Author: jordanhubbell
Day 7
A biphasic sleep schedule consists of sleeping four to five hours during the night and taking a one and a half to two hour nap during the day. This is very common among most mammals; in fact humans are one of the few species of mammals that use a monophasic sleep cycle. My partner hopes that the schedule will encourage me to wake up earlier in the morning so that I will eat a larger breakfast and eat smaller meals throughout the rest of the day. Despite much reluctance, I agreed to try the biphasic sleep schedule for the last four nights of this class. I have done it for two days now and sadly have not noticed a large change my eating habits. I also have been much more tired during the morning and afternoon hours. Like any habit I’m sure it will take a couple of weeks to get used to. Unfortunately with the short duration of this class, I do not think that my body will adjust to this sleeping schedule by Friday to give my partner the results he was hoping for. However, since we have had fruit during class this week, I’ve eaten something in the morning every day. This will hopefully provide good inspiration to grab a quick snack in the morning before class such as a piece of fruit this coming semester. It’s not as good as a meal, but it’s much better than nothing.
Here’s a link to what a biphasic sleep schedule looks like:
Day 2: Going Blind
Last Tuesday we watched a film about a man whose sight was deteriorating and who was experiencing worsening eye complications. He was extremely nervous about losing his eye sight so he went to talk to a handful of people who had serious vision impairments, each with differing severities and causes. He also inquired about how each of them coped with their current issues. Personally, he seemed like he was assuring himself that he would be okay and will still be able to function when/if he loses sight by talking to all of these people. This video helped us realize a vast array of problems that people experience. Visually impaired patients are not simply blind or not blind. Another, perhaps more important, lesson learned from this video is that these visually impaired patients are normal people just like you and me. Most of them were not born blind but, even if they were, they are not different than any of us. They want to be treated just like everyone else. This is important because one of the patients we’re working with in class is blind. I have never dealt with a visually impaired patient so I admit that I, for no known reason, felt like I had to tip-toe around them and was scared to ask them about their situation. However, after meeting our patient and seeing other visually impaired patients, they do not like people to tip-toe around them or be scared of them. They are highly functional and can live their lives similar to how I do. They just want to be treated like everyone else; they do not want to be seen as different. Working with this patient and watching this film really changed my view of visually impaired individuals in a positive way.
-Jordan
Day 6: Reverse Engineering
Over the weekend, I began working on my reverse engineering project. I have used Cad before but have only used it in Inventor. I became very frustrated during the first hour or two of attempting to get the hang of Solidworks even after watching countless tutorials. I then began to question when we had to do a reverse engineering project in the first place. I went from thinking that this was an unnecessary assignment to thinking about several designs that are only possible by reverse engineering. Immediately I thought about a project we did in our systems class this past semester. We came up with a system schematic for the nucleus accumbens with or without the presence of cocaine in the body. We had to look at the process in depth and decide how many subsystems there were and the interactions between them all. Eventually we found that equations for these subsystems were not readily available so we had to reverse engineer the equations by using graphs in different literature sources. This helped to remind me that we are not always given products in their final functioning form or, if we are given that, we might not be given the process to get from the beginning stages to the final product. We knew the input and output of the nucleus accumbens system and had to come up with the intermediate subsystems. Similarly, we were able to see a functioning syringe but were not able to duplicate it and assemble it ourselves without reconstructing each of its parts in Cad and reassembling it. I’ve learned that it’s much easier to do an assignment once you understand the purpose of why it is important.
-Jordan
Day 4
A couple nights ago, a few group members and I met our patient to ask her a few questions in an interview. As it turns out, she was actually learning new jiu-jitzu moves/taking a class to practice them when we arrived. Even though I had only planned to ask her questions once she finished exercising, I thought to myself, “What better opportunity to see how diabetes affects her everyday life by observing her in one of her everyday life activities?” While she was exercising, you would never notice that she had a health problem; she learned the moves as well as everyone else in the class. However, she did have to stop and check her blood sugar multiple times. After we talked to her, she said that she checks it more or less depending on the intensity of the exercise. I thought it was very beneficial to observe her doing something first and ask questions about why she was doing those things afterwards. This unexpected opportunity to watch our patient complete everyday tasks was great way to pick up any subtle effects of the disease that she might not notice because she deals with it every day and they have become second nature to her.
– Jordan H
Personal Health Project
For my personal health project, I have asked my partner record how much time he allots in the day for working out, how often he does it, and what types of exercise he does. I am going to suggest a certain work out plan in order to achieve his fat loss/muscle building goals. I am going to research exercises that are specific to this goal. However, I think it is extremely important, yet difficult, to not overstep your boundaries in this project. I am not going to attempt to change his lifestyle completely and go from rarely working out to working out vigorously every day. Rather I am going to propose exercises that he can do that might allow him to get to his goal faster. I do not want to tell my patient that he is doing anything wrong; I just want to provide him with recommendations that could improve his fitness and overall quality of health.
-Jordan H
BME Design 