Burgers, fries... and buckets of urine?

As we were waiting before a scheduled meeting inside a client's office in Makati, I grabbed a magazine in their rack nearby. It could be a good time to keep updated about current events. Recently, I have been fascinated with the hoopla surrounding the US presidential nominations. McCain's selection of a female nominee for vice president, who was virtually unknown, aroused different reactions. So I thought it might be interesting to read some news about it. I picked The Economist September 6 Issue and was reading about news and views about the Republican National Convention. I found the following news amusing:

Outside the Republican convention, largely peaceful protesters were marred by a few thugs who smashed windows. More violent disruptions were avoided, however, because police informants infiltrated a gang of anarchists who were allegedly planning them. Police seized weapons and buckets of urine, apparently intended for throwing at people.

Lawyers for some of those arrested demanded the return of their possessions. "Who should we return the urine to?" asked the judge, according to the Star Tribune, a local paper.

I wonder where the world is going to.

On a lighter note, after we had a training in Eastwood this afternoon, I and my officemate Claude went to a popular burger chain for a snack. Her treat. Burgers, fries and soda. As we were chatting, she dissected the burger, separated one halfbun from another, arranged and piled one fry in a column on top of the patty, poured catchup on top of the fries, and put the sandwhich back together again.

Curioused and at the same time amused, i thought i might as well give it a try. Interestingly, except for the crisp whenever i would bite, i could never tell the taste of the french fries apart from the burger.

It made me remember when i was a kid and i didn't like what was prepared on the dining table, I would pour either condensed milk, sugar or powdered chocolate drink (Milo), or whatever sweet is available over hot cooked rice. Somehow, I still do something similar whenever I would eat a bar of chocolate. I get a spoonful of rice to somehow dispel the "oversweetness" of the chocolate. Call it quirky? Claude revealed that she used to put rice in coffee in a bowl.

My Vision

This is not something about my future plans. But it's related to my vision. I woke up early and saw heavy deposits of mucus on the lower right side of my right eyelid. On my way to work, i thought it was getting worse so I had to immediately go to our clinic when I arrived. The nurse did not give me any medication. I guess she was hesitant to give me anything she isn't sure of. I was instead advised to have a check up with an opthalmologist. I know she is not a doctor but I wonder what is good of a nurse in a clinic if she can't even recommend anything than that of pointing me to go to a doctor anyway? CPR i guess? Speaking of vision, the nurse is a pretty sight to behold. Perhaps I'd go there again next time.

So I took a leave. But of course I first had to tell my boss of the nurse's diagnosis and recommendation. It's funny how she reacted when I mentioned that the nurse suspects it must be "sore eyes". Specially when I mentioned that it's not necessary that I touch anything in order to infect, because if it's viral infecting could be airborne. She looked at me as if to say "Don't go near me! Get out of here! Right now! I mean it!" Incidentally, I learned that the term sore eyes is most common in the Philippines. In other countries, they call it red eye or pink eye. Medically, it's called conjunctivitis. I didn't learn that from the nurse.

At the hospital, I was surprised to see a lot of patients lined up in the opthalmology. Most of them are already in their past sixties. Perhaps weakening of the eyesight is one of the earliest indicator of ageing. I thought it was hair loss. But of course hair loss is more visible, and sometimes affect even those who are not aged yet. It must be the genes.

As I'm waiting for my name to be called, I thought of those people who are diagnosed to be terminally ill, and are given specific timeline. It made me think, what would I do if I am given months, or days to live? How would I react? Of course it would be a far fetched idea for someone to have a sore in the eye and be diagnosed terminally ill. Or is it? What could be worse? Say, the loss of eyesight in one of the eyes? Well, I haven't given it much thought. Even worse would be to go totally blind. But which could be more difficult, someone born blind or someone who experienced sight and eventually became blind?

More than that, my actual worry is of how much the prescription would cost this time. I'm not worried about the doctor's professional fee. My HMO card would cover that, but the medicine won't be. I wonder if he would prescribe a patch in the eye ala-Jack Sparrow, that would be cool. Still, how much would that patch cost? My fear was right, when I went out of the doctor's room, her nurse read the prescription and mentioned that it may not be available in the local drug stores. So where could I possibly buy one? Well, you're guess is as good as mine. And of course, i had to shell out Manuel Roxas and his two siblings. But then again, I won't trade them for an eye.

Speaking of the eyes, I think I might as well research on the difference between an opthalmologist and an optometrist. Basically, i think when you consult each one of them, the former would recommend surgery and the latter would recommend a pair of eyeglasses.

House MD

I was able to watch at least two consecutive episodes of the TV series House MD. And so far, I am fascinated by its lead character and its plot. Its lead character, Dr. Gregory House is played by Hugh Laurie, a British actor doing an American role. Dr. House is a (I hope I got this right) diagnostician who leads a team of doctor using the Socratic (or dialectic) method in asking (and answering) series of questions, eliminating the impossible, and ultimately arriving to a diagnosis.

