Immune system

[Aaron researched the immune system, wrote this report, and created a model illustrating key players in the immune system. He did this very independently; it was completed entirely at school, and his teachers report that he hardly used their assistance. Here is the report verbatim.]

THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
by Aaron

The lymph nodes, the bone marrow and the white blood cells, combined with some other components: These magnificent body parts make up the immune system. The immune system is a very important system to the body. It protects your body from diseases such as colds, flu, and AIDS (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome). Doctors who work on it are called immunologists. Some parts of this wonderful system are the monocytes, the macrophages, the erythrocytes, and the lymphocytes.

Here is some information about the lymphocytes. There are three main types of lymphocytes. They are the T cells, the B cells, and natural killer cells. Here is how the first two work: the nerves give the T cells and B cells a "heads up" and they get on the move. Once they get to the diseased cell or place, the B cells build an antibody to stop the virus from multiplying. Then, the T cells go in and fight off/eat the virus. There are not a lot of lymphocytes. There are only around 500-700 in the body. Another cool thing about them is that they can change their size without much cause. Also, they are mostly created by blood.

Monocytes are interesting too. The monocytes' main function is to help out other cells fighting the disease, kind of like an army doctor except 900 billion times smaller. Since I am sure that an army doctor is not 12-18 micrometers in length and formed by blood, I am sure there are some differences. The monocytes, even though tiny, are the largest white blood cells. In addition, if they are not needed, they can change to another type of cell.

Please do not stop reading yet because I still have to tell you about neutrophils. Neutrophils take up 45-75% of the white blood cell population. They are also the fastest cell, therefore they get to the infection first. So, around 55% of white blood cells get to the disease first. Also, they are formed by bone marrow. So those who eat bone marrow are sucking around 60% of an animal's immune system out.

One disease that affects this immune system is rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis is a disease that hurts people's bones or joints. The death rate from this disease is not very high, but it can be extremely painful. It is a disease that makes your joints and small amounts of tissue around it hurt. When someone has arthritis, their immune system is attacking the joints instead of helping.

Some ways to protect yourself from autoimmune diseases are: 1: Do not smoke 2: eat lots of fruit and vegetables 3: exercise 4: avoid stress 5: control your blood pressure 6: avoid alcohol and 7: get enough sleep. All of these should be things that come naturally, especially 6 and 7. I am not kidding about #4. Not getting stressed is the key to a lot of things.

Astronaut

When Dale got the cast on his ankle removed, his surgeon told him that now he was like an astronaut. Astronauts, whose bodies don't bear weight for months at a time, return to earth with their bones so fragile that they "lean over to sip their their soup and their spine breaks in three places," according to the surgeon. I was hoping that was an exaggeration, but apparently some returning astronauts have to be carried away from their landing craft in stretchers; it is rare that they are able to walk, and the rule of thumb is that they need one day of recovery in Earth's gravity for every day they spend in space. It turns out that when bones are unused, the body just starts taking the calcium out of them, resulting in "disuse osteoporosis." Isn't that fascinating? I forget that bones are dynamic living tissue, constantly being depleted and renewed according to the body's inner logic.

What this meant for Dale is that he had to be very gradual and intentional about putting weight on his leg. Much of the time he still used his peg leg or scooter, but his day also included sessions of careful "practice walking" with the boot and crutches. At first he placed only the lightest pressure on his foot (supposedly measured by him stepping on a bathroom scale to see what 20 lbs felt like, though in practice he found this difficult to gauge). He increased the pressure a little bit every few days. He also did exercises designed to stretch his tight muscles, increase the range of motion in his ankle, and strengthen his disused calf and foot. (For example, he would draw the alphabet with his toes.)

After about three weeks of that, he got the go-ahead to walk with just the boot. Walk! For the first time in months! He felt like an astronaut all over again ... because he was over the moon. Ba-dum bum. But really it was an incredible feeling. He took the crutches to work with him for a while just in case his foot got tired, but soon he stopped needing to do that.

That was a couple weeks ago. Now he has shed the boot and walks in sneakers. Barefoot still feels painful and unstable, and the thought of any kind of jumping, running, etc gives him the shivers. But he is well along the road to recovery!

