head: Running Lenas Body
Taking a Voyage into Lenas Body
Timotheous Thomas
Kaplan University
HS 130 Section-01
Unit 4 Assignment
13 November 2011
Taking a Voyage into Lenas Body
Today my Son (Devin) and his classmates had a trip that has been planned by their
science teacher. I went along as a chaperone and a tour guide as a healthcare professional to
teach my son and his class how science and anatomy mix. We went to a scientific laboratory
that specializes in exploratory surgery of the human body. There is a new procedure that allows
us to insert a little capsule sized (8 microns long) camera into an artery or vein and travel
through the body like a cell or s submarine, at the same time we were in a room that controls
every part of this capsule as it migrates from the right femur and comes out through the nose.
There was a 360 degree vortex surrounding us that showed us all of the elements in the body
that we came in contact with. This trip reminded me of the Magic school bus episode where
they shrunk the bus and went into the bloodstream. This was a perfect opportunity to combine
science and biology. Strap up as we go for a ride, Im going to share with you turn by turn
recap of the Voyage. First we will start at the entry point, the femoral vein:
Me: Hold on guys here we go.
Devin: Wow! Whats that?
Me: Devin that is the entry point, an incision that leads us to the femoral vein. Do you notice
how there are granules around the area?
Devin and Class: Yes!
Me: The body has already begun the healing process. We better hurry up and get in here before
we are shut out. Hold On! As you guys can see, we are being sucked up into the inferior vena
cava.
Class: cool!
Devin: Dad, what are those structures that seem to be squeezing things through them.
Me: Son those are the Small and large intestines. The small intestine is a tube that leads into the
large intestine. The small intestine is chambered into three different portions: The duodenum,
jejunum and the ileum (yahoo, 2009). The large intestine leads into the colon and thats where
the poop comes out.
All of the kids: Yuck, thats nasty!
Me: Now as we head up, that pouch that you see is the stomach. The stomach is a muscular
organ that mash and chop the food up that we eat. Can you guys feel the rocking and pushing?
Class: Yeah!
Me: Thats digestion. Next we will be going by the liver, this is where bile, blood plasma, and
glycogen is made and processed. The even liver processes medications that we take (Lucille,
2011).
Kids: Whats that loud drumming?
Me: Those are the heartbeats. We are heading into the AV valve. The AV valve takes us into
the right atrium.
Devin: What is the right atrium?
Me: The right atrium is a vessel that takes the oxygen starved blood from the rest of the body
(except the lungs). Next, we will be heading into pulmonary artery and down into the lungs.
As we all headed into the lungs, suddenly sirens start to sound loudly. There seems to be some
type of bacterium in the lower right lobe of the lung. The lungs start to react to the strange
particles and we start to rock and are violently tossed up and around. Many types of whiteblood cells start to form. These are the bodys natural fighters that include neutrophils,
phagocytes, and monocytes (Thibodeau and Patton, 2009). These cells begin to look at
everything that is not of the body like trouble makers including us (the capsule). As the wbcs
start to get closer to us we notice that we have been moved up from the lower lobe into the
upper lobe. The wbcs start to close in on us and we have nowhere to go. The kids are very
nervous at this time and they just want to get out. Suddenly we are rescued by a glob of nasty
mucous and we are tossed to the back of the throat. We notice that Lena begins to make a
gurgling sound. Lena starts to cough and sneeze. All of a sudden we launched out through the
nose and the trip is over.
In conclusion; our trip has taught you anatomy and biology at the same time. We started in the
femur, headed up into the inferior vena cava. Next we explored the AV valves and the heart and
shortly thereafter we were in the lungs getting attacked by the bodys fighters. When the body
in whole recognized that it had foreign particles in it we were combined into a glob of mucous
and sneezed out.
References:
Lucille Packard Childrens Hospital, The Anatomy of the Liver. (2011) Retrieved on 10
November, 2011 from:
http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/digest/liverant.html
Patton, K. Thibodeau, G. (2008). Structure and Function of the Body. 13 th Edition. Mosby
Elseiver: St. Louis, MO.
Yahoo.com, (2009). The Small Intestine. Retrieved on 10 November, 2011 from:
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/gray/subjects/subject/248
Web MD, The Stomach (2005-2011). Retrieved on 12 November, 2011 from:
http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/picture-of-the-stomach