Spinal Nerves

In class this past week i mostly learned about the vertebrae and the spinal nerves. The first set of the vertebrae is called the cervical vertebrae which is made up of 7 vertebrae and 8 spinal nerves in between each vertebrae, Also know as C1- C7. the next is the thoracic vertebrae which consist of 12 vertebrae and 12 spinal nerves, also know as T1-T12. The lumbar vertebrae has 5 vertebrae and 5 spinal nerves, also known as L1-L5. The sacrum is the end of the vertebrae with 5 vertebrae and 5 spinal nerves. Also, the vertebrae in the sacrum is fused together. The very last vertebrae is the coccygeal with 1 spinal nerve and is also known as the tailbone.

The vertebrae and spinal cord are a major part of our function. Without it the neurons wouldn't be able to travel thought out the body and i wouldn't be able to tell my hands to type this right now. The cervical nerves help us move our shoulders all the way to the upper arms. It would be very strange to not be able to move my most upper part of my body. The C7 nerve is for our middle finger movement. The thoracic nerves are the middle part of the body. Starting from bottom of neck all the way to pubic bone. This is where the sympathetic nerve impulses occur, or the flight and fight response. The spinal cord runs down through this area. The sensations of lumbar nerves are the legs. Without this there would be no walking and i wouldn't be able to do my job or any of the things i love to do. The sacrum is the pubic area and without that we wouldn't have any sensations there like orgasms. Last but not least is the coccygeal or "tail bone." I'm not really sure what the tail bone does but i know it hurts if you fall on it.

Wrappings Around Brain/Spinal Cord

In class this week i learned about the wrappings around the brain and spinal cord, also known as the Meninges. The outer most layer is called the Dura Mater, which is where the major blood vessels are. The dura mater is two layers thick around the brain and only one layer thick around the spinal cord. The space above the dura mater is called epidural space, and the space below is the sub-dural space. The outer layer to the skull is called the Periosteal and the inner layer is the Meningeal. Then the middle most layer has blood vessels but not as many as the dura mater. Part of the middle layer is the arachnoid mater that doesn't have any blood vessels, and its spider like. the second layer is called the sub-arachnoid space which is where the cerbrospinal fluid is located. Lastly, the inner most layer is called the Pia mater which is where the capillary networks are, also known as blood vessels. This is the tender area.
The layers of he Meninges are important to my everyday life in many ways. When my step father was hurt in Iraq he had to go threw six hours of brain surgery. Obviously they had to go threw all three layers to get to his brain and work on it. Then once he was back in the states they had to go back into his brain to fix a hole in his dura. When doing this they also found a cotton ball left in his head from the previous surgery. If they hadn't gone in to fix the hole in his dura, it would have caused a major infection, and probably would have caused him death. The layers around your brain could cause major problem to your health if something goes wrong. I have learned a lot about head injuries, so learning about the dura was something i already knew, but the other layers not so much.