I changed an adult diaper

As a girl growing up in the suburbs with a stable family and never really going without, there are certain inevitabilities in life. You expect you'll go to college, you'll get too drunk and throw up. You'll clean up after a roommate. You'll have kids and change diapers. You'll get a dog who will poop on your carpet. Maybe you'll be a bartender and have to clean up after your college lacrosse team after a "fundraiser" gone awry.

One thing that former-marketing-major-I-want-to-wear-a-power-suit chick would never have expected to be doing at 8AM on a Sunday morning - changing the adult diaper in a nursing home of a man I've never met before.

In theory, yes, it's kinda gross. In practice, however, it's much, much worse. Poop smells. Plus, you have to figure that someone who is incontinent and cannot clean himself, may have some other physical difficulties. Like, laying on his side. It took three of us to perform a bed bath on this man. Two to hold and one to clean. He wasn't a large man, but he was very stiff. He has osteoporosis and some other issues that make it painful and difficult to remain in that position.

And, while it is a shock - physically - to have to provide such a steep level of care for someone, it's really the emotion of it that's gotten to me. I can't imagine what it must be like to see a crew of 20-somethings in scrubs swarm in to wipe my butt.... To know that my whole life has already happened.

I guess this is why they start us in a long-term care facility. We're seeing people who have contributed so much for so many years. They deserve the best care.

I had three sessions in the nursing home so far. The first two times, I was paired up with total-care patients who could do very little for themselves. The first week, the man I was caring for could barely speak. He was very weak, had a rough night's sleep and was fighting a pneumonia infection. The next time, I was caring for a man in a similar physical state, who was mentally aware. That was more difficult. He was so aware of what was going on and the fact that he couldn't help. He was also the man who needed the assistance of three nursing students.

In my last shift, I was assigned to a woman. She is in her mid 90's and has been diagnosed with dimension. Physically, she's awesome, considering her age. And, she's a little hard of hearing, but mentally, she really seemed to be totally with it. She required some assistance. I had to wash her.... only after she stripped naked in the bathroom...without warning.. Which was a shock, since I had no clothes or towels ready for her... But, she was totally lucid and able to do much of her hygiene care herself. It wasn't until she said, while adjusting her bra "help me lift 'em in there" that I snapped back into the situation...

What keeps some people bed-ridden and others stripping in the bathroom? It's an incredible learning experience. In the lab, you get the techniques down. But in practice, you're not dealing with steps, you're dealing with people. I think some of the CNAs forget that sometimes. I know I'm green here, but I hope not to forget that. And, while we're at it, I hope no one ever has to "lift 'em in there" for me... whether I'm able to ask for it or not.

Notes: DNA and RNA

DNA – Deoxyribonucleic Acid (make up genes)
RNA – Ribonucleic Acid (protein synthesis)
Genitic Control of bacteria

DNA: Genes are composed of DNA
structural gene: contains information to make 1 protein (sequence of AAs)
o Humans have approx 30K genes per cell
o Bacteria have about 20,000
Regulatory Genes =: control protein synthesis (when, which, how much a protein needs to be synthesized)
o Recognizes a need (ex: make lactase when in lactose)
o Find the gene that makes the needed enzyme
o Turn the gene on (start transcription)
o Turn off the gene when no more is needed

Nucleotide = subunit of DNA molecule (4 possibilities)
1. 5-carbon sugar (DIOXYRIBOSE)
2. phosphate group (always attached to C#5)
3. 1 nitrogenous base (only thing that changes in DNA) (always attached to C#1)
a. Adenine
b. Cytosine
c. Guanine
d. Thymine
DNA Molecules are the largest (several million bases long)
** When you add one nucleotide to another (to make a chain) Bond made between phosphate of nucleotide to C#3 of the one you’re adding it to
PO4 → C#3
➢ second strand is dictated by the first: complimentary strands
➢ BASE PARING RULES:
o A <--> T (connected w/ 2H bonds)
o G <--> C (connected w/ 3H bonds)
Sugar Phosphate Backbone (never changes)
|-C=G-|
|-T=A-|
|-G=C-|
|-A=T-|
→ Double Helix
1954 – Watson and Krik received nobel prize in biology for discovering the composition of DNA
Each strand has a 5’ end and a 3’ end (opposite in the complimentary strand = ANTIPARALLEL)
DUPLICATING DNA
- Enzyme Helicase: unwinds DNA up to replication fork
- single-stranded binding proteins keep the strands from rewinding
- DNA Polymerase (orders the base, correct order)

3’/5’ 3’/5’
-C G- - G C-
-T A- -A T-
-G C- - C G-
-A T - -T A-
V ^ (builds from rep fork)
REPLICATION
FORK