Tired

ired 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.

“ anks 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...