Something funny to enjoy

[katinthehat]

I recently attended a conference where Dr. Leiberman shared the poem she wrote as a medical student (see below). She currently works as a radiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and wrote a book called "I Signed as the Doctor." The book focuses on her battle with cancer.

The poem is absolutely hilarious.. Or at least I thought so. And I hope you too enjoy it as much as I did.

Here is a link to her blog for those who may be interested: http://isignedasthedoctor.blogspot.com/

Her poem can also be found in this chapter: http://isignedasthedoctor.blogspot.com/2008/11/chapter-7-home.html

***********************************************************

Ode to a Neutrophil by Laura Liberman

Now once there was a myeloblast in bone marrow awaiting
The day when he would grow up and start differentiating.
His mother, a promyelocyte, urged him with voice emphatic,
“Develop! Get some lysosomes! Be metachromatic!”

He was about to do it when a red blood cell nearby
Said, “You’ll regret it if you do it, pal.” “Regret it? Why?”
The red blood cell explained to him, “If you become a poly
You’ll live 2 days in tissues and then die. It would be folly

For one so young, such as yourself, to throw your life away
And live 2 days when you could live 4 months another way."
“I'd live 4 months? How could it be? You mean there’s hope in sight?”
The myeloblast demanded of the young erythrocyte.

“Of course,” replied the RBC, for you know very well
You live 120 days if you’re a red blood cell.”
So saying, the erythrocyte got up and swam away.
The myeloblast thought over what his friend had had to say,

And he resolved to try it. Yes, he would run any risk
In order to transform into a red biconcave disc.
And so, instead of synthesizing many lysosomes
He tried to make just hemoglobin off his polysomes

So he could carry oxygen just like a red blood cell.
The myeloblast then tried to lose his nucleus as well.
His mom, a metamyelocyte, about to be a band,
Said, “What’s holding you up, my son? I do not understand.

You should have had those granules inside you long before.
Now, hurry! There’s no time to spare! You can’t wait anymore!”
“But, Mom,” replied the myeloblast, “I can’t do what you do
‘Cause if I do that I’ll become a neutrophil like you.

And die after two days of life. But red blood cells live on
So to erythropoietin I must learn to respond!”
His mother, then a neutrophil, said, “Son, give up this game.
The situation’s desperate ‘cause the tissues are inflamed.

I know there’s an infection. I feel it in my lobes.
I know that those bacteria are entering in droves.
And only we can stop them, son. It’s true our life has flaws
I know that we must die for it, but we die for a cause.”

She turned and left the bone marrow, swam through the sinusoid
And gave a last long look at her delinquent little boy.
He thought it over. No, he couldn’t selfishly ignore
His duty as a neutrophil as he had done before.

“Longevity is nice,” said he, “but I must do what’s right,
And so I’ll be a polymorphonuclear leukocyte.”
And so, our friend the myeloblast gave up his former ways.
He turned into a neutrophil in less than 14 days.

And then he left the bone marrow, swam through the circulation,
Diapedesing when he found the site of inflammation.
“The place is full of bugs!” he cried. “Now what am I to do?”
A nearby poly said, “Just eat it, get it inside you,

And let your granules do the rest.” Our friend then heard the moanin’
Of an unlucky bug who had been coated with opsonin.
He hit it with his 2-1 punch until it was digested
Then turned to other bugs with which the tissue was infested.

It was a hard-fought battle, but the polys won the war.
The tissue, once inflamed, became just as it was before.
But yea, alas, our poly was breathing his last breath.
His two-day life was over. He died a martyr’s death.

So let us thank the neutrophil, who gives his life to us
Who fights with our bacteria and dies with them in pus.
No choristers will sing for him. For him will toll no bells,
But we will thank the neutrophil, the noblest of the cells.

***********************************************************

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Siverhideo1985]

awesome thanks for sharing

 

[Climberak]

 

[bassfishindoc]

very cool

 

[SnowTown]

very nice...

but i thought myeloblasts are only able to differentiate into neutro/eosino/basophils?

 

[Mayhem]

I love nerd humor

 

[medstar21]

I quite enjoyed that... haha, very clever. I don't know how people come up with these things, I'm just not that creative...