Stupid is as Stupid Does

So the EarDoc told me to go and get a spray to help protect my ear for the moment. It had to be ordered (suggesting they don't have much call for it), but the lovely ladies at the Farmacia Beata Vergine della Salute were, as always, kind and helpful.a Salute

Love the box and the olde-time style. So I took out the bottle and read the instructions, which said I should put the nozzle in my ear and pump the shot directly inside. The paper on which the instructions were written was tiny, without diagrams or photographs.

Am I becoming senile? I look at this nozzle, and cannot for the life of me figure out how I can get it in my ear. Maybe if I turn the bottle upside-down? Does it work like a clip-on earring? No it does not. I'm afraid to push it too far in case the plastic breaks. I go online to see if they have instructions in English. Indeed they do, and they say exactly the same as the Italian version. No images, and I learn a bit about construction work (Boral is a big name in the field of building materials). I sit and look at the bottle on the table, and I haven't got a clue. I'm thinking stupid is as stupid does.

Along comes my beloved. I explain the problem, and she does this:

O dear.

Duh!

(apply appropriate epithet)

And, more than anything, grazie amore!

#DrawingTogetherGM 10: The Politics of Illness

Here is what I drew for this week's Graphic Medicine Drawing Together session. The prompt we were given this time was "Care as an urgent practical task". It was not an easy prompt, but we only had 15 minutes to draw so I went with what came immediately to mind.

When it was my turn to share what I'd drawn with the group, I asked them first to look without my saying anything. I wanted them to have an unguided response. Then I mentioned that this was a representation of me and my mother last year near the end of her illness. From my point of view, we were desperately trying to get her to eat, and (one time only) I tried to do a deal with her pain meds. I remember having a sudden flashback to feeding my baby sister many years earlier. She would sit in her high-chair in the exact same spot in the kitchen where my mother was sitting in that moment, and it felt to me like a similar situation, i.e., trying to get her to eat. It was just that instead of "one for you, one for me", or "here comes the airplane in for a landing!" it was "I will swap you a pill for a mouthful of soup."

It took me a while to understand that as her ability to be independent was being drained by the lymphoma, my mother sought any way she could to take some control of her life. And the one thing she had left was food. So when we said please, she said no. I get it now, but it was tough at the time. The fact that she was fighting was actually positive. And it is easier to see from here that while I truly wanted to alleviate her suffering, I  must admit that part of me did not want to feel it either. 

It's not something I ever really thought about before my mother got sick. I've rarely questioned the concept that medicine is something to help you get better. A simple perspective, I know. In a world where things are now rather more complicated. And so, looking at the drawing that I did, seeing what came first to my mind, now I ask:  where is the boundary between numbing the pain so that the patient's suffering is alleviated, and numbing the patient so others are not overwhelmed by their inability to cure the ailment? And who gets to choose, and why?

Naughty Baroness Murphy

Those of us interested in the life and times of the orchestra may have read about an unpleasant medical condition in the string section called "cello scrotum". Or not. It was recently revealed, however, that the whole thing is a great big hoax. The BBC takes up the story:

"A top doctor has admitted her part in hoodwinking a leading medical journal after inventing a medical condition called "cello scrotum". Elaine Murphy - now Baroness Murphy - dreamt up the painful complaint in the 1970s, sending a report to the British Medical Journal. She came clean when the hoax resurfaced in the 2008 Christmas edition."

Bad doctor. Bad bad doctor. You may read about the consequences here.

the cairo toe

the bbc reports about a prosthetic toe:

"An artificial big toe found on the foot of an ancient Egyptian mummy could be the world's earliest functional fake body part, UK experts believe. A Manchester University team hope to prove that the leather and wood "Cairo toe" not only looked the part but also helped its owner walk. They will test a replica in volunteers whose right big toe is missing. If true, the toe will predate the currently considered earliest practical prosthesis - a fake leg from 300BC. The toe dates from between 1069 and 664BC, so if we can prove it was functional then we will have pushed back prosthetic medicine by as much as 700 years."

i wonder how they find the volunteers?

o the solutions that can be found!

an incredible story i read in the times today ... a five-year-old girl who was badly burned at 2 will soon have her bald patch fixed with the help of a balloon!

plastic surgeons implanted a balloon under a healthy bit of her scalp, and slowly filled it with gel over a period of months, so the skin - with healthy hair growing from it - will stretch and stretch. for now, the poor kid has to walk around looking like zaphod beeblebrox, but when there is enough extra skin, the surgeons will graft it onto the bald patch. brilliant!

"Her mother said: “We can’t wait to see the finished result. Hopefully she will have a lovely full head of hair. But whatever happens, we think she is very beautiful.”"

read the article here.

the power of thought!

n's friend mark really does write about some interesting subjects in the science pages of the times. today it is about a chip in the brain of a paralysed man that helps him to operate machinery. here are some extracts:

The man who can open his e-mails by power of thought
By Mark Henderson
Paralysed knife victim says implant has changed his life

A MAN paralysed from the neck down has learnt to move a computer cursor and an artificial arm by the power of thought alone. The brain implant that has allowed him to do so could be used eventually to control wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs.
The first detailed scientific report on the case of Matthew Nagle, 25, whose spinal cord was severed in a knife attack, shows how sensors that measure brainwaves could allow paralysed patients to improve their quality of life greatly.

Mr Nagle, from Massachusetts, has been fitted with a 4mm-square chip that reads signals in the primary motor cortex of his brain, the region that would control movement if he had the use of his limbs.

When he imagines moving his paralysed body, the implant’s 100 sensors record the activity in his brain and transmit these signals to a computer that controls various devices. In nine months, he has learnt to move a cursor on a computer screen, open e-mails, play simple computer games and adjust the volume of his television. He has also learnt to operate a simple robotic arm.

A paper published today in the journal Nature describes his progress. He can move a cursor to a target on a computer screen with 75 to 85 per cent accuracy. He can also perform many of these actions while conducting a conversation. This suggests that total concentration will not be necessary to operate mind-controlled prosthetic limbs, a critical factor if they are to become part of everyday life.

A second patient, a 55-year-old man with a spinal injury, has also been implanted with the device, called BrainGate, though he has yet to achieve similar results.



Mr Nagle had been paralysed for four years before the study. The results indicate that brain activity involved in motion persists long after spinal injury and can be channelled to control computerised devices. This is important, as many scientists had predicted that the necessary nerve cells might wither with lack of use, making it difficult to harness their signals.

“What is also encouraging is the immediate response from the brain,” Dr Donoghue said. “When asked to ‘think right’ or ‘think left’, patients were able to change their neural activity immediately. And their use of the device is seemingly easy. Patients can control the computer cursor and carry on a conversation at the same time, just as we can simultaneously talk and use our computers.”

i guess it's a toss-up between being excited at the amazing things we humans can learn to do, and going all 1984 on it.

i just finished reading 'never let me go' by kazuo ishiguro which is a tale told by and about a clone developed for organ donation. for me the part that really got to me was the shrinking horror of the 'normal' people when coming into contact with the clones ... not willing to give up the longer lives and greater health they receive from this scheme, they have to demonise these other living beings.

today, however, i am excited that mr nagle, while rooted physically to the spot by his injuries, may now surf the world through his computer.