Olly the Oxygen Molecule’s Big Journey

I started the day just like any other. I was an oxygen molecule named Olly and I spent my days floating through the air with my buddies Frank and Joe. All of a sudden I felt a strong inspiring pull as I was inhaled into Nigel the nasal cavity. He warmed me up and moistened me as I went past the ceilia named Cecilia. They cleaned me and removed all the dirt and dust that I used to hang out with.

Down into Phill the pharaynx I took a turn for the better and made my way down past Lenny the larynx into Teresa the trachea. I then had a choice to make, was I going to go down Benny the left bronchi or Bill the right Bronchi. I didn’t have much time to choose and soon I was rushed down Benny into the left lung, into a bronchiole and finally made my way down to Anne the alveolus. Here I was diffused through the thin walls of the alveolus and capillaries and on my way I meet a red blood cell named Rob. He told me that he was going to take me down to the leg where I was much needed as an energy preserver. He told me we were travelling through an artery and the first stop was going to be the heart. After leaving the left side of the heart Rob told me we had to go through the heart in order to have enough momentum to reach the leg. As the end to my journey drew closer I had to go through smaller and smaller openings, first some smaller arteries, then several arterioles and finally a bed of capillaries.

I then had to diffuse again. I left Rob and entered the muscle where cellar respiration was to occur. In exchange for my molecule and some glucose I left the muscle a changed cell. I had given the cell all the energy I could give to it and was now carbon dioxide molecule. There was now a slight problem. Although the leg muscle could now more, I was poisonous to the body and had to leave quickly. A new red blood cell was here to pick me up and take me away. Her name was Rebecca and she told me we would be travelling through the veins, back through the heart, then into the lungs and out through the nose.

I diffused back into the capillary bed, into a veinule and into a larger vein. Being pumped throughout the body I was soon back at the heart and was on my way to the lungs. As soon as I made it there I was quickly diffused back into the alveolus making the reverse journey I made into them. I went up through the bronchiole and up Benny the left bronchi. I entered into Teresa the trachea and went through Lenny the larynx making a noise as I was exhaled out the mouth. I had left the body a new molecule. I had started the day as helpful oxygen molecule and left as an unhelpful carbon dioxide molecule.