce enough amniotic fluid. That's right, amniotic fluid is mostly FETUS PEE! It gets crazier. Because there is too little fluid, the baby isn't protected and becomes smushed (flat face, flat ears, clubbed hand) and the baby doesn't swallow / breathe in enough fluid so their lungs don't develop properly. Thats right, not only do we float around in pee for 9 months, we also DRINK AND BREATHE IT IN to develop our lungs and help with our gastrointestinal tract! I had no idea! I don't know what I thought amniotic fluid was, but I wasn't about to guess that it was part pee! Maybe you won't be as surprised...but it sure is interesting!

I am sad to report that Potters babies don't usually survive. Very sad stuff... I wish my fascination was with something happier.


But anyways, now you know - everyone was at some point a Pee Drinker. And you should be thankful that you drank / inhaled your pee successfully!

So you just learned 2 of the ~80 diseases that were covered in the last two weeks of medical school (I made a list!).

Not to mention those diseases were just quickly touched on while discussing cell components, transcription (DNA --> RNA), translation (RNA --> protein), protein structure, protein-DNA interactions, genetic diseases (Mendelian, non-Mendelian), genetic testing, prenatal screening, birth defects, and more.

But guess what - I FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH LECTURES! Woot!!