Day 6- Cancer- 12/11/2014

Hello, people. How are you doing today? I'm Nate ,and this is Med Ed. The only blog where you can learn to save a life in a few clicks and some of your time. Today, I chose something I found interesting and important. We are learning about cancer. I feel like people just aren't educated. Most people I know just use it for an excuse to wear pink, as if breast cancer is the only one. Anyway, grab your snacks, and let's dive straight in.
13,000,000 Americans are diagnosed with cancer, with the number growing by 1,000,000 a year. Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. It develops when the body's normal control mechanism stops working. Old, worn out cells don't die and it grows out of control, forming new, abnormal cells.
The types of cancer fall into 5 main categories. Carcinoma is the first one. It consists of cancers that start in the skin or tissue around the organs. There are a number of subtypes, including adenocarcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and transitional cell carcinoma. Sarcoma is the second one. It includes cancer started in the bone, fat, muscle, cartilage, blood vessels, and other supportive tissue.
Third is the leukemia. This type happens when cancer affects bone marrow and other blood forming tissue. It causes large numbers of abnormal blood cells to be produced and enter the blood.  Fourth is lymphoma and myeloma. Its cancer that starts in the immune system. Finally, there's central nervous system cancer. It's fairly self explanatory.
That's all she wrote for today. I'll see you later for another installment of Med Ed. This one is going to be another request.

Day 5- Open Heart Surgery- 12/9/2014

Hello Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Med Ed. The only shoe where you can learn to save a life with a few clicks and some of your time. Today, as requested by my friend, Tripp, we are taking it up a few levels. Open heart surgery everyone. So, get you dictionaries out and lets get learning.
Open Heart surgery is any type of surgery where the chest is cut open and surgery is done on the muscles, arteries, or valves of the heart. The most common type is called coronary artery bypass grafting. It's when you take a healthy vein or artery is grafted onto to a blocked coronary to bypass the blockage. Open heart surgery is often called "traditional heart surgery" because now er days, most docs use small incisions.
I know what your asking, "If I don't have to e get my entire chest taken out, why would I?" That is a good question. It is used for patients with coronary heart disease. This occurs when arteries and veins that carry blood and oxygen become hard and narrow. This is commonly called "hardening of the arteries." CHD is also caused when fatty material builds up against the walls of a vein or artery, occasionally leading to heart attacks. This is why over weight individuals are more at risk to heart attack than the average person.
How do you do such a gross looking and dangerous thing you may be asking yourself. Simple:

1. Load the patient with anesthesia
2. Make an 8-10 inch cut in the chest.
3. Cut through the breast bone to reveal the heart.
4. Connect the patient to a heart-lung bypass machine. This machine moves blood from the heart so the surgery can begin. 
5. Graft the healthy part onto the patient's blocked vein or artery.
6. Close the breast bone with a wire, leaving the wire inside.
7. Stitch up the cut in the chest.

Easy as pie. It isn't all fun and games though. There are a few risks involved. For example, chest infection, heart attack, stroke, irregular heart beat, lung failure, kidney failure, chest pain, low fever, memory loss, blood clot, blood loss, and breathing difficulty. This topic really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It really is quite interesting. That's all I have for today, but I will be back in a bit with a new topic. Audios.

Day 4- First Aid 3- 12/8/2014

Welcome people of the internet. My name is Nate, and this is Med Ed. The show where you can save a life with a few clicks and some of your time. How you guys doing? Anyway, today is the last part of the first aid series where I'll be covering the stuff I missed.

• EpiPen- Say you have a friend with a reaction to bees. You follow? Good. So, this friend gets stung. What do you do? They should have an EpiPen if they aren't stupid so I'll teach you how to use it.  EpiPens have a mix of a chemical called epinephrine and an agent that loosens the throat. DON'T STAB YOURSELF. You will be injured... terribly. The EpiPen should have a cap on it, so take it off. Stab the patient with the needle aiming for the middle of the thigh. Make sure there are no pocket items in the way. 
•  CPR- For CPR, the rules change a lot, and I mean a lot. I find best not to mention what the rules of it are in case they change. I suggest looking it up. As far as defibrillators go, the AED device should instruct you what to do in a loud, obnoxious voice. You are not trained for real ones. Take any clothes off in between pad A and pad B while still preserving privacy. If someone has a band that says, "Do not defibrillate", they can sue you if you save their lives... yeah.
• Finally, we come to the topic of... infections. Everyone's favorite thing. Since it is such an expansive and *interesting* topic, I'll just give you the link. http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/injuries_and_poisoning/first_aid/wounds.html

Information

          20% Time Project Proposal

Name: Nate Levy

Project Title: Med Ed.

Project Start Date: 11/7/2014

Project Completion Date: 5/15/15

Mentor’s Name: Mrs. Browning, the editors at Medical News Today, a friend of mine named Will, and my uncle

Brief Description: Explore the world of medical science, learning the ropes one step at a time. 

Overview of Project Proposal

1) Project Objective: My objective for Med Ed. is the skills needed to be known in the profession of being a doctor. Each post is a tutorial for a useful skill, as far as dealing with injuries goes. I really want to create a blog that’s worth-while to read, yet, educational at the same time for both me and the readers.

