3011652 การวินิจฉัยโรคด้วยวิทยาการทางเวชศาสตร์นิวเคลียร์ Nuclear Medicine Diagnosis
ฟิสิกส์พื้นฐานทางเวชศาสตร์นิวเคลียร์ หลักการพื้นฐานของสารเภสัชรังสี เรดิโออิมมูโนแอสเสย์ และเทคนิคที่เกี่ยวข้อว การตรวจอวัยวะต่าง ๆ ด้วยสารเภสัชรังสีโดยการถ่ายภาพและไม่ถ่ายภาพ
(Basic physics in nuclear medicine; basic principles of radiopharmaceuticals, radioimmunoassay and related techniques; radionuclide organ imaging and non-imaging studies.)
(3011652 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)
Hang overs and effects. You may read my blog on liver filed under Health.
Story;
My hangovers are much worse than they used to be, and they are also more delayed. These days, after a heavy night, I wake up feeling OK-ish, but then get progressively worse during the day, ending up with a migraine at around 3pm followed by vomiting until 7pm, and no desire to eat or drink. It used to be white wine that had this effect, but now it’s sadly all types of alcohol in excess. Why should this be?
It sounds as if your liver is being damaged by your excessive alcohol consumption – no hunger, no thirst, nausea and vomiting are all possible indicators of liver problems. The delay in getting over the hangovers is almost certainly because your liver is no longer as efficient as it was in dealing with alcohol. Alcohol in excess is a poison – sorry, but there is no other way of looking at it. As such, you must seek out medical advice on the state of your general health, and on that of your liver in particular. In the meantime, soft drinks can taste as good as alcoholic ones, and don’t give you hangovers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/28/hangovers-cold-numb-fingers
3020772 ปฎิบัติการอายุรกรรมทั่วไป 5 Practice In General Medicine V
ควบคุมดูแลการรักษาผู้ป่วยในหอผู้ป่วยของแพทย์ประจำบ้านปีที่ 1 ร่วมอภิปรายการวินิจฉัยและแนวทางในการรักษาผู้ป่วย
(Supervising the first year residents for the management of the patients in the in-patient ward; discussion on diagnosis and treatment of the patients.)
(3020772 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)
Image via Wikipedia
This is an interesting article that discusses the way a hospital system decided to change the way it provided care and establish a goal for the future by addressing patient care and patient perceptions. That is unique in this field, but what really caught my eye was the fact that the model was developed mainly on the input from nurses who were actually giving that care. That is unheard of!
It is very nice to see an article that gives credit to the nursing staff and actually has nice things to say about their collective abilities to facilitate changes that make things better. In this instance, the patients themselves gave the model a good response.
Anyway, read the article here or visit the original and read some of the other articles found there. It is worth your time, I think, to read and think about this process. Maybe you can initiate something similar in your own system? It’s not impossible, but I agree change is always hard.
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By Lindsey Dunn October 23, 2009ThedaCare, a four hospital community health system based in Appleton, Wisc., is a leading healthcare delivery system and is nationally recognized for its continual process improvement efforts. The hospital recently implemented one of its widest-ranging improvement efforts — a truly integrated, collaborative model to guide all inpatient care. The collaborative model has been widely successful in improving the quality of patient care and making that care more efficient, according to Kathryn Correia, senior vice president of ThedaCare and president of Appleton Medical Center and ThedaClark Medical Center in Neenah, Wisc.
“Lean” process improvement
In 2003, ThedaCare executives searched for a way to accelerate the health system’s process improvement efforts and stumbled upon lean management — a management and process improvement method that is focused on eliminating activities that do not add value to the organization’s end product. Executives from the health system found a company in their own backyard that had successfully implemented lean processes to the manufacturing of outdoor equipment and set forward in implementing these same processes in their hospitals.
“We knew there was a lot we didn’t know, but we decided to get our hands dirty and jump right in,” says Ms. Correia. “We brought in facilitators and held week-long rapid improvement events where groups of employees examined various processes and recommended improvements. We looked at the various results from these events and selected a few areas to work on first.”
The hospitals started with improving administrative aspects of hospital processes, and then moved to examining enterprise value streams. Eventually, hospital leaders began to focus on improving inpatient care in order to differentiate ThedaCare’s inpatient services from its competitors, and put an improvement group to work to figure out a way to meet this goal.
