My Little Experience With Bacteria...

So, for all of you who may or may not know I had recently been hospitalised with a bacteria infection and I'm going to share my story. Starting Monday I had woken up with a little pain in my left ankle, but I didn't think much of it thinking I may have pulled something; so I just carried on like a normal day. To my surprise on Tuesday I had a very severe pain in the same ankle and redness along with swelling. My mom decided to take me to the doctors to have them check it out. They were pretty confused at the fact it had not been injured or anything and yet it was so swollen. They thought it would be best if I could go to the ER and have them check things out.

At the ER they immediately started drawing blood cultures, luckily they showed I didn't have bacteria in my blood. So then they aspirated my ankle which is when they stick a big needle in you ankle joint and suck out some of the fluid, which was cloudy and obviously infected. When they determined the fluid was for sure infected they decided I need surgery. Wednesday the surgery went well, they had to make several incisions and rinse my joint out with salt water. The bacteria cultures never grew any bacteria which really surprised the doctors, but antibiotics have been helping a lot so they have been continuing treatment with those and vikodin. (Which I do apologise for any spelling/grammar mistakes in this because after all I am on vikodin while I'm typing this).

My Foot (Sorry about the angle)

UGGGHHH.... Diffusion

Let's just admit it; diffusion is a boring topic, but it's something we all have to learn. And now I guess I'm going to teach you little sophomores more about diffusion. The basic definition of diffusion is the movement of particles from a high concentration to a low concentration. There are 4 basic types of diffusion: simple diffusion, facilitated diffusion, active transport, and osmosis.

Simple diffusion- Is the movement of particles from a high concentration to low concentration across the membrane. This is natural and does not require energy and is therefore "passive". Ex: Think of spraying Febreze in a large room. At the site it is initially sprayed at it will have a rather high concentration and you can smell it; however, the concentration of the particles will naturally spread into the entire room in such a low concentration that you may not be able to smell it any more.

Facilitated diffusion- This is the transport of substances across membrane from high to low concentration. Accept these substances cross the membrane through channel proteins, because they can't cross the membrane themselves. This also does not require energy. Ex: Think of how the channels of water transport people on inter tubes through a lazy river.

Active transport- This is actually the opposite of diffusion, because the substances are moving from a high to low concentration across the membrane. This does not occur naturally and therefore requires energy. Ex: Think of a fan blowing a smell away from you, the fan is the energy.

Osmosis- Simply the diffusion of water.