And the highest paid public employee in your state is…
WTF.
of course.
Influence of sports on economics?
Wow … I never knew!
Love it!
Dying
Almost ruined a keyboard with hot cocoa reading this … bwahahaha!! :D
So wrong. So funny.
*chortle*
Man Walks Again After Surgery to Reverse Muscle Paralysis
After four years of confinement to a wheelchair, Rick Constantine, 58, is now walking again after undergoing an unconventional surgery at University of California, San Diego Heath System to restore the use of his leg. Neurosurgeon Justin Brown, MD, performed the novel 3-hour procedure.
“Following a car crash, Mr. Constantine had a brain stem stroke that caused paralysis on the right side of his body. His leg muscles became so severely spastic that he could not walk,” said Brown, director of the Neurosurgery Peripheral Nerve Program at UC San Diego Health System. “Our team performed a delicate surgery to reduce input from the nerves that were causing the muscles to over contract to the point of disability.”
“After my injury, I was told I would never walk again. All I could to was move from my wheelchair to my bed or a chair,” said Constantine, a former NASCAR crew member. “After surgery with Dr. Brown, I could put my foot flat on the ground to walk. With physical therapy, everything just gets better and better. I’m a firm believer in never giving up.”
Prior to surgery, Constantine underwent botox treatments and physical therapy in an attempt to restore the use of his leg. The results were positive but minimal. An additional nerve conduction study, called an electromyogram (EMG), identified the muscles causing the dysfunction.
“When all other options did not produce satisfying results, we opted for surgery,” said Brown. “With the EMG, we identified the over-excited nerves that needed to be downgraded. Mr. Constantine had surgery on a Friday and within days was in physical rehabilitation. Two weeks later he was walking without a walker and has even completed a 1-mile race without assistance.”
The surgery, called a selective peripheral neurotomy, is a procedure performed under a microscope. Brown makes an incision behind the knee to reach the tibial nerve. He then selectively trims back the troublesome nerve branches by up to 80 percent. Cutting the nerve reduces the “noise” being relayed back to the spinal cord which causes the spasticity.
This is amazing.
This is one of the reasons that I disagree with the current AMA standards of care. Medicine, as an industry, is run by pharmaceutical companies. I’m not saying that pharma is the devil, only that it’s overused and understudied, or studied by people who have direct financial considerations in the outcome or by people who have such a large mental bias that nothing short of a meteor could rock them into doing an appropriate study.
My gastro teacher was talking today about a patient of his who came in on prilosec “Because she had a vitamin P deficiency. Everyone who goes to a gastroenterologist finds out that they have a vitamin P deficiency.”
58% of americans experience GERD on at least an occasional basis, most of those on a weekly or daily basis. Are they all prilosec deficient?
It seems to me that it’s more likely that most of these are patients who eat mostly processed foods and refined carbs, who have chocolate, cigarettes and caffeine while they drink their soda and their peppermint tea. They’re stressed out and eating drive through food in their cars because they have a second job to make ends meet, or they couldn’t afford vegetables, or they were never taught how to make nutritious food. Does this stress really need vitamin P? Wouldn’t a cultural shift towards healthier, slower eating and living habits be a cheaper and more effective treatment?
We medicate lifestyle choices and we medicate emotions. We palliate, sedate, stimulate, and generally try to live our lives in this narrow grey corridor where we’re just like the neighbors that we don’t know or talk to. We do it because the studies tell us to, and they pay us more to give that one.
Lord keep us from ever discovering G-23 paxilon hydrochlorate.
i told myself a long time ago that i was going to draw some loser science-y valentines and only now am I doing it so here you go.
by the way, the brown one is supposed to be a liver cell, and the liver is the major sugar producing organ in your body GET IT GET IT?????
gosh i need to get a life
Oh god I love this.
Chinese man keeps himself alive for 13 years with HOMEMADE dialysis machine
Three times a week, Hu Songwen sits on a small toilet in his home in a rural east China town and fires up his homemade dialysis machine.
Hu, who suffers from kidney disease, made it from kitchen utensils and old medical instruments after he could no long afford hospital fees.
‘The cost for each home treatment is only 60 yuan (£6), which is 12 per cent of the hospital charge for dialysis,’ Hu said.
PLEASE WEAR A HELMET WHEN YOU RIDE, AND PLEASE REBLOG IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO RIDES.
These pictures are from an accident that almost killed me in August of 2005. As is, it left me with micro-scarring in my brain, and permanent memory and focus issues that both exacerbate and are exacerbated by my bipolar disorder and ADD.
For some time after the accident, I would start to say something only to be reminded that I had just told that same story perhaps five minutes earlier. I also had some mild aphasia—as in, I might ask you to close the toaster because it was getting blue in here. And we had no idea how long any of that would last.
Thankfully, the aphasia is completely gone now, and the memory issues aren’t as bad as they were, but they’re still there, and some memories are simply gone forever. I even forgot the names of some of my friends and relatives.
I wasn’t wearing a helmet that day because I was just zipping over to a store a few blocks away, at low speeds, on a little 49cc scooter. Not wearing a helmet was a stupid decision, one that has cost me pain, income, and memories, and caused a lot of pain and confusion for those who cared about me.
I oppose helmet laws for adults, but I urge everyone to make a personal choice to wear one, whether you’re on a bicycle or a 1600cc Harley. Because the pavement doesn’t care how big your ride is or how far you’re going.
Thank you, you sensible man. Sorry you had to learn the hard way. WEAR A HELMET PEOPLE. Or you’ll get to see my happy smiling face in the resus of my A+E!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WEAR YOUR HELMET.
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
“
| — | Henry Thoreau (via realestoptimist) |