“We decided that our vision for the future was creating a unique inpatient and ER experience, which relates back to the mission of our hospitals, and this became part of our strategic plan,” says Ms. Correia. “What resulted from about 18 months of process improvement events examining this was a total redesign of our inpatient care — a truly breakthrough and innovative model for collaborative care.”
Model of success
After a year of trialing the new, employee-developed collaborative-care model, ThedaCare began implementing it system-wide — a process which is expected to be completed by 2012. The model has proven extremely effective so far, reducing costs associated with inpatient stays by 25 percent, patients’ length of stay by 25 percent and various error margins to nearly zero and significantly increasing patient satisfaction scores.
According to Ms. Correia, the model’s effectiveness is due to the input of front-line employees in developing the model. “Innovation happens synergistically. We knew we had to figure out what our differentiator would be in the future for inpatient care, but we weren’t quite sure what it would be,” she says. “Nurses had a good concept of what they wanted collaborative care to look like, but we needed lean processes to really develop something we could implement.”
ThedaCare’s collaborative care model is truly groundbreaking and will likely serve as a model for many other hospitals as they look to integrate their services and provide more collaborative care. The model is composed of six critical elements, all of which encourage the collaboration of caregivers and the removal of non-value added activity in the provision of inpatient care. The six elements are:
1. Collaborative rounding upon admission. Within 90 minutes of admission, a nurse, physician and pharmacist round on a patient and his or her family and collaboratively develop a care plan specific to the patient. The three-way rounding ensures that all providers understand and agree upon a patient’s course of care, and the presence of the pharmacist additionally reduces the possibility of harmful drug interactions, says Ms. Correia.
2. Evidence-based plans of care. Each patient receives his or her own evidence-based single plan of care, which integrates services from various departments within the hospital. The care plans are developed using care guidelines from Milliman Care Guidelines, a Milliman Company, and all disciplines combine to form a single integrated plan.
3. Nurse as manager of care. In ThedaCare’s collaborative model, the nurse is the navigator of patient care and is supported by ancillary paraprofessionals. The nurse is responsible for guiding the patient from one phase of care to the next and makes sure that all quality criteria are met during each phase of care. Nurses often suggest options to physicians in order to advance care at a more optimum rate, says Ms. Correia.
4. Tollgates. As patients move through their care plans, nurses ensure that the patients do not move forward unless they meet certain requirements of their last phase of care. These “tollgates” are based largely on care guidelines and time, and serve stopping points along the path of care. When a patient reaches a tollgate, the nurse will only allow the patient through to the next phase of care if it is documented that the patient has undergone certain measures of quality required in the previous phase of care.
For example, evidence-based medicine suggests that pneumonia patient should receive an antibiotic within four hours of admission. Thus, a ThedaCare nurse is responsible for ensuring that all pneumonia patients receive an antibiotic in this time frame, and if this doesn’t occur, the nurse must stop the care pathway and fix the issue before advancing the patient.
5. Electronic medical record. Thedacare uses electronic medical records to track the progress of a patient’s care along his or her pathway and share health information among providers from different service areas within the hospitals. The EMRs also include notifications for tollgates, alerting nurses of the need to evaluate a phase of care.
6. Purposeful design of physical space. Finally, ThedaCare redesigned its inpatient floors in order to make care more efficient. Each patient room includes approximately 80 percent of supplies a nurse would need to care for a patient; this reduces the time a nurse would spend traveling from the room to the central supply location, says Ms. Correia. Additionally, the rooms are designed to reduce the steps staff members take to perform various tasks, thereby making care more efficient.
Learn more about this model here
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See our Pre-Med Preceptorships page to learn more about applying for job shadowing experience through Peacehealth or the Asklepiads.
General updates and information:
The Peacehealth practicum is now accepting students of sophomore standing and above. Freshmen should contact the Asklepiads.
If you set up a job shadow on your own in Eugene or Springfield, you should contact Chris Traver at Peacehealth (see link above) to let her know whom you plan to shadow. She will have some paperwork for you. This very important step will help ensure that you, your preceptor, and Sacred Heart Hospital are legally protected from possible lawsuits. Please do this even if your preceptor does not regularly work at Sacred Heart. He or she may be called to the hospital in certain situations, and if you are shadowing, you must all be legally protected. Thanks!
Here are some articles that can be discussed. Talk about others if you like.
Subdivision Ordinance:
Quote from the paper; “The manner in which agricultural and forest land is being consumed by residential growth hurts the integrity of planned growth”. Did I miss something? So is OK to buy up farmland for county business just to sit there not being used?
