The Blog menu on the right only shows the most recent 20 entries. There are a closer to 100 under the “Older Entries” link after each set of 20.
Pensioner wins victory against drugs giant Pfizer
Ron Sheppard, 66, has an agonizing and incurable spinal problem called arachnoiditis which he claims comes from being given epidural jabs of the steroid Depo-Medrone. See Pensioner wins victory against drugs giant Pfizer 22 years after Sunday Mirror revealed his plight By Dominic Herbert for details.
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MRI Contrast Gadolinium Toxicity
European regulators want some forms of Gadolinium contrast agents pulled from the market.
PRAC concludes assessment of gadolinium agents used in body scans and recommends regulatory actions, including suspension for some marketing authorisations.
The linear gadolinium products gadobenic acid, gadopentetic acid, gadodiamide, and gadoversetamide.
http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Press_release/2017/03/WC500223209.pdf
The element Gadolinium (Gd) is commonly used as a contrast dye during MRI's while looking for CSF Leaks.
Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents (GBCA) are intravenous drugs used in diagnostic imaging procedures to enhance the quality of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).
The FDA has issued safety alerts about this usage.
Gadolinium had been linked with Brain Abnormalities on MRI.
Hubby asked Dr Gray about this and she replied that they no longer use Gadolinium.
Gadolinium is in the 'Heavy Metal' class and accumulates in the body. Such metal accumulations can lead to chronic fatigue, issues with Thyroid such as being cold all of the time, and memory impairments. Chelation Therapy is the usual method of removing accumulation of Gd. It must be done by someone knowledgeable, the wrong treatment will make you worse.
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How does the Female Mind work?
[I do not know the original author of this.]
A man was walking along the beach and found a bottle. He looked around and didn't see anyone so he opened it. A genie appeared and thanked the man for letting him out.
The genie said, “For your kindness I will grant you one wish, but only one.”
The man thought for a minute and said, “I have always wanted to go to Hawaii but have never been able to because I'm afraid of flying and ships make me claustrophobic and ill. So I wish for a road to be built from here to Hawaii.”
The genie thought for a few minutes and said, “No, I don't think I can do that. Just think of all the work involved with the pilings needed to hold up the highway and how deep they would have to be to reach the bottom of the ocean. Think of all the pavement that would be needed. No, that is just too much to ask.”
The man thought for a minute and then told the genie, “There is one other thing that I have always wanted. I would like to be able to understand women. What makes them laugh and cry, why are they temperamental, why are they so difficult to get along with? Basically, what makes them tick?”
The genie considered for a few minutes and said, “So, do you want two lanes or four?”
When Karen would come up with those things that only a Female Mind can come up with, I'd say “Two lanes or four?”
Men Have Boxes, Women Have One Big Ball of String – Getting Communication Right!
… Men and women's brains are connected in different ways which may explain why the sexes excel at certain tasks, say researchers. A US team at the University of Pennsylvania scanned the brains of nearly 1,000 men, women, boys and girls and found striking differences.
Male brains appeared to be wired front to back, with few connections bridging the two hemispheres. In females, the pathways criss-crossed between left and right. …
Men and women's brains are 'wired differently'
Sex differences in the structural connectome of the human brain
Daniel G. Amen M.D. at KPBS, and http://unleashthefemalebrain.com.
Many a time I'd say to Karen “Two Lanes or Four?” when she would come up with something that only a Female Mind could.
See Karen's Reading List for some books that did help us understand each other better.
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23 Tips For Men on Supporting a Partner with Chronic Pain
23 Tips For Men on Supporting a Partner with Chronic Pain.
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Average Day in the ER
Average day in the ER. Unsettling typical day of ER Doc.
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Fluoride Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity
Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity
Dr Philippe Grandjean MD, Philip J Landrigan MD
Neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, affect millions of children worldwide, and some diagnoses seem to be increasing in frequency. Industrial chemicals that injure the developing brain are among the known causes for this rise in prevalence. In 2006, we did a systematic review and identified five industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene. Since 2006, epidemiological studies have documented six additional developmental neurotoxicants—manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers. We postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered. To control the pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity, we propose a global prevention strategy. Untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity. To coordinate these efforts and to accelerate translation of science into prevention, we propose the urgent formation of a new international clearinghouse.
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How to download your Facebook Timeline to search it
Facebook is good for keeping in touch with people and sharing things of mutual interests. Alas it sucks as an archive tool with no good way to search your own timeline.
There is a way around this problem. If you go to the General Account Settings tab at the bottom there is 'Download a copy of your Facebook data.'
When you click on 'Start my archive', Facebook will create a .zip file of your timeline and chats, then email you when the process is complete.
If you post a lot of videos and pictures it could be a very large .zip file. Right now my own timeline is coming in about 50MBytes.
Only do this on a real computer. Tablet or phone has little hope of handling the unzipped file.
If you wait five to ten minutes then refresh the page, you get a screen that looks similar to this one:
Download Your Information
Get a copy of what you've shared on Facebook.
This is a copy of personal information you've shared on Facebook. To protect your info, we'll ask you to re-enter your password to confirm that this is your account.
Caution: Protect your archive Your Facebook archive includes sensitive info like your private Wall posts, photos and profile information. Please keep this in mind before storing or sending your archive.
