A poetic foray into digestion

| Sophie

Her stomach gurgles, her belly quivers,

Her eyes dart round, her body shivers,

Her blood is pumping, pupils dilating,

Her brain firing signals, neurons pulsating.

 

“I’m hungry” she says, stomping her feet,

Her hands curled in fists, her cheeks pink with heat,

Her blood sugars low, her brain senses the threat,

Hypoglycaemic, she’s getting upset.

 

Let’s zoom inside to her stomach, we see

Not much actually, it’s pretty empty,

Let’s go closer still to epithelial cells,

With mechanoreceptors that detect stretch and swell.

 

The cells are secreting, in the absence of food,

Ghrelin, director of hunger and mood.

It travels far to the hypothalamus,

And crosses the barrier to the Arcuate Nucleus.

 

It exerts on the brain orexigenic effects,

Acting on all of the CNS,

As well as controlling energy homeostasis,

It activates signals in other places.

 

It is involved in rewards and incentives,

Activating memory to be more retentive,

In the prefrontal cortex it alters decisions

And signals that food is the brains next mission.

 

AGRP / NPY neurons firing,

She suddenly realises she’s desiring

Foods that will bring comfort and energy,

Turning the hunger to satiety.

 

She glances around, “Is there food in the kitchen?”

“Maybe there’s cake?” she finds herself wishing.

Her brain screaming out “I need sugar and fat!”

“How about this celery stick?”, “No! Not that!”.

 

She settles for leftovers from todays’ lunch,

She prepares the meal and begins to munch,

But before the food even enters her mouth

Her body’s preparing to break it down.

 

The optic nerve signals, olfactory tasting,

Oesophagus contracting, stomach bracing,

Signals firing and cells releasing,

Hormones pumping, saliva secreting.

 

She’s chewing her food, or masticating,

The mechanical movement of teeth activating

Brain pathways and peptides although which? We don’t know,

Undoubtedly appetite suppressing, though.

 

She swallows the food, it enters her gullet,

Peristaltic contractions push it, pull it?

Down to the stomach and through the sphincter,

Exciting the vagus nerve which leads to

 

Acetylcholine release which then acts on

M3 receptors which has an impact on

G cells and Gastrin release which exacts on

Enterochromaffin cells, in fact, on

 

The release of Histamine which causes secretion

Of a Hydrochloric Acid solution

From parietal cells. This breaks down proteins:

Bacterial, viral, it effectively cleans.

 

The stomach defensive to outside threats,

It protects the body from microbe pests,

And starts to get bigger when filling with stuff

Alerting cells that there’s food, sure enough.

 

This is the sign that cells into action,

Satiety hormones promote food satisfaction,

And called to arms they summon their messengers

To zoom round the body, passing on messages.

 

Listen real close and we’ll hear what they’re saying,

Small peptides which act on receptors relaying

Instructions for organs and tissues together,

Discreetly directing digestion, they’re clever!

 

Quick shout out to the second brain,

Enteric Nervous System reigns

Independent of our head,

Taking over when we’re fed.

 

Not consciously controlling food,

But still it can impact on mood.

Example; it can play a role in

Emotion via serotonin.

 

We can’t leave out our microbe friends,

They influence our gut no end,

They breakdown fibre, control immunity,

Live symbiotically with impunity.

 

But more than this they also create

Peptides that mimic our own, although fake

They still can cause the brain to favour

Certain foods and change behaviour.

 

But we’re on a tangent, I transgress,

Trying to unravel the mysteries, the mess,

Let’s turn our attention back to her digestion,

Please excuse this wild digression.

 

The food moves into the small intestine,

Which triggers release of the hormone secretin,

Raising pH, deacidifying the chyme,

Preparing the food for absorption time.

 

Now this is when hormonal magic starts,

They spring into action to play their parts,

All working towards a common goal,

With the finest precision and expert control.

 

Introducing our trio of polypeptides,

Meet P.P, P.P.Y and greet N.P.Y,

Their function is slowing intestinal transit,

Collecting info from gut contents to transmit.

 

There’s cholecystokinin released from the lining

Of epithelial cells, the intestine mining

All of the nutrients. Hormones supplying

Pancreatic enzymes emulsifying.

 

Let’s move to the pancreas, it’s interesting here,

There are many cell types, but you don’t need to fear,

Insulin’s important and so’s glucagon!

Blood glucose levels is what they act on.

 

“Cells, uptake glucose!” ordered insulin.