Letter to the Editor: Morgan Phenix
I never been to Dr. Horng for anything. It is sad to lose a doctor. From what I understand, he is “old school” like Dr. Holsinger was. I do not believe that the decision by the State Board of Medicine was hinged soley on Dr. Dale’s testimony. If a board had decided the Dr. Horng is not vital to this community, then are they breaking their own code of ethics or of some sorts? Can anyone remember that we almost lost a hospital a while ago because the hospital was described by some as a “roach motel” (you can check in, but you wouldn’t check out)?
Fire Siren:
Those that live near it claim it is a pain. For some, it is a life saver.
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Original Link
A near-death experience, or NDE, is a profound psychological event that may occur to a person close to death or who is not near death but in a situation of physical or emotional crisis. Being in a life-threatening situation does not, by itself, constitute a near-death experience. It is the pattern of perceptions, creating a recognizable overall event, that has been called “near-death experience.”
Across thousands of years and in cultures around the world, people have described powerful experiences that follow this general pattern with its common features. At its broadest, the experiences involve perceptions of movement through space, of light and darkness, a landscape, presences, intense emotion, and a conviction of having a new understanding of the nature of the universe.
An NDE may begin with an out-of-body experience—a very clear perception of being somehow separate from one’s physical body, possibly even hovering nearby and watching events going on around the body. An NDE typically includes a sense of moving, often at great speed and usually through a dark space, into a fantastic landscape and encountering beings that may be perceived as sacred figures, deceased family members or friends, or unknown entities. A pinpoint of indescribable light may grow to surround the person in brilliant but not painful radiance; unlike physical light, it is not merely visual but is sensed as being an all-loving presence that many people define as the Supreme Being of their religious faith.
A near-death experience may include few or several of the common features. Many accounts of experiences include only one or two of the common features, but those were so powerful they created permanent changes in people’s lives.
The emotions of an NDE are intense and most commonly include peace, love and bliss, although a substantial minority are marked by terror, anxiety, or despair. Most people come away from the experience with an unshakable belief that they have learned something of immeasurable importance about the purpose of life. Overall, the entire experience is ineffable—that is, it is beyond describing; even art and metaphor cannot capture it. The effects of an NDE are often life-changing, and its details will typically be remembered clearly for decades.
What causes a near-death experienceIn a scientific age, it is only natural that people want to understand the biological or psychological origins of experience, and a variety of neurological and chemical explanations have been proposed as the cause of NDEs: lack of oxygen, excess of carbon dioxide, seizure activity in the temporal lobe, the effect of drugs such as DMT or ketamine, hallucination, psychological avoidance of death, normal shutting down of brain activity, and a dozen or more other possibilities.
No scientific explanation so far has satisfactorily accounted for all aspects of NDEs or their effects. For example, numerous patients who were being clinically monitored and were known to be well oxygenated have later reported having an NDE during that time; drugs are not a factor in all NDEs; the characteristics of sleep disorders and NDEs are not identical. Hallucinations are highly individual and produce confusion and hazy memories, exactly the opposite characteristics of near-death experiences, which tend to share characteristics and be remembered vividly for decades as being “realer than real.” For every medical cause that has been put forward, there are reasons the NDE researchers say, “Not quite right.”
Further, despite reports that scientists have been able to induce NDEs through the use of drugs or electrical stimulation to the brain, none of the reports has been altogether convincing. The reports have been based on a partial similarity to a limited aspect of NDE, or they have involved very few people—sometimes only a single individual—in an experiment that does not really replicate a full NDE, or the aftereffects do not coincide with those of a true NDE. After decades of investigation, researcher and psychiatrist Bruce Greyson, MD, has reported, “No one physiological or psychological model by itself explains all the common features of NDE.”*
Thousands of documented NDEs challenge mainstream Western thinking and belief systems. Expectations about an afterlife may be challenged, and some people abruptly develop radically new interests and abilities after an NDE. One subject of debate is whether consciousness (mind) resides exclusively in the physical brain. For example, many people who have had an NDE accurately report events that occurred around their bodies when they were unconscious or even clinically dead—in at least one case, when clinical monitoring clearly showed no brain activity. Some NDEs have revealed family secrets, such as the existence of a never-mentioned sibling. According to the prevailing belief system of industrialized societies, these things are scientifically impossible.
