Friday night was the 2010 DUCoM Halloween party! It was held at the Reading Terminal Market downtown. The decorations were spooky, the food was to die for, and the costumes were a howl! Alex and I went as pink puffer and blue bloater... completely nerdy but we loved it!
Pink puffer and blue bloater are descriptions used to define what patients coming in with emphysema and chronic bronchitis would look like. The pink puffer, with their emphysema, has destroyed alveolar walls, trapping air in little pockets in the lung. This leads to the characteristic barrel chest. The pink puffer has to purse their lips in order to get enough pressure to get some air out during expiration and hyperventilate (puff) to overcome the loss of surface area for gas exchange. For the major part of the disease, the pink puffer is oxygenated well enough to remain pink because of their "puffing".
The blue bloater has chronic bronchitis. With chronic bronchitis, the mucus glands undergo hyperplasia, producing lots of mucus, and there is inflammation around the bronchi. The blue bloater has obstructed airways from all of the mucus and has less oxygen and more carbon dioxide. This obstruction leads to increased residual lung volume making them look bloated. Their low oxygen state makes them look cyanotic.
Pink puffer and blue bloater! Alex is carrying his diagnostic 2-3 tablespoons of mucus produced for 3 consecutive months in 2 consecutive years!! I have my disease causing cigarettes :)
Costumes!
Danielle was Sweet Dee from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Krista was a gatorade-sweating tennis player, Jay was a Pinata, Rohini was Audrey Hepburn, and Hilary was a crazy cat lady!
Kia and Emily, or should I say, Optimus Prime and Mikaela from Transformers!
A bacteriophage!!!
Visish and Rohini
The girls
The guys and Hilary
Where's Waldo?
Great idea! Pink puffer and blue bloatter!
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Omg how funny! My STEP1 is in 8 days and I was studying and came across this. Thank you for making my day.
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