Calling it a day..

Amateur Transplant anyone?

I heard Aimee talking Amira about an "amateur transplant". I knew I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping, but they were loud, and I was curious.

“Hey girls, so what’s an amateur transplant?” I asked innocently.

“It’s a music band,” answered Amira.

I tried to keep a straight face.

That was almost an embarrassing situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZl9tRqjoQ

Feeling chesty..

“Hey Aimee, want have you ever auscultated a wheeze before?” I asked my partner

“Why, do you have a patient I can listen to?” said Aimee in her unmistakeable Irish accent.

I let her listen to my chest with her stethoscope. My asthma was back.

Something in the air

Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by dyspnoea, cough and a wheeze. It has no cure. Drugs ie B₂ agonists plus or minus a steroid are taken to relieve the inflammation in lungs.

In a normal healthy person, exposure to harmless substances such as dust, pollen or mites do not illicit a response of the immune system.

In a hypersensitive individual, the activation of the immunological pathway towards these ‘allergens’ cause the bronchioles to constrict.

In severe asthma, a nebulizer with oxygen is needed. Oral steroids, which have far more long term side effects, are also taken to further suppress the immune response.

Asthma can cause death.

Now that wasn’t really a comprehensive explanation of asthma. I would probably get a C if I wrote something like that for an essay. It has been something that I’ve been living with even more so for the past two years.

Before arriving in Dublin, I had not had an asthmatic episode since I was 11.

Ireland has the 2^nd highest amount of asthma patients in Europe, and the numbers are steadily rising each year.

There is something in the air after all...

At least there’s an excuse to skip class today.