Although no relationship has been found between religious orientation and the likelihood of having an NDE, numerous studies have reported a significant correlation between the depth of an NDE and the importance a person subsequently places on religion or spiritual activity. For some, this is because they believe they have had a glimpse of Heaven and now believe absolutely in the existence of God and life after death. For others, it is because the NDE convinced them beyond question of the purpose of life as expressed in religious or spiritual teachings about love, service, and the reality of “something more” beyond physical existence.
Curiously, there has been no major study of the relationships between near-death experiences and the origins and teachings of the major religions.
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*Greyson, B. (2001). Posttraumatic stress symptoms following near-death experiences. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 71, 368-373.
Aside from the swine flu, the situation is getting worse in terms of the numbers of the people who have the “regular flu”. Some schools have recently been closed, as the Education Ministry and the Health Ministry issued a notice according to which school principals could make their decisions more freely.
However, some principals have been reporting an increase in the numbers of children (students) who keep going to schools and are seen taking their pills regularly during/in class, the Radio Impuls radio station reported today. “Apparently, the kids’ parents could not stay home with their children, so they were sent to school, even though they should probably be in bed,” one principal was quoted as saying.
It should be noted that the tradition of babysitting is absolutely un-developed in this country. But even if it was developed, I don’t think anyone would risk their health under the present conditions. According to the Czech legislation, parents are entitled to apply for a special kind of paid leave the purpose of which is to take care of an ill child. However, many parents find it “risky” in times when companies are reducing staff numbers (i.e. as it may become clear who their company can do well without).
I’ve already published some useful lists that feature medical professionals and scientists who use Twitter actively. A few examples:
And now here is David Bradley’s list on SciScoop: 32 scientwists with 2000+ Twitter followers
If you know other users who focus on medicine or science but have never been covered in any of these lists, please let us know.
Criminal gangs from Russia are making millions by selling counterfeit Tamiflu online to paranoid Britons. Anxious people, who are worried that they will be able to get the drug by normal means through the NHS, are buying the drug online from conmen. Thousands of fraudsters, mostly based in Russia, work to promote the medicines that could be counterfeit. The UK is in the top five countries in the world being conned by these online fraudsters. The people using these Internet pharmacies are at risk to their own health, personal information and credit card details. There is a huge amount of risk despite the drugs for Swine Flu being free on the NHS and being offered to all who need them.
I sometimes wonder whether I have limits, like as in, how far can I go? Even with no competitors, can I make my own Olympic Game to ensure I achieve the best I can?
Miley has this heart condition which is known as Tachycardia, which is where the heart rate speeds up, and the rest of the body can’t keep up. Although it isn’t life threatening, it acts as her limit.
Sometimes, I’ve thought what my limit is. Like, whether after studying law, accounting, engineering, medicine… MAYBE, I mean just MAYBE, I might consider stopping lol???
I don’t know, but God is my strength!!!
Jacobson hopes to restore trust in office
Death no mystery to county coronerBy JOSHUA WOLFSON – Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Saturday, November 7, 2009 12:00 am
Formally worked at the Wyoming Medical Center,Connie Jacobsen took over as the County coroner in Sept. (Tim Kupsick/Star-Tribune)
Connie Jacobson has been asking questions about death for almost her entire life.
Growing up, she’d quiz her father about his work embalming bodies at a funeral home. She wanted to know things, like where all the blood went.
“It wasn’t dinner table conversation, but I had curiosities,” she said. “I had questions when I got old enough to know what he was doing.
“Her interest would eventually lead to the top job in the Natrona County Coroner’s Office. Death, she says, has never been a mystery to her.
“I guess what intrigues me is my job of finding out why that patient died, or that person died, and putting all of those investigative pieces together,” she said.
As coroner, Jacobson is responsible for investigating accidental, violent or unattended deaths, as well as suicides. The 57-year-old assumed the job in September, replacing Dr. James Thorpen, who retired after nearly three decades in office.
Jacobson took the job in the midst of the criminal prosecution against former chief deputy coroner Gary Hazen, who has admitted to taking prescription drugs from the office for his own use. Jacobson, who plans to seek re-election next year, said she has taken steps to prevent a similar situation and restore the public’s faith in the office.
“Because of this last year’s history … my concern and my focus is to regain trust and credibility with the community, and to be more open with the community,” she said.
