Submitted by: Submitted by princess1225
Views: 10
Words: 1996
Pages: 8
Category: Other Topics
Date Submitted: 06/28/2016 07:39 AM
The Tired Swimmer: A Case Study on the Nervous System
by
Allison Russo, Morgan Falk, and Phil Stephens
Biology Department, Villanova University
Part I—Meet Annie
Annie felt despondent. Her team mates were being kind to her, but she knew that she was the reason that her
team lost the swim meet against the neighboring college. How many people could lose with a four-second
lead on the anchor leg of a -yard relay against someone they had beaten so easily last year? As she walked
out of the locker room she noticed that the blurred vision and eye strain had returned, even though she was
wearing glasses instead of her usual contacts. Maybe no one will recognize me with these on, she thought.
Annie hated wearing glasses. Her eye strain had become worse over the past month. Over the last week she
had had mid-term exams and papers to write and recently typing made her hands and fingers ache and they
felt weak. Even swim practice, which helped relieve her stress in the past, had become taxing. Her coach
noticed that her times were getting worse, even though he could see that she was working hard in practice.
As Annie walked out of the locker room she looked up and she saw her boyfriend, Matt, waiting for her. He
attended another college and had made a detour to drive her home for mid-term break.
“Thanks for driving all this way to take me home, Matt. I’m sorry that you made it early enough for the meet;
I was really bad. I just don’t know what’s wrong with me these days.”
Matt didn’t know what to say, so he smiled and took her hand. As they walked back to her dorm, Annie
thought how nice it was to have Matt to support her during such a tough time. Annie was gasping for air
and felt weaker than ever after they had walked up the two flights of stairs to her floor. She told herself that
she must set some time aside next week to do something about this constant fatigue.
Annie had already packed her bags for the trip home and Matt was able to carry all of her stuff to his car in...