Tetralogy of Fallot

One of the most interesting things I've got to do is intern at my local hospital in a cardiovascular lab. To me, the cardiovascular system is simply phenomenal; from studying it in anatomy and exercise physiology class and seeing it in the “real world”, the way that the cardiovascular system functions and works is breath taking to me. I actually was able to see an open heart surgery recently and it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. People always want to go see “breath taking” sights: the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the Aurora Borealis; if you want to see something that will take your breath away, look no further than the human body.
I’ve come across my fair share of interesting cardiac diseases while working in the hospital. One of the most interesting to me is called Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). TOF isn’t just single disease, though. Instead, it is four congenital dysfunctions compacted into one: ventricular septal defect, overriding aorta, pulmonary stenosis, and right ventricular hypertrophy. The fact that a child can even survive being born with so much wrong with their heart is astounding, not to mention the fact that we have the ability to surgically fix that many defects. Children’s Hospital of Boston boasts a 92% surgical success rate if performed within the first thirty days of a child’s life, and a 99% surgical success rate if performed after the first thirty days.

TOF is the most common cyanotic heart defect known. This should come without surprise, as the ventricular septic defect and the overriding aorta would cause oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to mix, pulmonary stenosis making it harder for blood to get to the lungs to become oxygenated, and the right ventricular hypertrophy being caused by blood not flowing properly to the lungs. With so much mixing of deoxygenated blood and difficulty getting blood into the lungs, it shouldn’t be a revelation that the child isn’t getting enough oxygenated blood to their body. Thus, one of the tell-tale signs (as the baby’s patent ductus arteriosus closes) is a bluish tint to the skin.

But while those are the most common defects, there are a laundry list (up to nine others are currently known) of other abnormalities that may occur. A baby can survive this and we are able to repair it. Look no further than the human body.

Other symptoms include those seen with respiratory distress, having a higher chance at facial abnormalities, as well as symptoms from the four (or more) defects that makes up TOF.

But can anyone lead a normal life if they’re cursed by Fallot? Sure it may be repairable, but being repaired and living life are two different things. But you can do more than just lead a normal life, you can excel at it, even become the best. A man who has achieved more with a heart defect than most do without, Shaun White is perhaps the most famous person alive with TOF. With gold medals from the Olympics, winning over ten times in the X games, winning the United States open championship four times in the United States open championship, winning the gold medal in the World Cup three times, and many more feats, Shaun proves that this heart defect doesn't stop you from anything.

Look no further than the human body.

Resources:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/heartdefects/tetralogyoffallot.html
http://www.childrenshospital.org/health-topics/conditions/tetralogy-of-fallot-tof-tet
http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/t/tof/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetralogy_of_Fallot
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tetralogy-of-fallot/basics/definition/con-20043262
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/tof/#
http://www.teamusa.org/Athletes/WH/Shaun-White

Crossed Stars - A Fault in our Stars thoughts

I can’t say I know what it is like to have a chronic disease. A Fault in our Stars gave me a glimpse of being your diagnosis, living with it as part of you every day, instead of just having the disease. You aren’t John with the flu, but Cancer Patient John. The disease came first, while you as a person came second. People fight for cancer. I know I do. But I’ve never stopped to think about who the person was behind the diagnosis. The struggle that has to come with that every day has to be staggering; it’s hard to even wrap my head around at this point.

I’ve been extremely lucky. I remember being at an event where the speaker asked people who know what cancer is to stand up. All 800+ people stood up. When asked to continue standing if they knew someone who had cancer, maybe 5 people sat down. He then asked for us to continue standing if we had known someone who had passed away from cancer. I was able to sit down… but I was the exception.
What this book really captured to me, though, was the finality of death. This is where I’m not so lucky. I’ve been to more funerals than births. Brothers, grandparents, family members, childhood friends, more. And you find yourself wishing you could reminisce with them afterwards, to tell them how you feel, what you feel. But you can’t. They aren’t there. You want to have just one more laugh, just one more story, just one more look. But you can’t.

You want to just let them know how you felt about them, but you can’t.

It’s one of the things I do as a normal part of my life, to always let people know how awesome they are and what they mean to me. Not just best friends, but people who have impacted my life in a positive way. Someone recently told me that I always saw the best in people and that is exactly what I try to do; it meant a lot to me to hear that. People deserve to get the flowers while they can still smell them. That’s my challenge to those of you still reading: let people know how much they mean to you or how phenomenal they are. You won’t always have that opportunity.

So. If you’re looking for a book that will make you rethink illness, understand death, appreciate love, and impact the way you live your life, I would recommend reading A Fault in our Stars. Truly a phenomenal book.