Forensic nurse
Jacobson came to the coroner’s office after more than two decades as a nurse. She most recently served as Wyoming Medical Center’s trauma nurse coordinator.
Her speciality is forensic nursing, in which nurses, in addition to caring for patients, also collect evidence and serve as liaisons between the medical and law enforcement communities. She feels her experience — including training in criminology — helped prepare her for the coroner’s job.
“My nursing background … is probably the best background to have as a coroner, if you are not a physician,” she said.
Compared with other specialties, the field of forensic nursing is relatively new, only gaining official recognition from the American Nurses Association in 1995. At one time, Jacobson said, she was the only forensic nurse in Wyoming. Even now, there are only a handful, with most specializing as sexual assault examiners.
“I kind of felt like the Lone Ranger, striking out, doing things that other nurses aren’t usually or normally doing,” she said.
While finishing up her education for forensic nursing, Jacobson had her first experience with the Natrona County Coroner’s Office, where she served as an intern. When the internship ended, she told Thorpen she’d like to work for him if a position every opened up.
“So he hired me,” she said.
From 1998 to 2001, Jacobson worked as a coroner’s investigator when she wasn’t at her job in the Wyoming Medical Center emergency room.
“There is nothing really glamorous about the job,” she said. “It’s man’s work. You do a lot of heavy lifting, hauling around. You are out in the weather.”
Changes
Jacobson resigned from the hospital this summer and sought the coroner’s office after Thorpen submitted his formal letter of resignation.
The Natrona County Commission selected her as coroner in August after interviewing her and one other candidate. Thorpen lauded the selection, calling Jacobson a “top-drawer person.”
New leadership has led to several changes at the coroner’s office. Because she’s not a physician like Thorpen, Jacobson has to rely on doctors in Montana, Colorado and Nebraska to perform autopsies.
Another notable difference, especially in light of Hazen’s crime, is the new prohibition against investigators collecting drugs from death scenes. That task is now left to the police, who are also responsible for storing the evidence and destroying drugs when they are no longer needed.
“We count, log and store all medicines over there,” Jacobson explained.
Jacobson also plans to increase communication between her office and the public.
“There are no secrets here,” she said. “There is nothing in our process that we can’t share with anybody else, as long as it is not still under investigation.”
That increased communication extends to the families of those who have died. Jacobson wants her office to spend more time with family members, because she believes they can help investigators take better care of the deceased.
“Families need to be involved in what we do and help us make decisions and feel a little bit of control… ,” she said. “We don’t stop taking care of people just because they died.”
Reach reporter Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@trib.com. Visit tribtown.trib.com/JoshuaWolfson/blog to read his blog.
Read the original article here
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Biodegradable chip: After 50 days under conditions that mimic those inside the body, this transistor array is mostly dissolved. Credit: Christopher Bettinger
Electronics that break down in the body could be useful in temporary medical implants and drug delivery.
By Katherine Bourzac
Fully biodegradable organic transistors, recently fabricated by researchers at Stanford University, could be used to control temporary medical implants placed in the body during surgery.
Biodegradable electronics “open up opportunities for implants in the body,” especially if the electronics prove inexpensive, says Robert Langer, institute professor at MIT, who was not involved with the research. Implants might incorporate the organic electronics with biodegradable drug-delivering polymers. Doctors might implant such a device during surgery, then activate it from outside the body with radio frequencies to release antibiotics if needed during recovery. The electronics could also help monitor the healing process from inside the body. After healing is complete, the entire device would dissolve in the body.
Earlier this month, researchers at Tufts University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported building silicon electronics on biodegradable silk substrates. Silicon electronics generally have much better performance than those made from organic semiconductors, but silicon isn’t biodegradable. The Stanford group, led by chemical engineering professor Zhenan Bao, is the first to make electronics from fully biodegradable semiconducting materials. Though the devices are stable in water, all that’s left of the devices after 70 days are metal electrical contacts just tens of nanometers thick.
So far, the group has proved that it can build organic electronics that work when wet and that break down under conditions that mimic those inside the body. The degradation of these devices is triggered by conditions similar to those found in the body: a salty solution with a slightly basic pH slowly breaks down the transistors. In order to be stable and maintain their performance while they’re in use, these devices will need to be encapsulated in another layer whose composition is tuned to expose the device once it has outlived its usefulness. The prototype device, described online in the journal Advanced Materials, is made from biodegradable plastics approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a biodegradable semiconducting material that resembles the skin pigment melanin, and gold and silver electrical contacts. These metals are also approved for use inside the body.