Encouraged by supporters called incretins,

G.I.P and G.L.P-1 unite

To make sure secretion of insulin’s right.

 

Back to the intestine the food flowing through,

Down to the large one it ends up as poo,

But still there’s absorption before this occurs,

Gradient crossings and nutrient transfers.

 

Her hormones are doing their job quite well,

Signalling enough’s enough for a spell,

We’ll find, if we’re looking, there’s one in particular,

Not quite a satiety hormone, but similar.

 

That is super important in stopping eating,

It acts on the brain to minimise feeding,

Signalling high nutrition, or paucity,

Signalling also body adiposity.

 

It’s Leptin, of course, what else could it be?

Released from adipocytes, completely key.

Directly proportional to adipose stores,

It communicates well, but not without flaws.

 

For when we’re obese, sometimes we’re resistant

To leptins effects, and Ghrelins persistent,

The balance is off and it’s hard to make right

But for now she is healthy, her hormones alright.

 

The food almost finished her plate almost empty,

She’s eaten as much as she can, it was plenty,

She’s starting to feel just a little bit full,

“Delicious! But really I can’t eat it all!”

 

And after a while, digestion is done,

Nutrients absorbed, the waste passed on,

Deposited fat, glucose stores filled,

The body has protein with which to rebuild.

 

She’s feeling much better now that she has eaten,

Happy and comfy, a bit sleepy even,

She washes her dishes and lies on the sofa,

Sinking, so sweetly, into a food coma.

Coach Predator

| Sophie

You sit next to me with other seats spare,

On the back of my head I feel your stare.

I grit my teeth and peer out the window,

The coach starts moving, grumbling, slow.

 

You spread out your knees, I pull away mine,

You’re in my space, I pretend it’s fine,

Then your elbow is, for some reason, resting

On my hip. My whole body’s protesting.

 

For a while I think, am I being unkind?

Why do I care when he doesn’t mind?

So I move out your way but you follow me,

Spreading out further not letting me free.

 

I adjust my position to give myself space,

I turn and see the look on your face

As you move your arm over, pressing,

Touching my body, almost caressing.

 

Get off me. You’re disgusting. And intimidating.

Your intentional touch is violating.

My whole focus centred on how much I’m hating

Your presence, your dominance is suffocating.

 

I muster my bravery and push you away,

I regret touching you as the skin memory stays,

I take a deep breath and I start to relax,

But it’s not long before your arm is back.

 

I’m ignoring, I’m ignoring, I’m ignoring you.

I’ve tried everything, what else can I do?

And just when I think to myself, I can’t take it,

You speak to me, flirtily, sleezily, I feel naked.

 

Passively, English-ly, I reply to your questions,

I try to be nice, I keep my expression

Courteous and cool, it’s not in my nature

To be mean to a stranger.

 

You ask for my headphone, I hand one over,

I give you my phone too, like a pushover.

You play songs I don’t like whilst smiling at me,

You ask if I like them. Do I have a choice but to agree?

 

You steal my attention for the rest of the trip,

Still pushing your elbow into my hip.

We, finally, arrive at our destination,

Relieved, but angry and hurt by your predation.

 

I try to escape but I find that you’re following,

Glancing at me, you hold out your hand offering

Help or assistance, can you ride in my taxi?

No, you can’t, I’m sorry. Why the fuck am I saying sorry!?

 

You ask for my number, to see me again!?

Do you really, can’t seriously!? think that we’re friends!?

I smile apologetically, a meek shake of the head,

“No and fuck off”, I should have said.

 

I get in my uber, I’m finally alone,

So thankful and grateful I’m almost home.

But the anger remains, at my own passivity,

I berate myself and my sensitivity.

 

 

 

Imprint

| Sophie

A romance blossoms

In early stages where

A gust of wind

Could change the direction of

A wondering mind.

 

The only certainty in love

That is beginning

Is the imprint

Of your current footprint

Upon the ground.

 

For you don’t know

If the next step will be solid,

Or if you will leap

Forward in faith

And find yourself falling.

A peculiar feeling

| Sophie

My mind wanders with nothing to grip,

No thoughts that stay, no ideas that stick,

 A boredom, a gloom, an absence of will,

I look in to my head to find things quite still.

 

A longing sensation extends in my chest

It strangles my lungs and steals my breath,

I look down in surprise as I hold myself,

Why do I feel so lost and bereft?

 

I dig deeper to find it is empty and bare,

A falseness, I feel, for I know something’s there.

Under my rib cage and masked by despair,

There’s a heart that is hurting, in need of some care.

