Throwback Thursday: 2011 Biomedical Humanities Reflection

As an undergraduate at Hiram College, I minored in Biomedical Humanities. This interdisciplinary academic area involved scientific courses, service work, and medical humanities (the study of the intersection of medicine and humanities, such as philosophy, religion, literature, and the arts). For the Minor, I had to write a reflective essay on my experiences that helped me determine what I wanted to do after graduation, as well as present the piece to my peers. Now, I am currently in a similar situation to my senior year at Hiram, since I am hoping to defend my thesis in the upcoming spring. At this time in my life, I am often thinking about the future. However, on this #Throwback_Thursday, I decided to look back over my reflection on wanting to study Toxicology. Check it out at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9jdg-QyDgxHREFJVlR5cTQyczQ/view?usp=sharing. Reading back over this essay, which described my undergraduate enthusiasm for scientific research, study abroad experience in Guatemala, observations from shadowing healthcare workers, course work (ranging from Organic Chemistry to Humanities) that inspired me, and more, is reinvigorating. I can feel the energy and excitement from my younger self, and it makes me want to work hard to accomplish my goal of getting a PhD.    

Portrait of Pulmonary Fibrosis

I just wanted to post the "Portrait of Pulmonary Fibrosis" piece that I shared with the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF):

I'm Claire McCarthy from Rochester, NY and I'm 27 years old. As a PhD Student in Toxicology at the University of Rochester, a PFF Care Center Network site, I have become friends with individuals living with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and their family members.

Q from PFF: What would surprise us to learn about you?

A: Before I joined the laboratory of Dr. Patricia Sime who is on the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Medical Advisory Board for my graduate studies, I had never heard of pulmonary fibrosis.

At lab meetings and working with my colleagues, I learned about the biology of lung scarring and the statistics of survival (showing that many people only live 3-5 years after diagnosis). This helped me realize the importance of scientific research for pulmonary fibrosis; however, meeting people living with the disease and their family members is what really allowed me to understand the impact that pulmonary fibrosis has on so many people.

For example, I’ll never forget the conversation that I had with a patient with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) who had a lung transplant. I asked him, “What does pulmonary fibrosis feel like?”

I was educated about the pathology of lung fibrosis in the lab, but had never really heard about the experience of a person with IPF. He told me he was never in pain, but he would walk up three steps and have to stop. He couldn’t catch his breath or get enough oxygen. He described how his disease progressed fairly quickly, like the low level of water that rapidly spirals down around the drain of a sink.

Then he discussed his recovery after his lung transplant. He said that when the intubation tube was taken out, his first inhale of air was like a baby’s first breath. He also discussed that when he was diagnosed with IPF, he went to church and asked God to help him deal with the illness. After that, he was never afraid.

Listening to the stories of other PF patients and their family members affected by pulmonary fibrosis changed my perspective.

Now I think about more than just the science of the disease, and remember the importance of interactions between researchers, clinicians, and families.

We all need to work together to both help people with pulmonary fibrosis in multiple aspects of their well-being and develop effective therapies for this illness.

Poems about Household Air Pollution 

As an undergraduate at Hiram College, I learned about the role of the humanities in science and medicine. I minored in Biomedical Humanities and discovered that the arts, including literature, can influence social views of healthcare and the relationships between scientists/clinicians, individuals coping with diseases, and the general public. This inspired me to use creative writing to share the importance of my thesis research related to the global health issue of exposure to biomass smoke from cooking fires.

Breathing Biomass Smoke

Watch the orange flames dancing underneath the pot

As the biomass fuel burns into a smoky haze

That fills your lungs as you stand in the kitchen spot

And surrounds your child as she plays

The smoke travels through the branches of your bronchial tree

Slithering down into the alveoli

Every time that water is boiled for a nourishing cup of tea

And when cooking hearty dishes, like a stir fry

The noxious compounds in the smoke target your lung cells

Leading to inflammation and cell death

Your macrophages turn black as they engulf particulate materials

And airway fibrosis makes it harder to catch your breath.

Inhaling the smoke and feeling it fill your expanding lungs every day

Unable to afford a “cleaner” fuel for your home

Years later, discovering that your lungs are undergoing destruction and decay

Which a doctor diagnoses as COPD, a respiratory syndrome

Children and Cookstoves

Your children have been breathing in cookstove smoke

Which snakes into their mouths and noses

It covers them and their airways like a thick, grey cloak

And creeps around your baby as she dozes

The smoke collides with your children’s lung cells and disrupts their immunity

Making them susceptible to respiratory pathogens

Including bacteria and viruses that float throughout the community

Covertly infecting your kids as they play with their friends

Although the cells of the lung attempt to mount defenses,

The smoke impairs their immune signaling

Leading to severe symptoms and disease consequences

You see in your feverish child who is constantly coughing

A doctor says she has pneumonia after listening to her lungs

Which is the leading cause of death among children under five

Especially in families at the bottom of the energy ladder rungs

Who struggle to earn a living and survive

     

Mad Scientist Recipes

Each week, everyone in my biomedical research lab comes together for a meeting. At this "lab meeting," we discuss technical issues or upcoming events in the lab and a trainee presents his/her recent data. These informal presentations are a forum for my fellow graduate students and me to get feedback about our experiments, troubleshooting suggestions, and ideas for the next step with our thesis work. It is also the place where our mentor will randomly test our knowledge and ask us questions about biology, just to keep us on our toes. Since our meeting is in the morning, the person (or people) presenting will bring a breakfast treat to share with the lab. For me, I like to get creative and combine my love of baking with my passion for pulmonary research. I start looking at recipes a week ahead of time to try and make delicious muffins, breads, cakes, or cookies that relate to a scientific concept or health issue. I often bake things related to my research project, which is investigating the effects of exposure to biomass smoke from cooking fires. I've made "lung on a chip" (chocolate covered potato chips with lungs made of either Oreo truffles or icing), 3-stone (a.k.a. cadbury egg) fire peanut butter muffins, pulmonary circulation sweet potato bread, cookstove cupcakes (see picture below), and more. If you want to try some cool science themed recipes and/or learn a little bit about lung diseases, check out the cookbook ("Lung-on-a-Chip" and More Mad Scientist Recipes) that my friends and I put together at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9jdg-QyDgxHdkNkR0k3VGdkU28/view?usp=sharing.