Knitting

The same weekend that Dale broke his ankle, I learned to knit. I'm more of a curl-up-by-the-fire person than a go-trekking-through-the-snow person (plus, there's less risk of a broken ankle), and several of the other people in the cabin were knitters so I knew I would have mentors around. One of these knitter friends took me to a yarn store for supplies, and I was ready to go.

Perhaps 40 years ago, my aunt Linda had taught me the basic stitch on some family trip, and I got as far as knitting a scarf for a stuffed animal - it was probably five stitches wide and 25 long. She did the casting on and binding off for me that time. This time I did it all myself! :) The first thing I made, under my friend's guidance, was a hat. For a hat you learn more skills than you do for a simple scarf, and also you finish faster. That weekend I learned the skills of casting on, knitting, knitting a gauge swatch, calculating how many stiches my hat would need to be, purling, and ribbing. And I practiced, and I kept making mistakes like yarn-overs without realizing I had done it until alas there was a hole, and so what, it was my first hat. It took me longer than the weekend to finish it (I also had a good book, after all), so after I got home I had to learn the skill of decreasing. This is when I had my first disaster: decreasing involves double-pointed needles, and a bunch of stitches slipped off the other end needle and began to unravel. I tried to fix it but kept just making it worse. Thank goodness my sister-in-law stopped by (to entertain Dale during his ankle recovery) and fixed it for me. Eventually, I got it done, and it was so exciting! I turned a long piece of string into a hat! This is the plain green one in the photo below. You can see that it is a little scruffy, but it is dear to me.

My next project was going to be another hat, one with fewer mistakes in it. I had my heart set on a nice yarn that a different friend had unloaded on me (she has switched from knitting to painting). Sadly I ran out of yarn partway through... so I made it a headband (bottom of photo). I actually like this headband a lot, partly because I am a sucker for variegated yarn. For this project I learned to bind off, and learned that the simplest way to bind off has zero stretch in it...potentially awkward for a headband, but this one turned out okay.

Next up, I made the striped hat pictured above, meaning I learned how to do stripes and also just continued to get better. I made fewer mistakes, and learned how to correct more of the ones I made. You can see in the photo how much smoother it is than the plain one. I was fairly terrified of the decreasing part, but I learned the trick of wrapping the ends of my double-pointed needles with rubber bands so the stitches can't fall off the back, and nothing bad happened.

I think my favorite thing about knitting is that it gives me something to do with my hands and still interact with people. It's great at a meeting, or listening to a lecture, or supervising piano practice. When I went off in April to a two-day symposium with a dozen hourlong lectures, I just had to have something to knit. I made a cowl out of some yarn from my painter friend's basket. I love that variegated yarn and I am happy enough with the quality of my knitting, but it's way too big. I might just unravel it and use the autumnal colors for something else.

At that symposium, I told another knitting friend that I wasn't sure what to make next, and she introduced me to Ravelry. Whoa! what fun! I decided that next I want to learn to make something lacy, so I am working on a shawl. This is teaching me how to read a pattern, knit with very thin yarn, and make holes on purpose. :) I'm about halfway through.

Cooking

Jordan asked for a cookbook for Hanukkah and I was more than happy to oblige. Since then, he makes dinner every Thursday night. It's awesome. Here he is with his first dinner ever, savory meat pies (yes he made the crust!) and a salad with cranberries, almonds, and optional blue cheese.

A few months later: pigs in a blanket (the blanket is puff pastry, and no he did not make the pastry from scratch); roasted beets with cilantro-orange dressing; and his favorite kale salad, which he makes just about every week, massaged with parmesan and a fresh lemon dressing. He has named this Snicket Salad, because it is so lemony. We all love it.

In the kitchen zesting the lemon. He is a zesting master by now.

After several weeks he stopped consulting the cookbook and started just suggesting things he wanted to make. I find him a recipe or just give him directions. Here he is with tortellini with homemade basil-walnut pesto, crispy paprika-roasted cauliflower, and Snicket Salad.

There is so much to learn in the kitchen! Cracking eggs, peeling beets, operating the food processor, chopping onions (always the onions), rolling out dough, seasoning things, it just goes on and on. He is more and more confident, though he still dislikes getting things in and out of the oven. It's worth it, though, especially when you have a friend over to make chocolate chip cookies.