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1.0 Module Overview

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Anatomy & Physiology I · Module 1 · Anatomical Language, Membranes & Homeostasis

Reading Stina’s Chart

One patient. Twenty years of emergencies, each treated alone and never read together. This module hands you the map and the language clinicians use to describe a body — and teaches every piece of it by threading it through a single night in the ER that began with a needless appendectomy.

7 parts
Chart Clue #1
Stina’s diary

1

The case this module reads

Stina is a graduate student whose recurring fevers, belly pain, chest pain, and swollen joints were each treated as a separate emergency — and never once read together. At twenty-six, a stabbing pain in her lower-right belly sent her into surgery within hours. The appendix they removed came back pathologically normal, and weeks later the identical pain returned with no appendix left to blame.

That contradiction is the engine of this module. To understand how a normal organ can hurt — twice — you have to step back and learn how a body is organized, located, and regulated. By the last page, the same scattered chart that sent her to surgery starts to read as one continuous story, and the first clue in her decades-long diagnostic timeline goes up on the board. You’ll carry Stina all the way to a diagnosis across the semester; Module 1 is where you learn to read her.

PATIENT CHART · STINA · CHART CLUE #1

From Stina’s diary

Age 16 · “Unremarkable”

“‘Unremarkable,’ he said, like that was good news.”

2

Seven parts, one chart

Each part opens with a finding from Stina’s chart and asks you to commit to a prediction before any video plays, then alternates short videos with H5P activities. Work them in order.

1.1

LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION

A 3 a.m. Decision

An appendix that was fine — and how a body is organized, atom to organism.

1.2

DIRECTIONAL TERMS

Where Exactly Does It Hurt?

The precise word — RLQ — that pointed a whole team at the wrong organ.

1.3

CAVITIES & PLANES

The Spaces Between

Cavities, planes, and the serous “potential space” where her attacks ignite.

1.4

MEMBRANES & SEROSITIS

Four Membranes, One Troublemaker

Sorting the four membranes and cornering the serous lining behind it all.

1.5

FEEDBACK & FEVER

The Thermostat, Reset on Purpose

Homeostasis, negative feedback, and fever as a raised set-point (IL-1β).

1.6

FLUIDS & GRADIENTS

Water, Compartments & Gradients

Body water, diffusion, and effusion/ascites read as third-spacing.

1.7

SYNTHESIS

Reading the Whole Chart at Once

Inflammatory vs. structural pain — the habit that collapses it into one disease.

◆

REFERENCES

The Evidence Behind the Case

Every step of this module’s reasoning, paired with the peer-reviewed literature behind it.

3

Alongside the parts

Stina’s diary

Relief Is Not the Word

Fifty years of the case told from inside it. Each part page links to the entry that matches it.

The evidence

1.9 Evidence Behind the Case

Every step of this module’s reasoning, paired with the peer-reviewed literature behind it.

The whole story

Stina’s Complete Story

Every part’s chart note and story on one page — read ahead, or look back.

4

What you’ll be able to do

By the end of Module 1 you will be able to:

  1. Define anatomy and physiology and place a clinical finding within the levels of organization.
  2. Use anatomical position, directional terms, and body regions/quadrants to locate a finding.
  3. Identify the body cavities and planes, and describe the serous membranes and their potential space.
  4. Name and distinguish the four membrane types, and explain serositis.
  5. Explain homeostasis and negative feedback, and explain fever as a reset set-point.
  6. Describe fluid compartments, diffusion down gradients, and third-spacing (effusion, ascites).
  7. Distinguish inflammatory from structural pain and read a whole chart as a single story.

Start here · Part 1

A 3 a.m. Decision

An appendix that was fine — and how a body is organized, atom to organism.

Begin Part 1.1 →

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A 3 a.m. Decision

Reliable information on rare diseases

NORD · NIH GARD · Orphanet · MedlinePlus Genetics: FMF · FMF & AID Global Association · Autoinflammatory Alliance · Global Genes · Amyloidosis Foundation

Stina has one rare disease. In the United States, about 1 in 10 people live with one of the more than 7,000 known rare diseases. These organizations are where patients, families and clinicians go for trustworthy information.

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All pages for Module 1 — Anatomical Language, Membranes & Homeostasis

1.0 Module Overview
1.1 A 3 a.m. Decision
1.2 Where Exactly Does It Hurt?
1.3 The Spaces Between
1.4 Four Membranes, One Troublemaker
1.5 The Thermostat That Resets: Fever
1.6 Water, Compartments & the Pull of Gradients
1.7 Reading the Whole Chart
1.8 Conclusion and Assessment
1.9 Evidence Behind the Case

All Modules
  1. Anatomical Language, Membranes & Homeostasis
  2. Just Enough Chemistry
  3. The Cell & Its Transport
  4. Making Cells & Proteins
  5. The Integumentary System
  6. The Skeletal System
  7. The Muscular System
  8. Nervous Tissue & the Senses
  9. The Spinal Cord
  10. The Brain & the Blood–Brain Barrier
  11. The Autonomic Nervous System
  12. Special Senses (in development)
  13. The Endocrine System
  14. Blood
  15. The Heart
  16. Blood Vessels
  17. The Digestive System
  18. The Respiratory System
  19. The Urinary System
  20. Fluids, Electrolytes & Acid–Base Balance
  21. The Reproductive System
  22. The Immune System

List of terms