Click on the green 'Download Your Archive' at the center of the screen to start the download.
There are 'apps' that claim they'll do this for you. Alas you must give this app your password, which is a bad idea. The app is just doing what you can do for yourself here.
Use a program like 7-Zip that will unzip the archive while maintaining the directory structure. Then point your web browser, via the keys Control-O to open a local file, to open index.html. There is to be found a summary of your account, your messages, and your timeline.
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Would MagnetoSperm allow for better targeting of direct Blood Patches?
A motion-controlled microrobot could be used for the transportation of drugs to a diseased region within the human body. In order to accomplish this operation, energy has to be supplied to the microrobot. Supplying the microrobot with energy is a challenge due to its miniature size, often a few microns to tens of microns. In this study a new mechanism is investigated. This mechanism is based on the natural morphology of the sperm. The sperm oscillates its tail to swim. A new microrobot, which we refer to as Magnetosperm, is designed and manufactured. It consists of a magnetic head attached to a flexible tail. A weak alternating magnetic field is applied to MagnetoSperm which causes a mechanical wave in its tail. This wave provides a thrust force to move MagnetoSperm. We show that increasing the frequency of the current increases the speed of MagnetoSperm. Above frequency of 70 Hz the speed of MagnetoSperm decreases due to the decrease in magnitude of the magnetic field. Furthermore, we demonstrate wireless control of the MagnetoSperm using weak alternating magnetic fields. — MagnetoSperm: A Microrobot That Navigates Using Weak Magnetic Fields by H.C. (Herman) Dijkslag
See also:
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EyeSpeak to allow those with TBI to speak with their eyes
I came across a KickStarter campaign called EyeSpeak that caught my interest due to their mentioning Traumatic Brain injury.
The system is based on Epson's BT200 smart glasses that will monitor the user's eyes position. Eye movements can still be controlled when other parts of the body can no longer be controlled due to injuries or diseases like TBI or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
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Eight Months
Yesterday was eight months since Karen died. 
Hours and day drag. Weeks and Months fly.
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Everyone needs a goal
Pole Dancing Training. 24 hard core muscle and flex training.
This is a display of pure strength, flexibility, and grace.
Everyone needs a goal. 
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"...And the silence of the dead..."
Coming home to this empty silent house, it is no longer home, is now always bring to mind the song “Still In Saigon” by The Charlie Daniels Band:
…All the sounds of long ago
Will be forever in my head
Mingled with the wounded cries
And the silence of the dead…
Karen's soul filled this place. I could 'feel' if she was in it or not. I never told her that.
Now it is just empty, as am I.
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It hurts to see Garth looking for 'Mommy'
If Garth and I have been away from the house for more than a couple of hours when I bring him in with me, he runs to his food bowl in the kitchen, what Karen would have filled for him, then he runs to the place in the house where he would have seen Karen alive last.
While I have no way to know, I imagine Karen was holding on to Garth until she no longer could.
Makes the empty ache in the gut hurt more. Typing this made the tears start again.
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Risk of death highest following surgery in afternoons, at weekends, and in February
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140531213542.htm
Summary:
On weekends, in the afternoons and in February are the times when the risk of death following surgery is the highest, research demonstrates - ESA (European Society of Anaesthesiology).
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Federal pain research database launched
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/may2014/ninds-27.htm#http://www.kpaddock.com
“The Interagency Pain Research Portfolio (IPRP), a database that provides information about pain research and training activities supported by the federal government, has been launched by six federal agencies.
Pain is a symptom of many disorders; chronic pain can present as a disease in of itself. The economic cost of pain is estimated to be hundreds of billions of dollars annually in lost wages and productivity…”
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To much "Stuff".
Karen kept telling me I have “to much stuff”.
She proved it with her death. Everything she owned fit on a large table when I gathered it for her family to go through.
Today was the http://www.breezeshooters.net/ Breezeshooters Hamfest (think flea market for Nerds). I had intended to take everything I owned there to sell. Failed miserably at that goal. Still I did take a van full of “stuff”. Sold or gave way 50% of what I took. 50% of what I brought back I can give to the Humane Thrift Store that supports the local animal shelter. Not sure what to do with some of the rest. Some is already in the trash.
As I packed up everything to bring back home, the depression, guilt and empty ache missing Karen got really bad (just typing this line made the tears start again). By the time I got back home it all had relented a bit, back to what is becoming 'normal' at this stage of grief I guess?
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I want a "Do Over".
There are several days in my life that I'd like a “do over” for.
Do I got back to a few days before Karen's suicide to prevent it?
Do I got back 24 years to prevent her car accident in the first place, so that she did not suffer for all of the years?
Do I got back to the post office where I let a lovely looking young lady go before me, where there was a very long line at Christmas time. She hung around by the door clearly wanting me to talk to her and I was too shy at the time, something I've overcome with the passing years. I would have never meet Karen at all.
Do I go back to high school and ask the girl there that I liked, that I was to afraid to even talk with due to my shyness?
Do I go back to the first big decision of my life when I was seven, and my parents gave me a choice between Karate Lessons or an Organ with music lessons. I choose the music lessons, as being a Nerd, I was attracted to all the blinking lights and buttons of the organ.
If we could pull at the threads of the tapestry of our lives how much of it will unravel? Do we want it to?
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