 

I peer through the lens of my own inner eye,

I examine, I probe, I question, I pry,

“What has hurt you today? Oh why do you cry?

Why are you hurting my chest?” I try.

 

A shrug and a murmur and a sad little sob,

“I’m lonely” she says. “I want someone to love.

I have so much to give, I can promise you that.

But no heart that I know of will love me back.”

 

I hold my heart in a warm embrace,

“Oh child,” I say, “so pure and chaste,

I love you with all of my being, my soul.

That’s all that you need. Together, we’re whole.”

A snapshot moment

| Sophie

I’ll set the scene:

Me (purple, floaty trousers, black and green Hawaiian shirt, slightly tanned, curly hair tied back), lying in my hammock in the “porch” of our “mansion”. It is HOT today, so hot in fact that I got in the “shower” earlier fully clothed just to cool down a bit. The sun is shining and the river flows idly, the grass is quite overgrown and bright, little seeds cling to my socks and trousers whenever I walk anywhere. Insects are constantly buzzing about, jumping up from the grass and circling through the air which hangs heavy and still with humidity. Frogs and mice occasionally peep out from their homes and the geckos in our “mansion” crawl silently across the walls and the ceiling. The crickets are buzzing and the birds chirping and every so often the rumbling of a motor crawls past as members of the community travel up and down the river. The giant leaves on the banana trees rustle slightly in a gentle breeze, and the sound of the shallow water dancing over the rocks in the river floats up from the bank. I can smell the rich scent of tropical nature, almost cloying and almost sweet. And I feel calm. The heat has soaked into my bones and it is bliss to lie here, embraced in the warmth of the air and the peace and serenity of the trees.

I have spent the morning working on my project. Hours and hours and hours of data collection and analysis, with hours and hours and hours to go. My ears are ringing from listening to my music too loudly, my mind is buzzing with thoughts of work, and my fingers are sore from clicking and dragging and typing. I’m taking a break. Whether it’s well-deserved I’m not so sure, but the heat and limitless time we have make it hard to concentrate.

Heather and I have been at the station for 9 days now. Just us. Here. Alone. In our paradise-like prison, or prison-like paradise; depending which mood we’re in. We’ve been on rations for a few days now because our food supply is dwindling so meals have been delightfully creative or completely boring. The flies are out in full force so we’re both covered in bites, but I think we’re more used to them now so they don’t bother us as much. Evening is settling in, the air is cooling slightly and the sun getting lower.

 

 

I’ll get back to work now. The tab of my spreadsheet is staring at me disparagingly from the bottom of my laptop screen and, as much as I wish they would, the photos won’t start sorting themselves.

 

 

*”quotation marks” used to indicate the metaphorical nature of these descriptive nouns. We don’t actually live in a mansion, but a 4 roomed, open, wooden building built on stilts. The porch refers to the area at the front of said building. We have a structure which does a very good imitation of a shower, but in reality is 3 small concrete walls and a shower curtain with a barrel that we pump full of river water when it gets low, and a tap coming out of it.

 

22-02-2018 Menstruation Magic

| Sophie

This morning, a guide, Javier and myself set out into the forest to set up my project. I need 12 transects (straight lines that I use to mark where I will collect my data) in both primary and secondary forest. We found suitable areas with plenty of space and started to set these up, however, we happened upon an unusual obstacle. The community believe that when a woman is on her period, she has witchcraft that destroys their land and crops. So as we were walking through the forest with our string and measuring tape, we kept accidentally finding ourselves in bits of farmland that were completely off limits to me, a woman with magic crop-destroying periods. Not a problem I thought I’d have to deal with, frankly.

20-02-2018 Monotony

| Sophie

I want to preface this post with a reality check: We live in the rainforest, in Ecuador, near an Indigenous Community, at a research station, on a river bank, in wooden huts, without a car, without a boat (more importantly), with just each other, in the jungle. Like if you saw our location on a map it would just be a dot in the green bit that covers some of the East of Ecuador. This place is isolated. To get to the nearest town which is a very basic, very small, very local little place takes 3 hours. To get to the nearest town with a bar takes 4 and a half hours. To get to the nearest town with English speakers takes 9 hours. To get to a city takes 14 hours.

