That double hand transplantation is possible?
...and that it restores feeling, strength and dexterity to each hand? To the point that someone can sew again, drive again, eat with a fork again?
HOW AMAZING IS THAT?! I got to hear about this firsthand from Dr. Dubernard, whose team performed the world's first successful face, hand and double hand transplants. This type of innovation is what makes medicine incredible. He gave people their lives back, and continues to help make people whole again, and he thinks we should be able to transplant any part of the body in the future. His advice: dream.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
BreastCancerTrials.org makes MSNBC news
Here's the link to the article, check it out!
Favorite quotes:
"Users joke it's like match.com for breast cancer patients"
"Suddenly I get choices, I have decisions to make, I can decide what I want to do and what's best for me. It's a very empowering feeling," said Valerie Gardner, a user of the site"
"Everything we have ever learned about breast cancer, every advance has come out of clinical trials," she said. "I think that we can very soon see a time when we don't have to worry about dying from breast cancer.""
Favorite quotes:
"Users joke it's like match.com for breast cancer patients"
"Suddenly I get choices, I have decisions to make, I can decide what I want to do and what's best for me. It's a very empowering feeling," said Valerie Gardner, a user of the site"
"Everything we have ever learned about breast cancer, every advance has come out of clinical trials," she said. "I think that we can very soon see a time when we don't have to worry about dying from breast cancer.""
Monday morning
Hit the alarm 5 times, jump out of bed with 5 minutes to spare, grab a diet coke and race to class. Right now I'm learning about diagnostic testing for coronary artery disease, how to figure out the most efficient method of analyzing if an individual has coronary artery disease. We're analyzing how initial diagnostic tests impact QALYs (Quality Adjusted Life Years) of a person, life expectancy, including test costs (including the cost contribution of a false negative and false positive test), and cost of downstream treatment based on initial test result.
After this I race off to biochem, developmental biology, learn about the role of a hospitalist at lunch, then 4 hours of Practice of Medicine, learning about cohort studies, psychiatry, and clinical skills on giving information to patients. Then I meet with my advocacy group to discuss how we will incorporate patient safety/quality improvement into the med school curricula, then a townhall meeting to discuss clinical grades, then a study group, then...DINNER!
After this I race off to biochem, developmental biology, learn about the role of a hospitalist at lunch, then 4 hours of Practice of Medicine, learning about cohort studies, psychiatry, and clinical skills on giving information to patients. Then I meet with my advocacy group to discuss how we will incorporate patient safety/quality improvement into the med school curricula, then a townhall meeting to discuss clinical grades, then a study group, then...DINNER!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Spilled Milk
I really liked this story, its written by Jack Canfield and was in the HuffingtonPost today...
"One of the best stories I've ever heard about "spilt milk" and the lessons of making a mess comes from a famous research scientist who made several very important medical breakthroughs. A newspaper reporter once asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others?
He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother, which occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator, when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor--a veritable sea of milk! (Thankfully, no glass shattered, but the milk kept flowing out like a river.)
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture, or punishing him, she said, "Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?"
Indeed, he did. After a few minutes his mother said, "You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up, and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. What do you prefer?" He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.
His mother then said, "You know what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it." The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!
This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment he knew he didn't need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. They are simply that--just experiments to see what happens. Even if the experiment "doesn't work," we usually learn something valuable from it."
"One of the best stories I've ever heard about "spilt milk" and the lessons of making a mess comes from a famous research scientist who made several very important medical breakthroughs. A newspaper reporter once asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others?
He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother, which occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator, when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor--a veritable sea of milk! (Thankfully, no glass shattered, but the milk kept flowing out like a river.)
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture, or punishing him, she said, "Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?"
Indeed, he did. After a few minutes his mother said, "You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up, and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. What do you prefer?" He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.
His mother then said, "You know what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it." The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!
This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment he knew he didn't need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. They are simply that--just experiments to see what happens. Even if the experiment "doesn't work," we usually learn something valuable from it."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)