Article Continues - http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23940/
High school students continue to push gender identity. Kudos to them.
How food preferences vary by political ideology
Parents, are you paying attention? 7 Things “Good Parents” Do (That Screw Kids Up For Life)
10 Ways Dogs Help In The Medical Community
I hope that when I’m in my 80s I can still be as awesome as the people in the “Newlyweds” story
Huh, and I always thought the Green Line was the most dangerous of the lines in Boston:
Click On Links:
Abortion Provision In HR 3962; Formerly HR 3200
H.R. 3962 Summary
Affordable Health Care For America Act “H.R. 3962″
Obama’s Health Care, A Bad Idea
H.R. 3962 Tax Hikes
The Votes On H.R.3962
Obama Health Reform Lies
Impeach Obama
Obama On Abortion
Obama Lies About Abortion Funding in Healthcare Bill
Obama Joker Poster
Obama’s Science Czar Considered Forced Abortions
Healthcare battle ‘isn’t about me’
UPI Health Report
Inflammatory markers declined by as much as 60 percent in those eating poached, stewed or steamed meals, U.S. researchers found.
Lead author Dr. Helen Vlassara of New York City’s Mt. Sinai School of Medicine said inflammatory markers have been linked to increased risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, suggested inflammation linked to oxidants — in particular those that proliferate in fried, grilled or baked food — may overwhelm the body’s defenses.
The Ministry of Health has ordered provincial health authorities to closely monitor traditional Chinese medicine clinics where Chinese nationals are employed, Pham Vu Khanh, head of the Traditional Medicine Department, said November 8.
Health departments around the country have also been asked to monitor advertisements, medicine prices, and treatment at these clinics as well as issue of licenses for them, and their legal documents.
Many traditional Chinese medicine clinics operate in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and major provinces and often make claims in advertisements that they can cure many irremediable diseases.
They also reportedly sell medicines of unclear origins at very high prices and have Chinese nationals working there with false qualifications
There are 64 Chinese doctors known to authorities to be practicing at 54 clinics around the country. In Hanoi alone, there are 23.
Thank you Danielle for your advice on my blog. I am considering on doing natural medicine as my Keystone project topic. I believe that people should recognize that there are many healthy ways to keep your body from getting sick instead of eating pills which contain chemicals. These chemicals can cause annoying or even dangerous side effects. MedicineNet.com would be a very useful resource for me, however, I’m not focusing on conventional medicine. I can still use this site for basic information regarding ailments and such.
It must be tough living the life of a professional massage therapist.
On a good day, you spend your time working the muscles of well-heeled strangers, occasionally placing a hot rock on their backs or perhaps applying soothing unguents to the crevices between their toes. They’re relaxed, pampered, on the verge of a physical and spiritual rejuvenation, while you’re using your years of schooling in the ayurvedic arts in hopes of making enough tips to repay your student loan.
On a bad day, you’re clarifying your skill sets to a befuddled long-haul trucker whose interest in “massage” begins with the second letter of that word and ends with the fourth.
A proficiently administered massage, in the hands of a trained masseuse, can be a wonderful thing, bringing a sense of well-being to bodies over-exerted by the stress of everyday life. It’s a chance to step back from the rat race and give in to that guilty pleasure you’ve secretly harbored for new-age music and scented candles. Unfortunately, its image is too frequently sullied by purveyors of another, lower-class type of rubbing — the “adult hostess” whose “escort services” include “massage” along with posing, squatting and as much fondling of themselves as of others.
I wouldn’t claim to know anything about this baser style of entertainment, not in a public blog any way. But I have had an authentic, above-board massage on several occasions, and I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed it immensely if I weren’t scared witless by physical contact with others. So I thought I’d investigate the ins and outs of therapeutic massage (though I understand they don’t like the term “ins and outs”) in this week’s Website Review.
For my subject, I’ve chosen the site dbmassage.com. Obviously, they don’t do the massage through the website; you have to show up at their salon in a major city not far from my home. The “DB” in the name stands for Day Break, not for “denuded bodies,” not for “don’t blow,” and not for legendary hijacker D.B. Cooper, the guy who extorted $200,000 from Northwest Airlines and escaped via parachute over Washington State in 1971 (after all, why would you touch strangers if you had two hundred grand in ransom cash?).