The Color of Leadership

I attended my university’s leadership program a few weeks ago. It was a really good experience; definitely one of the better leadership conferences that I’ve been to. There were three breakout sessions, each with a few different seminars during them. The first one was the best: True Color Leadership.

I’ve taken leadership “tests” before. They all seemed so general and generic that it was basically worthless to me. What is the point if three other leadership styles share eight out of nine of the same characteristics that I do? Each profile is so generic, how am I even supposed to apply it? This was all changed when I found out my “color.”

But before I go on, I would take the test if I were you. Like the directions suggest, getting a general feeling of the kind of person each letter would be works wonders.

Got yourself all tallied up?

Time to figure out your color. 

Personally, green was my highest, closely followed by blue. Orange and yellow lagged far behind and were in the single digits. I think that that combination almost perfectly describes my personality: innovative, value intelligence and competence, sincere, personal, etc.

So how do you use this to your advantage? Run with your strengths and traits. Are you primarily blue? Then focusing your efforts on personal relationships with other people will give you a great return on both time invested and the results. Orange? Work on developing a culture in your organization, whether that be a fraternity, the work place, or with your family.

Knowing your weaknesses is just as important as knowing your strengths. If you are heavily orange, don’t get a career that is nothing but structure and routine. I would never let it limit you (Who says a green can’t be more loyal than a gold?) but definitely use it to find your strengths and play to those. I think you can make your own inferences on how to apply your “color” characteristics to any area of your life.

You Gotta Know How to Move!

This post is all about planes of movement (Frontal, Sagittal, Transverse/Horizontal). This is a fundamental concept. It was introduced to me in my introduction to anatomy class and I’ve used it in everything from biomechanics to kinesiology. I think people understand one perspective (Plane or Axis) better than the other. This is a planar explanation of this concept.

Let’s start off with definitions so easy you don’t even need to memorize them.

Sagittal plane – Slices you down the middle, dividing the body segment into right and left portions.
Frontal plane – divides the body segment into anterior and posterior portions.

Transverse plane – Divides the body segment into superior and inferior portions.

Planes interact with an axis. A plane and axis are always perpendicular and they always follow this setup.

Sagittal plane = Frontal axis.
Frontal plane = Sagittal axis.
Transverse plane = Vertical Axis.

You can impose a plane on any body segment. A sagittal plane could be imposed on the forearm and hand. If we did that, the forearm would have the ulna on one side of the plane and the radius on the other; the hand would essentially have the middle finger “sliced” down the middle by this plane, leaving the pinky and index finger on one side and the thumb and pointer finger on the other.

So now that we have the planes in mind (hopefully), we need to look at the types of movement. Each movement depends on the joint that is in question. I’ll give the definition of flexion and extension, then an example to start us off.

Extension: Increasing the joint angle.
Flexion: Decreasing the joint angle.
[Joint: Elbow] Arm Curl

It helps to visualize the body segments around that joint. The elbow would have the forearm distally and the upper arm medially. Thus, when you bring your arm up (flexion), you can see how the joint angle decreases. When you bring your arm back down (extension), you can see how the joint angle increases.

Some tips and tricks that helped me remember these:
ABduction: being Abducted away.
ADduction: being ADded to the body.
Plantarflexion: Think of planting your foot on the gas pedal.
Supination: The radius and ulna are not crossed. Leaving your palms (s)up.

Now that we have the motions down, we can finally see how they act in planes.

If we look at the arm curl from early, what plane would the motion fall in? The plane can be imposed on just the arm. The movement can only take place in that plane.

Got your answer?

Drum roll…

…

…

Extension was the correct answer!

This is a basic concept that will take you a long way in human movement and function. Understanding this idea is key to understanding how people move, how to train an athlete, or how to rehabilitate a patient.

Modified GZCL

If you haven’t heard of the GZCL model of lifting, go find it on Google immediately. Easily my favorite philosophy of training, using a (modified) version has let me retain all my strength despite dropping twenty pounds and even packed on a bit of mass in my undertrained areas. The base/foundation aspect of GZCL has proven to be immensely important in my training. Make sure you look up the basics before moving on, or this post might not make much sense.

But that isn’t the program I’m going to talk about in this post. This is the program I will use once I’m done cutting and look to add strength, instead of just maintaining it. I call it the JRLP method (because I’m a vain mother fucker) and it is outlined below:

It works out so that it is on a weekly undulating schedule, with the intensity the highest when volume is the lowest and vice versa. It takes three weeks to get through each cycle since I’m focusing on three lifts. The only thing I am thinking about changing is the load on the “volume” days (Bench in week one, deadlift in week two, and squat in week three). It may be a bit too high, so I may drop it down to 5-15%.

Other than that, I cannot wait to be done cutting (Still have awhile to go), so I can run this and test it out.