Semester 3, Week 2, Day 6

I guess my son was really tired last night because he stayed in his bed for the first half of the night and stayed mostly still the rest of the night.  In fact, what little he moved, I didn't even wake up.  I was very tired. I got NO school work done but I did get a lot done around here yesterday.  Both kids ended up taking a nap at the same time. I know, it was a miracle! I went through my closet to see what presents I had for them and took pictures. I bought a second copy of Little Dory Goes Home yesterday but since it was only $4, I'm going to put it in B A Blessing at Christmas and another child can benefit. She can't have it until she's 4 so it will be fine. I'm glad I got pics because there are many toys I want for them and I needed to know which I already bought. I try to buy a birthday present or Christmas present every few paydays so I won't have to find money for those special events.  My son has quite a bit in there. I think his birthday in January is set.  Today I check my licorice tincture. I need to go get some bleach first. My straining towels are all stained and I'm trying to get the stains out. I'll do that in a little while.  I have a lecture at 9am. I got the bulk of my groceries yesterday as well but I wanted to wait until all the bills I was paying cleared so I could get more.  I can't get everything on the list but I made a nice dent.  I'm looking forward to my lecture. Hoping to learn something awesome. Oh, I just realized you readers probably don't know what B A Blessing is.  A few local people put together an organization to help the needy. It is 100% volunteer and no money is exchanged. People post their needs in a Facebook Group and if someone can help them, they arrange to meet and provide those items.  Quite often, it's baby clothes and formula but it can also be work clothes, etc. Many of the people have lost everything in fires, leaving an abusive relationship, floods, etc. I have both donated and received help.  With my first child, my husband had lost his job. I got a lot of clothes for her through the program and maternity pants. I had also bought a lot of duplicate kitchen items over the years because I had not had a kitchen where I could have everything until I got here so I forgot I had this and that so I felt like I was exchanging things instead of just getting aid. "here's some baking dishes, my baby needs clothes" kind of thing. It worked great and I like to help where I can.  Since I no longer go on Facebook, I don't keep track of what's being requested now but I'm broke anyway so it's okay.  LOL Today, i leave you with the post on skin I promised yesterday. have a great day!

The skin is the largest organ in the body and has many different functions.  After watching the videos and resources on the skin, did you know all of the functions that the skin had? What surprised you the most? Which function is the most important in your opinion?

For me, A&P was one of my first 2 classes in my bachelors degree.  It was a struggle because I had been out of school for so long and my daughter was born during that class.  I also didn’t enjoy the pharmaceutical take on things.  I have never found science to be an easy subject but, given how I want to help others, this is the course I have chosen. What I can say is I LOVE these videos!  I have learned more from the videos than I have from the reading because he is so energetic in his delivery and it makes you excited to learn!  I did know all of the functions of the skin (barely) but melanin was interesting.  If I understood correctly, we all have the same amount but the size of the cell changes depending on how much protection from the sun a person needs.  To me, that is just cool! In the reading about the different layers of the skin, I now understand more about mesothelioma and basil-cell carcinoma which my father was afflicted with (as in exactly where these cancers live within the skin layers).  I decided to give a quick look in my books for these two cancers and did not see anything by their name but I did find melanoma which is a skin cancer caused by too much sun exposure and was not surprised to see Lavender as one of the things used in treatment (Worwood 48).  If anyone wants to know the recipe here for an oil to help, let me know.  I thought about posting it here but I think it’s outside the scope of this assignment.

While I have not finished the reading yet, I think the most important function of the skin is how it’s the body’s first line of defense.  It protects against too much sun, disease, viruses, etc.  Of course, there is other ways for such things to enter the body but the skin is generally the first thing to be encountered.  I did a quick search on Google Scholar, knowing a LOT of articles would come up.  While I didn’t look to see of the school has a subscription so I could see the whole article, for the purposes of this assignment I think the article I found in Nature Reviews Immunology did a very concise summation on all the ways the skin helps in this arena.  The first key point they highlight is “Human skin and the immune cells that it contains provide essential protection of the human body from injury and infection.”  The second key point is “Keratinocytes are a first line of defence and sense danger through alert systems such as the inflammasome and Toll-like receptors. They mediate an inflammatory response by secreting pro-inflammatory cytokines.” which is backed up by what I have read so far in our text book.  (I’ll have it all read by the end of the weekend, just difficult reading with a toddler flipping through the pages looking for cartoon animals.)

Nestle, F. O., Di Meglio, P., Qin, JZ., Nickoloff, B. J., (2009). Skin immune sentinels in health and disease. Nature Reviews Immunology volume 9, pages 679–691 (2009) Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/nri2622
Marieb, E. N. & Hoehn, K. (2019) Human Anatomy & Physiology 11th Edition. Pearson.
Worwood, V. A. (1991). The Complete Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy. New World Library. P. 48.