| | My four roomates and I have been in Austin since Thursday, and I have to say It's odd, not knowing what happened with the house. There haven't been a lot of photos of where I live, so I figure thats probably a good thing, but apparently there were six feet or so of water in the historic district, which is where our house is. Nobody returns to the island until at least Thursday, which means that the mold will have had some time to grow before we can get to it. No power either. Geez. My poor island. | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment   |
| TO BE HUNGRY IS TO BE GREAT
The small, yellow grass-onion,
spring’s first green, precursor
to Manhattan’s pavements, when
plucked as it comes, in bunches,
washed, split and fried in
a pan, though inclined to be
a little slimy, if well cooked
and served hot on rye bread
is to beer a perfect appetizer-
and the best part
of it is they grow everywhere.
-William Carlos Williams | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| So I just finished my last paper for the summer semester and now I'm on vacation! Wheeeee! Headed to austin for a few days and then to portland with alexander to see Rachel at her premed program. (Everyone is going to medical school these days wheeeeeeeeeee!)
In recent news, I've started rock climbing at a local gym and once or twice in the greenbelt and at enchanted rock. This means that my fingers are always blistered. Its kind of addictive (the climbing, not the blistery fingers...) Things are pretty chilled out here in G-town, I donated to KPFT and they said my name on the radio, then they said, "Calling from the Island, Galveston in the house" This place rules.
Amy came to visit me for a night, we illegally brought a sixpack of shiner to the beach and sat under my new giganitc umbrella. (Speaking of umbrellas, my brother, sister and I are all now completely in love with Rihanna via her music video which we have been obsessively watching on you tube- totally hot, damn.)
Now I should clean my room, but that seems really unpleasant. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| I am in spain, the home of delicious coffee, tasty strawberries, warm sunshine, and currently Rachel Pearson. Conference was good. In chicago. I am ... so... sleepy.
Started reading Absalom Absalom again. It is really good.
Nap time now. wheeeeeee... | | comments: 9 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Gone to Chicago for a conference for MD/PhD's in the social sciences and medical humanities, then off to Madrid to see Rachel :) wheeeeeeeeee! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Aristotle on Female Ejaculation:
Some think that the female contributes semen in coition because the pleasure she experiences is sometimes similar to that of the male, and also is attended by a liquid discharge. But this discharge is not seminal; it is merely proper to the part concerned in each case, for there is a discharge from the uterus which occurs in some women but not in others. It is found in those who are fair–skinned and of a feminine type generally, but not in those who are dark and of a masculine appearance. The amount of this discharge, when it occurs, is sometimes on a different scale from the emission of semen and far exceeds it.
From "On the Generation of Animals" Book I. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| September 5, 2006
Voluntary C-Sections Result in More Baby Deaths
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
A recent study of nearly six million births has found that the risk of death to newborns delivered by voluntary Caesarean section is much higher than previously believed.
Researchers have found that the neonatal mortality rate for Caesarean delivery among low-risk women is 1.77 deaths per 1,000 live births, while the rate for vaginal delivery is 0.62 deaths per 1,000. Their findings were published in this month’s issue of Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care.
The percentage of Caesarean births in the United States increased to 29.1 percent in 2004 from 20.7 percent in 1996, according to background information in the report.
Mortality in Caesarean deliveries has consistently been about 1½ times that of vaginal delivery, but it had been assumed that the difference was due to the higher risk profile of mothers who undergo the operation.
This study, according to the authors, is the first to examine the risk of Caesarean delivery among low-risk mothers who have no known medical reason for the operation.
Congenital malformations were the leading cause of neonatal death regardless of the type of delivery. But the risk in first Caesarean deliveries persisted even when deaths from congenital malformation were excluded from the calculation.
Intrauterine hypoxia — lack of oxygen — can be both a reason for performing a Caesarean section and a cause of death, but even eliminating those deaths left a neonatal mortality rate for Caesarean deliveries in the cases studied at more than twice that for vaginal births.
“Neonatal deaths are rare for low-risk women — on the order of about one death per 1,000 live births — but even after we adjusted for socioeconomic and medical risk factors, the difference persisted,” said Marian F. MacDorman, a statistician with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the lead author of the study.
“This is nothing to get people really alarmed, but it is of concern given that we’re seeing a rapid increase in Caesarean births to women with no risks,” Dr. MacDorman said.
Part of the reason for the increased mortality may be that labor, unpleasant as it sometimes is for the mother, is beneficial to the baby in releasing hormones that promote healthy lung function. The physical compression of the baby during labor is also useful in removing fluid from the lungs and helping the baby prepare to breathe air.
The researchers suggest that other risks of Caesarean delivery, like possible cuts to the baby during the operation or delayed establishment of breast-feeding, may also contribute to the increased death rate.
The study included 5,762,037 live births and 11,897 infant deaths in the United States from 1998 through 2001, a sample large enough to draw statistically significant conclusions even though neonatal death is a rare event.
There were 311,927 Caesarean deliveries among low-risk women in the analysis.
The authors acknowledge that the study has certain limitations, including concerns about the accuracy of medical information reported on birth certificates.
That data is highly reliable for information like method of delivery and birth weight, but may underreport individual medical risk factors.
It is possible, though unlikely, that the Caesarean birth group was inherently at higher risk, the authors said.
Dr. Michael H. Malloy, a co-author of the article and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, said that doctors might want to consider these findings in advising their patients.
“Despite attempts to control for a number of factors that might have accounted for a greater risk in mortality associated with C-sections, we continued to observe enough risk to prompt concern,” he said.
“When obstetricians review this information, perhaps it will promote greater discussion within the obstetrical community about the pros and cons of offering C-sections for convenience and promote more research into understanding why this increased risk persists.” | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| Feeling a little nervously crazed after being burned by my attending this morning while presenting a patient: I didn't know how to interpret the results of her peritoneal fluid analysis.
Then we had to go to a seminar where we learn how to break bad news to someone by remembering the pneumonic "SPEAK The TRUTH"
1 Set the stage
2 Prepare
3 Asses the situation
4 K
5 Therapeutic silence (count to ten silently)
6 T
7 Respond with empathy
8 Unify the support system
9 Totally commit yourself to followthrough
10 H
I forgot what the rest of them stand for, but I think T stands for therapeutic/diagnostic paracentesis, and H stands for hit someone.
I am a frightened robot. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | I'm having an insanely difficult time making myself study. Now that there is wireless internet at the coffee shop I'll probably have to install a net nanny for myself. | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
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