Day Break’s home page is a simple affair, featuring a large close-up of either a bowl of jasmine petals gently floating in water, or an especially thin cabbage soup. You’re invited to “enjoy a respite from your hectic schedule,” and you don’t have to feel guilty about it because “massage is no longer a luxury, it is a healthy necessity,” though they do note elsewhere that it’s not covered by any insurance plan known to mankind.
Under the “Day Break Difference” heading, they describe their focus on offering “the best possible massage experience for the client, not on the quantity of massages performed,” so you can linger peacefully on a table rather than being rapidly kneaded in passing. All massage therapists must clear an extensive background check, because nothing ruins a soothing diversion like the fear that there’s a registered sex offender hovering inches above your half-dressed form.
The “Benefits of Massage” are described as “numerous and significant.” The style they use most often incorporates “touch therapy,” which I would think is a good idea for virtually any massage. Practitioners focus on “soft tissue dysfunctions” (the tissue may later become hard), and might provide “dramatic results” for conditions as unlikely as asthma, depression, gastrointestinal disorders, high blood pressure, and scarring. Their “knowledge of anatomy and physiology” will guarantee that they don’t accidentally massage your face when your biggest complaint is abdominal bloating.
I won’t name the individual staff members listed on the site, but you can trust that they are “passionate” about their work, travelled to Thailand, got an MBA from Wake Forest, or first became interested in massage while working for a dentist. Several of them are LMBTs (Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist) and at least one of the therapists has pursued additional coursework in something called “myofascial release” (hello!).
The “In-Studio” experience can generally take the form of one of three styles: therapeutic massage, sometimes called “Swedish”; neuromuscular and trigger point therapy, which “balances the person’s body over gravity” (presumably so you won’t go floating away during your session); and pregnancy massage. All three are reasonably priced between $65 and $75 an hour, certainly more expensive than the therapeutic benefits of a haircut but not as costly as legal advice. For only $20 more, you can get an additional 30 minutes of manipulation, a remarkable deal that makes me suspect you’re actually unconscious at that point and they’ve gone out for a bagel.
Finally, I’ll summarize a few of the Frequently Asked Questions. When should you NOT get a massage? If you are ill with an infectious disease, a fracture, or have open skin lesions, though the therapist will be willing to work around the latter if they’re localized and not actively oozing. What should you expect during your massage? You should talk with your masseuse before-hand to “determine what massage modality best fits your needs,” likely to include “vibration, percussion, effleurage, petrissage and whatever they think will work best for your muscles.” How should you dress for your massage? You can dress or undress to your comfort level, even leaving garments on, which the therapist will work around “as best they can.” I’d probably be most at ease in a full business suit, which hopefully they could massage through.
As for the proverbial elephant in the room (who, I imagine, would require one of the 90-minute sessions), they answer the question “what is NOT appropriate during a massage?” The following are strictly forbidden: foul language, arriving intoxicated, or “asking for more than a massage, i.e., sexual favors.” These can result in termination of the relationship, or simply allow you to take it to another level. However, “it is OK for your therapist to massage your buttocks/gluteal muscles.”
I guess using the term “gluteal muscle” is one way to keep those truckers at bay.
I started this WordPress account because I am bored, in bed, and in a lot of pain. Not emotional pain, not moral pain, just good old fashioned testicle pain. Since it’s so horrifying and debilitating, I’ve been reduced to wasting a perfectly good afternoon regaling strangers with TALES OF UROLOGY!