In my opinion, that is fucking cool. We are separated from civilisation (apart from through the internet of course – thank god for the internet), out in nature, surrounded by beautiful wildlife, cooking from scratch, doing ‘science’, living a life (almost) free of social pressures and expectations and best of all living and working closely with a community of people who are from a completely different (metaphorical) world to us. It’s fascinating…

But wow! Does it get boring. It is effectively our job to run and maintain the station, that requires being here 24/7 funnily enough: in this small little patch of land, with a finite amount of things to do and people to talk to; for days, and sometimes weeks on end. Also, now we’ve started our projects we are tied to the station for at least 2 or 3 days a week to collect our data from the forest, there is 0 flexibility here so that our projects are valid and our results usable. And like I explained in paragraph 1, it takes a hell of a long time to get anywhere from here. There’s no ‘popping out’ from the station. No, no. There’s ‘right we have an appointment in Tena at 9:30am on Thursday for 20 minutes so we’ll need to leave 2 days in advance and we’ll be away from the station for 4 days okay let’s pack up every single item in the whole station so the community can’t steal anything, umm order a canoe a few days in advance, pack a weeks worth of laundry and clothes, book accommodation, write a shopping list and then yeah, good to go’. So, as you can (hopefully) see, unless we have a visa office to visit or a document to retrieve, we are stuck here.

Most of the time I think I have more freedom here than anywhere else in the world. I can get up when I like, I have enough time to read books, watch movies, eat leisurely and work at my own pace. I don’t have a myriad of lectures, meetings, shifts, matches, events that lead my life for me; I lead my life here, not the timetable on my outlook calendar. But sometimes I feel caged in and bored. Bored bored bored. And when I get bored I get tired, which just perpetuates this boredom cycle and I loose motivation and sometimes when it gets really bad, I loose touch with reality a little.

I don’t mean to undermine the life we have here (I actually think sadness and challenge augment our reality as we learn and grow through these hard experiences) but understandably we get a bit stir crazy every so often! This manifests in many different ways, some weirder than others, I won’t go into details. We haven’t yet had the time to take a holiday in Ecuador and go and have some fun. Every time we’ve left the station previously it was on visa or food related errands which are crazy-frustrating and boring, in that order. I think Heather and I deserve some real credit here, for all intents and purposes we are managing extremely well under the circumstances. We chose this placement in the first place (separately) knowing it would be challenging and isolated, so we also knew ourselves well enough to know we would probably be fine with it. Which we are *insert earnest smile*. However… we really ought to get out more.

Which we will: back-at-the-station-after-christmas resolution number 1 was to take some time off ‘work’ (go on holiday) every month; and Heathers 21st birthday is fast approaching so we are taking our first fun trip in Ecuador and going to Banos (Ban-yos – Baths in Spanish because the town is built on the side of the tallest volcano in Ecuador and there are lots of thermal baths there) for 6 days which will be mega fun. Lots of canyoning, hiking, rafting, zip-lining and thermal-bath bathing in Banos. We leave this Friday and will shun all responsibility until we get back the following Thursday, and it’ll be great. We will come back renewed and full of life, I’m sure.

Anyway, the day is running out and I’m actually procrastinating a little right now – I should be reading Fungi Biodiversity papers.

So, signing off – from the hammock near the wifi router, wooden hut, river bank, Payamino, Ecuador.

17-02-2018 The ups and the downs

| Sophie

It’s a quiet day at the station today. Only Heather and I are here so we have complete freedom to do what we like when we like. This freedom only really extends to when we eat, usually with more people at the station mealtimes are regular and we take it in turns to cook each meal, but with only the two of us here, I ate breakfast at midday and Heather ate lunch at 3: we’ve descended into madness. Apart from that, we are still at the mercy of the weather and can’t leave the station as we have work to do here. It’s been raining the last couple of days so wifi and power have been a little dodgy, and until recently the station has been relatively full! So it’s back to our quiet little life.

Life has taken a few turns recently, ebbing and flowing like the tides of El Rio Payamino. It’s easy to see a surface view of someone’s life and assume that all’s fine and dandy, but actually there’s usually something going on there which doesn’t breach social media or light conversation.

My life has been a bit up and down recently. I think being ill always gets you down and it takes a little while to regain the swing of things; I’m still not better after my ear infection which is making me a little lethargic and foggy. Another thing – this one took me a while to figure out on all my travels – but it turns out you’re not immune to insecurities / down days / mad panics about life just because you live somewhere cool: had a few of them recently. Also, the direction of my project has changed once again. It’s been a real challenge figuring out what kind of research is available in the field, balancing my highly-optimistic research aims, and evaluating my own limitations in order to find the middle ground of what’s actually doable here.