2) Project Rationale: I wanted to do this project because my goal in life is to accept a career in the division in medical sciences or biology. I figured that by helping myself, I can also help the people out there with the same goals of mine. It’s also a very fun and rewarding activity.

3) Project Steps:

1. Create a blog

2. Write an introduction

3. Do research and decide on a topic to tackle that week

4. Write the post keeping to my topic while adding fun commentary

5. Slowly learn and educate on this profession

4) Timeline of Activities:

November 7- Created a blog and wrote the introduction

November 10- Wrote my first real post discussing first aid for harsh conditions

November 14- Wrote my second post in the first aid series discussing broken bones

November 19- Wrote my third post in the first aid series discussing anything I may have missed.

5) Available Human and Material Resources: Available human resources are any doctors, a few friends of mine, and my uncle. Materials are Medical News Today, the book, Basic Human Biology, and anything else I can scrape up on the internet.

6) Possible Road Blocks: Possible road blocks include a lack of topics, a lack of inspiration, and some of this stuff may be complicated.

7) Research Questions:

1. What do you do in the case of broken bones? Answered

2. How do brain surgeons work?

3. How do heart surgeons work?

4. What are some of the important medical supplies needed?

5. How many weeks will it take to cover half of this material?

Day 3- First Aid 2- 11/14/2014

Welcome, future doctors of America or any where you live. My name is Nate, and welcome back to Med Ed, the blog that can teach you how to save a life in a few clicks and some of your time. How's everyone doing? Anyway, welcome to first aid part 2, broken bones. This post is brought to you by little dots. Little dots, making papers organized since forever.

• First up is an ankle or wrist. If your patient has just fallen down a hill and twisted an ankle, here's what to do. If you are close to society, help them to a place to rest, ice the wound, and get some help. Notice, if you are out in the woods or something, do not take off their shoe as the foot will not fit back into it, giving them half the walking speed and double the effort. For wrists, use a sling. Tie it behind their neck and give the arm and wrist some support. They should be good from there. Remember to also ice it. 
• Second, we're taking on the back and neck. If your patient is taken a tumble down the stairs, here's what you have to do. First of all, don't move the injured person. Moving them risks further injury to the back or neck. Call 911. There's no way for you to help them anymore besides get them out of danger.
• Third of our first aid for broken bones list is ribs. Mr. Patient fell of a small cliff onto a rock shattering his ribs. What do you do? Tell them to keep breathing even if it hurts. If they don't, they could get pneumonia in the long run. After which, get help. 911 is a good place to check. They usually squeeze life threatening injuries into their schedule. Also, they may suffer from internal bleeding. You can't do much about that, though.
• Finally, we come to legs. Straighten the fracture out and splint it. Call for help.    

Day 2- First Aid- 11/10/2014

Welcome, welcome, welcome ladies and gents, to Med Ed. The blog where you can learn how to save a life with a simple click and some of your time. It turns out that pre med is a real pain in the wallet, and I'm to young to have a job. Instead, I figured I could go with plan B. Learn about the world of being a doctor. Today, I figured we'd go in a nice, easy direction that won't be too, too hard... First Aid. First Aid isn't just important for any future medical genius to know, it's all about being prepared. This isn't necessarily the most "direct subject" ,so I'll take it a few steps at a time on different days, today we have the harsh environments of the ever so cruel mother nature. Harsh environments If your patient is out there in the cold and is looking a little blue, he needs some help. Cold sweats, discoloration of the skin, and extreme shivering are what you should be looking for in the cases of hypothermia and frost bite. Don't just throw them into the hot tub. They need to warm up slowly to reduce shock. When enough of the blood from affected body parts freezes, it will turn blackish. These body parts are most likely dead. They might need to be amputated, but for the sake of all things holy don't do it yourself. If your patient is sweating like a pig after a relaxing walk through the desert, he needs some help. As far as conditions such as hyperthermia or heat stroke, you should be looking for things like a lack of sweat, dizziness, puking, and cramping. They need to sit in the shade and slowly drink a cool, COOL, not frozen, glass of water. Not many people understand that. Again, shock is a bad thing. Don't throw them in the neighbor's pool either. First, they might go into shock, and second, it's against the law. Now, stay safe and lawful ,and I'll see you next time on... Med Ed!!! With Nate.

Day 1- The Beggining- 11/7/2014

Well, today I'm starting a 20% project. I, Nate Levy, have the goal of taking a pre-pre med course (or learn as much about being a doctor as possible) while offering funny and entertaining commentary. Anyway, me, wanting to be a doctor, will be on the epic journey to becoming a genetically modified turtle... or I could be a doctor I guess. Listen, I'll make a deal with you. I'll give out free money because why not? Money is amazing... and really has nothing to do with being Dr. Levy PhD. Obviously, I need to focus. Who cares, thought I haven't even started yet and I'm basically trying to stall and steal your time like a metaphorical robber. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, I proudly present you with  the presentation of... MED ED!!! Now in color!!!