A Trip through the Circulatory System

I’m Dorothy

Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of a creature is

in the blood….” That’s me being mentioned in the Bible

Hi! I’m Dorothy,

a red blood cell.

Let me tell you

about my first trip

through the circulatory system.

Right Atrium

• I entered the right atrium which is a small chamber on the top of the heart. There were hundreds of other red blood cells all bringing carbon dioxide with them.

Right Ventricle

• With a whoooosh we went into the right ventricle, a big chamber on the bottom of the heart. In a second the cardiac muscles squeezed us out into the pulmonary artery.

Pulmonary Artery

• The pulmonary artery is like a blue tube. It reminded me of those water slide chutes humans slide inside at water parks.

Lungs

• Quickly we were in the lungs. I dropped off my load of carbon dioxide to be breathed out of our body. All around were small air sacs where we picked up our loads of oxygen.

God gave us breath

• Genesis 2: 6-7• the LORD God formed

the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Red cells with Oxygen

• Suddenly everyone holding oxygen turned a bright red. I guess that happens when we carry oxygen.

Look how bright I am!

Left Atrium

• Next we went to the left atrium, another small chamber surrounded by cardiac muscle.

Left Ventricle

• In no time we whooshed into the left ventricle and with a big squeeze we were in the aorta

Aorta

• The aorta is very crowded since all blood has to pass through there. It is a huge red tube. I felt like I was in a rollercoaster. The trip so far was bumpy with all the pumping going on.

Arteries

• I passed from larger arteries to smaller arteries with many other red blood cells. Soon there were only a few of us

Right Foot

• They told me I was to take my oxygen to the right foot so our body could kick a soccer ball.

Right Foot

• I travelled through a small vein to a larger vein and then an even larger vein. The trip wasn’t bumpy – just smooth sailing.

Veins

• We were joined by more and more red blood cells but we all looked kind of blue because we didn’t have oxygen. We then flowed into the inferior vena cava.

Veins

• That was my first trip through the circulatory system. Don’t have much time to write since I immediately started another journey – this time to the stomach!