It was quite disheartening at first, but I am a fan of silver linings and have started to appreciate the benefits of my new plan. It will be a lot simpler and easier, I will have more control over every aspect, and the write-up will be more straight forward. All boring things, I’ve lost interest over ease, but at least I can actually make a start.

Field work is surprisingly slow. There are a lot of social, political, meteorological and ecological hoops to jump through that you just don’t expect to meet when you set out on your journey, hoping to uncover some valuable resource or hidden knowledge. And field work is clumsy. Of course we adhere to ‘the scientific method’, and keep all our data as valid and reliable as possible, but at the end of the day, research is limited by the people doing it and the amount of money and time they have. We’ve recently been collecting data for an arachnid biodiversity study which sounds to me awfully professional and serious, but the actual field work/data collection side of things juxtaposes this scientific vision of serious, intelligent people doing serious, intelligent things, and replaces it with a group of people, some scientists, some undergrads, and some indigenous community members, literally catching spiders in the jungle. There’s more to it than that, years and years of research that has cultivated the perfect method and most accurate data analysis, however the literal translation from the methods section in a scientific paper to people working in the field is not what you expect. It’s been fascinating to learn this and experience some real life science in the field.

All in all life at the station has been great. The company has been wonderful, and it’s nice to be back home in our idyllic, little corner of the world. But I’d be lying if I said life has been perfect: life has been normal, I guess, but still full of discovery, new experiences, learning and getting shit done, which are the main things, I think.

10-02-2018 An ear update

| Sophie

I am deliriously happy right now. I woke up this morning in a state of bliss and contentment. You see, for the first time in a week, I woke up because I was ready to wake up, rather than because I was in excrutiating pain. I’ve had a fungal ear infection which has been just horrific. I would unabashadley use the word agony to describe my pain even though it may sound dramatic. It was absolutely unbearable at times; I felt nauseous, was in too much pain to sleep, and painkillers didn’t really work. By the end of the week, I was taking paracetamol, ibuprofen, diclofenac and codeine, and it still wasn’t enough. As the days went on, the pain didn’t get worse or better, but spread to the back of my head, my throat, my neck, my right eye and my right cheek. I am half deaf in my right ear, and its been leaking puss and mucous. So basically not very fun, river fungi 1, sophie 0.

So waking up without pain was a miracle. I’m honestly not sure how much longer I could have kept going for, especially considering I was averaging 3/4 restless hours of sleep a night, when I am very much an 8/9 kinda girl. Today was my 2nd follow-up doctors appointment to get my ear cleaned out. I was meant to have it cleaned on wednesday but it was still too swollen and inflamed at that point. So this morning when I woke up without pain I was really glad because that meant the inflammation had gone down and I could get my ear flushed out. So I set off on my journey to Coca this morning excited and ready to get my hearing back and hopefully say bye to all the puss and mucous.

It didn’t really turn out like that. The doctor did indeed clean out my ear, but this was not the pleasant and satisfying feeling I had hoped for, oh no. This was water being squirted alarmingly forcefully deep into my still sore and infected ear, then repeated 5 times. This was ear violation. Things are not meant to go into your ear, that is not what they are designed for. Bits of fungi came out which was both fascinating and gross, then the doctor had another look and told me that there was still a lot of fungi growth, I needed 10 more days of antifungal drugs, and 2 more ear cleaning sessions: one tomorrow and one in a week. Not the conclusion I was hoping for I must admit. This was all made more stressful by the fact that the doctor mumbled in thickly-accented spanish. Not only is my spanish not good, I am also half deaf right now, so I definitely feel like I missed half of the story.

But to 360 back to my original point, I am, surprisingly, quite happy. It’s really great to not be in constant pain. For everyone reading this who is not in pain, just take a quick stock of your body and truly appreciate that you are feeling fine right now. What a wonderful feeling. And for those who are in constant pain, my deepest sympathy, it is exhausting and frustrating and horrible.

I was talking to my mum earlier and she said “Sophie you don’t have to be so brave all the time”, but actually I do. When you’re in a different country/place to the people that really love you and you’re suffering, you kind of have no choice but to be brave! What else can you do? I’m not exactly going to jump on a plane home, so I’ve just got to tough this one out. No one can feel your pain for you. What does bring an amazing amount of relief is emotional support. When someone messages you asking if you’re okay, how you’re doing, how you’re feeling; it is so comforting to know there are people out there who worry about you and care for you. So if you do have a sick friend or relative, message them once in a while just to let them know you care.