Month: May 2017

Cancer story – stomach cancer

I awoke as as my host had once again spent the morning running between her bed and the bathroom so she wouldn’t get sick on the floor of her room. She was diagnosed with stomach cancer after having multiple blood tests and an Endoscopy. I started out as a tiny tumor that was barely detectable on the innermost layer of her stomach called the mucosa. I have now tripled in size and am roughly the size of a large orange. I was created when one of of my host’s cells started to grow and multiply too rapidly.

My host was diagnosed with stage 3 stomach cancer at the age of 15. She started showing signs of having cancer after having abdominal pain, weight loss, a change in skin colour on her stomach, feeling nauseous and vomiting up blood. She was also showing signs of jaundice, which is a yellowish discolouration of the skin. My host has been going to chemotherapy for about 2 years now and has taken part in a clinical trial.

Next month my host is going in for a Gastrectomy, which is a surgery where you get either a portion of or your entire stomach removed. After her surgery she will have to make all sorts of diet changes such as eating smaller meals throughout the day, avoiding foods with high fibre, eating foods rich in calcium, iron, and vitamins C and D, and possibly even taking vitamin supplements.

Part 2:

1)

What are the symptoms?
What cures have been created?
What are the risks?
What changes will have to be made after surgery?
How does cancer start?

2) I used the internet and  Microsoft word.

3) I first started by research the big idea which was stomach cancer, then I broke it down into multiple separate ideas and researched each of those.

4) I used multiple different websites to make sure that they information all had the same basic idea to make sure that it was accurate.

5) The process went well and successful. I think to make it have gone better I could of had a better idea on what I wanted the final project to look like.

Sources:

http://www.healthline.com/health/gastrectomy#followup7

http://www.medicinenet.com/jaundice_in_adults/article.htm

http://www.webmd.com/cancer/stomach-gastric-cancer#1

http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-type/stomach/treatment/?region=bc

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/whoami/findoutmore/yourbody/whatiscancer/howdoescancerbegin

DNA model

  1.  chromosomes, DNA, and genes are all something that get passed down genetically as well as all three manipulate the organism’s characteristics, visibly and non-visibly.
  2. a) in our model the licorice represents the sugar/phosphate backbone
  3. b) the marshmallows represent the bases. Green = guanine (G), Pink = cytosine (C), Yellow = adenine (A), Orange = thymine (T)
  4. This activity helped me understand the structure of DNA because we had to make a model and it was a hands-on activity. It also helped me understand the structure of DNA because we had clear instructions on how to create the model.

Observing cells

1. a) Under the microscope animal cells look like squiggly lines. Very few cell structures are visible from what Clare and I observed. We could only manage to make out three of the cell structures.

b) Under the microscope plant cells look like reptile scales. Even fewer cell structures were visible only the Vacuole was visible from what Clare and I managed to see. It was easier to find plant cells then animal cells due to the fact that we were using a red onion.

2. You can tell plant and animal cells apart by the fact that animal cells look more germy and plant cells look more scale-y. Also animal cells will be more blue  do to the mathylene we use.

3. The reason that we used methylene  on the plant cell is because it’s less visible then the plant cell. We didn’t use it on the plant cell was because it is easier to find and more visible.

4. Reflection:

I learned the proper way to use a microscope, what animal and plant cells look like, also how difficult it can be to find the cell structures. I also learned so much that i didn’t know such as what cells look like under a microscope, how to use a microscope, and how to prepare a slide. I had never learned about cells before that lab  learned about cells before

Some questions I had were: what would it look like if we had a stronger microscope?, How different do all cells look ?, what do my cells look like?

I am curious about how everyone’s cells look, how strong the microscope has to be to see everything, and how different everyone’s cells are.