My troubles started last Monday when I jolted out of bed in excrutiating pain located in my southern hemisphere. In a panic I examined myself to find that it felt like someone had tied a knot with the spermatic chord of my left testicle. Upon discovering this, I feinted twice from a pain that’s best described as getting kicked with steel toed boots while suffering from blue balls. Guessing that it was testicular torsion, I had been rushed immediately to the emergency room. They had me answer several awkward questions, and sent me to be examined by a certain Dr. Lemons (I lol’d quite heartily at the appropriatness of that name). By the time he had started poking and proding at my wrinkle satchel, the swelling and pain had subsided making him believe that is was not torsion. This did not stop me from almost flopping off the examination table in pain the second he pinched my gooblies, after which he told me I needed a testicular ultrasound. So they make me waddle down the hall of the ER, still wearing a paper gown, to the ultrasound room. Well, I get there, and discover to my horror that the woman who is to administer this ultrasound smells like a rank combination of fish and sweat. While she was smearing my testicles with goo and rubbing a machine over them, she stared at me in a manner that felt like she was piercing my very soul (which I think would constitute as rape in most states). After that I had to park my sore hips in the waiting room next to a burn victim and a coughing flu patient for the better of two hours, waiting to see what they gathered from the black and white pictures of my nut innards. After staring at the fuzzy waiting room television, I was called into the office to be told that it was a bacterial infection, which my mother took to mean as “STD”. I assured her that I was still a loser, which eased her fears, but I was quite audibly calling bullshit on the bacterial theory. Against my will I had to take a week-long course of antibiotics, which made me sick as a mofo, untill I could see my urologist. Well I did eventually get around to seeing him, he told me that I was right in calling bullshit, that I did have torsion, and that I needed surgery. At this point I was quite scared, so I asked him what the surgery entailed in order to ease my fears. Unfortunately it was not exactly a soothing explaination, “Oh it’s no big deal, essentially we’re just going to tack your testicles to your scrotum!” In case you’re wondering, yes, it hurts just as badly as it sounds. I had the surgery on Monday, it’s now Wednesday and I’m still bed-ridden and groaning like a beached whale. The good news is that if I hadn’t gotten the surgery, I would have run the risk of losing a testicle. The bad news is that… Well, the rest of it is pretty much all bad news. I’m on vicodin for the pain, so I’m pill’d out of my skull, I have to stay in bed pretty much 24/7, and go figure that having hurt testicles makes everything else hurt as well. So, in conclusion, testicular torsion is pretty much as horrifying as it sounds.
This is going to seem a little radical, especially from someone like me — the neurology person. But perhaps it’s not. I am religious. I am an anthropologist. And though I may regret even writing down this thought, it remains something that has bothered me all day. I have kept my personal and professional lives and thoughts fairly separate so far, but where’s the fun if they don’t mix even a little as long as they mix in an anonymous space.
Let’s take, for example, HIV/AIDS. We are taught, at a fairly global level, that the initial HIV infection occurs through sexual contact or transmission of bodily fluids. In Cape Town, South Africa, some people (key word: some) are made to believe that a diagnosis of HIV reveals affectation by the devil.
You, hearing of this, may be incredulous, frustrated, angry, confused, or perhaps accepting of this point of view. Whatever works to stop the spread of an, if not always deadly, epidemic.
But my question is this: How do we know that the biology of disease and illness itself is not a creation by some higher (or lower, more evil) power? Why is it that the biology itself is not spiritual? Is it not possible that the virus itself can be a product of an all-encompassing being, whether that being is punishing us or teaching us a lesson?
Now, you can reject this thought immediately or actually think about it. You do not need to be religious at all, or even spiritual. But just for a minute, toy around with the idea. Don’t agree with creationism — I certainly don’t. Just think about the idea that even if something is scientifically proven, the science, the evolution, the chemistry, the biology — they themselves may be products of the gods.
People with colour blindness cannot tell the difference between certain colours, or they may not see colours at all. Most colour blindness is inherited as a genetic condition.
There are far more males who are colour blind than there are females. Between five and eight percent of males, but less than one percent of females, are colour blind.
The most common form of colour blindness is red-green colour blindness. The Ishihara Color Test is the test most often used to diagnose red-green colour deficiencies.
The test consists of a number of coloured plates, called Ishihara plates, each of which contain a circle of dots appearing randomized in colour and size. Within the pattern are dots which form a number visible to those with normal colour vision and invisible, or difficult to see, for those with a red-green color vision defect.
For example, a person with normal colour vision would see the number 74 below, while a person with a red-green color vision defect would see only spots.
Read more here, here, here or here.
In my previous blog, I spoke about how drugs were ending up in our water supply. Although there are several causes by which this is happening, there are simple steps that we all can take to help mitigate the problem.
Responsible prescribing There are several steps that prescribing physicians can take to reduce excess medications.There are now several methods by which patients, physicians, and other healthcare services can dispose of unused or expired medications. Remember: Most drugs should not be simply poured down the drain or flushed down the toilet! (The FDA has a list of drugs that can, or should be poured down the drain)
Ideally, reducing the amount of drugs coming into the system would reduce the amount being thrown out. If we were all to simply consume exactly what we need, there would be no excess. Of course, this is in an ideal situation, and like most things, ideal never translates into reality. However, as a consumer, we can be more judicious about our purchasing. Here are some ideas.
