"If I Only Had a Brain..."

The human brain weighs about 3 pounds. It consists of 75% water and consumes 20% of the body's oxygen. Laughing requires the coordinated activity of 5 different areas of the brain. A new connection is formed in the brain for every memory recalled. Stress alters the structure and function of the brain. The brain is more active while sleeping than while awake. And you can't tickle yourself because the cerebellum knows it is coming...

The older I get, the more I experience (and witness) the overlap between the physical and the psychological. The mind can trick us into believing anything it wants...it can create false memories and eliminate the bad ones. It can even internalize stress and spit it back out in the form of pseudoseizures, loss of consciousness and all. Amazing.

In the children I saw during my pedi neurology rotation, the brain was also the source of chronic, debilitating discomfort. It was a blessing and a curse, allowing their bodies to move and to feel and to exist while simultaneously reeking havoc on the body that gives it life. Some of them will never talk or hear their own voice. Others will have to take medications every single day of their lives to prevent them from having seizures multiple times per day. Obviously this is not the picture of childhood that most would prefer to see, but it is the reality of that mysterious little 3 pound organ.

Thankfully I am moving on to outpatient pediatrics, which puts me smack dab in the middle of a group of healthy children with minor, transient illnesses. Influenza and ear infections never seemed so boring...but also never seemed so "nice". Bring on the chubby babies.