I'm in renal module - physiology and diseases of the kidney, acid/base balance in the body, genitourinary system, and some other fun stuff. I LOVE the kidney. I have Dr. Paul Heideman to thank for that. His animal physiology class back in 1998 (Oh, dear; has it been THAT long? Renal physiology has probably CHANGED since then!) got me thinking about kidneys. I actually remember explaining renal function to Richie when we met because I was so excited about it. That's weird. But Dr. Heideman loves physiology as well as the process of teaching/learning so much that he made animals' nitrogen excretion quite compelling. That was a great class. It was the first class that got me thinking that maybe I LOVE PHYSIOLOGY. And I do. I actually STILL do.
The kidney contains about two dozen plot twists and quiet ingenuities. So cool. AND, now I've held a kidney in my hands. We cut it in half so we could see the renal pyramids, the cortex, the medulla, all the vasculature, and the calyces. It's as discreet and tidy as you can imagine. Who could think that something so small gets an amazing 20% of our cardiac output? Without kidneys, we're toast, and sadly I knew only the vaguest of information about them before animal phys. Oh, I knew that they are more or less where urine comes from. Otherwise, my only information was that: a) you could allegedly awake in a tub of ice with your kidneys missing, the victim of the black market organ trade, and b) it hurts to get punched there (I owe this knowledge to Pete, who thankfully never gave me the dreaded Kidney Punch, but who referred to it enough that I knew it was mystically disabling).
Anyway, I'd like to give a little primer of kidney function, but I'm afraid I'd fall miserably short. I would be telling a story with incessant diversions. I will say only the following: It keeps your body cleared of stuff you don't need, keeps your blood pressure steady, keeps you in acid/base balance (which keeps you alive), and performs a number of other important functions such as regulating the number of red blood cells you make and your vitamin D levels. It's truly AWESOME, and that's without mentioning anything about countercurrent exchange mechanisms, filtration, secretion, urea cycling, tubuloglomerular feedback, or any of the kidney's other tricks of the trade. I am shocked it all fits into these two modestly-sized bean-shaped organs.
Ahhh. And it's summertime, so the windows are open and I get to sleep at a balmy 80 degrees. No cold feet. No goosebumps. Ice in my water. Outdoor sounds (which presently include the sound of hair-drying, I think). The girls and Richie have been going to the pool every day. Usually I use the time to study since I know they're all happy without me, but today I went swimming with them. So fun! Mazie can swim completely unassisted in the deep end. She's not freestyling yet, but she's proficient at underwater swimming. Vivian is more of a tadpole right now. She's getting the hang of it, but she tuckers out too easily to be left alone in the deep end. She can toodle around the edge of the pool and make it across the deep end if given a shove at the outset. But they both love it (Richie, too!). We do underwater teaparties and Attack Daddy and touch the bottom of the deep end together and all sorts of fun things. I was glad I went today.