What I find interesting in the program is that it somehow touches on philosophy, basically on questions of ethics and morality, in relation to medicine and biology.

In the first episode of its second season, titled “Acceptance”, Clarence, a death-row inmate suddenly suffers an attack where his heart beats so fast and pumps out air instead of blood. Dr. House initially diagnosed it as hypoxia (shortage of oxygen in the body, I got this from Wikipedia) with fluid in his lungs and told the warden that Clarence would die in about an hour, and should call an ambulance. The warden told House that he is sentenced to die anyway but House told the warden that the state is specific in the manner in which he is going to die.

It also touches on the question whether it was worth it to save the life of a deathrow inmate. Personally, it made me ask what is the value of a person’s life? Would one person’s life be more valuable than another? Would a convicted murderer’s life be less valuable than, say a philanthropist, for example?

In the latter part of the episode, Clarence was diagnosed to be having a pheochromocytoma, a small, adrenaline-secreting tumor that causes rage or panic attacks. Dr. Foreman, one of the doctor in House’s team, believed that the tumor caused random shots of adrenaline, which led to rage attacks, that made Clarence become a murderer in the first place. When foreman said that he would testify for Clarence’s appeal, House responded that to give Clarence a “free-pass” would insult (my word) those who suffered the same malady but was able to control their adrenaline rush such as race car drivers, etc. He said that removing the tumor “puts a stop to those random shots adrenaline, but it doesn't absolve him."

Would it really be possible that our emotions are affected by our biology? This is an almost similar question I asked in the second episode “Autopsy” where Andie, a nine year old girl terminal cancer patient is suffering from hallucinations. The medical staff admires her for her “bravery” but House is unimpressed. House believes that her “lack of fear” is a symptom that a clot is affecting the fear center in her brain, wherever that maybe. Could it really be possible that our body dictates our emotion? Personally, I would sometimes feel “ill tempered” when my head aches. Would that be a similar symptom to Andie’s? I don’t know, but my guess is as good as yours.

Other interesting sidelights of the show is in the first episode when Dr. Cameron, a female doctor had a patient who appeared to be anemic, but x-rays indicate she has lung cancer. Cameron refuses to believe it, and referred to Dr. House for other possible diagnosis. When she referred the case to House, he wrote on the board the words “Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance” and then crossed a line in the word “Denial.” Cameron identified these set of words to be the “five stages of dying.” In a scene after that, when House refused, Cameron became angry and again afterwards pleaded him for other possible diagnosis, House responded “You just made a completely seamless jump from anger to bargaining.” House crossed the lines on both the words “Anger” and “Bargaining.” Apparently, the words House wrote on the board referred to Cameron’s response to her patient’s condition.

Two of the scenes I found amusing was when Dr. House was eating some chips, placed on top of a patient and Dr. Wilson was shocked to see him doing such. Apparently, the patient is in coma, and House told Dr. Wilson that he (House) asked the patient’s permission. House was also wondering why the television was turned on inside the patient’s room. Wilson said that some people believe that patients’ in coma can still hear. House asked why not turn on a radio instead? Another amusing scene was when Dr. House brought alcohol (I’m not sure if it’s whiskey, a gin or wine, I couldn’t tell the difference anyway) inside the patient Clarence’s room and they both had several shots. It turned out that the alcohol was apparently a cure for Clarence, which House assumed to have tried to commit suicide by previously drinking copier fluids which contains methanol, a poisonous substance.

Watch House MD every Tuesday night at 9pm on 2nd Avenue cable channel.

Terms of Venery

The study of (and playing with) words is quite fun, if one would consider it. I remember in particular, one game I had fun playing was called Balderdash. The fun part of the game is in inventing phony definitions of almost unknown but real words and bluffing other players into taking that definition to be true.

One particular area I have been interested in is in the English terms for different groups of animals. The term used to define groups of objects is called a collective noun. But when collective noun is referred specifically to groups of animals, it is called terms of venery. Venery is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the art, act, or practice of hunting.”

Venery comes from the Latin venari, where I would guess we got the word venison. Interestingly enough, the word venereal, which comes from the Latin from Latin venereus means something differently. I don’t know if the word vino which means wine would have any relation to its word origin as well. So there must be a possibility that in one way or another, the venison you eat, the wine that you drink and the disease you may acquire after much intoxication seems plausibly related in origin. But that is a different story altogether.

In terms of venery, a group of dogs is not just simply termed so, but is called either a kennel of dogs or a pack of dogs. Although pack is more popularly referred to a group of wolves. Amusingly, a group of baboons (or of old white men) is called a congress. A group of ants is called either an army or colony, perhaps because most of them are either soldiers or workers? The most popular are terms such as school of fish, flock of pigeons, pride of lions. But what i found most interesting are terms such as bloat of hippopotami, convocation of eagles, murder of crows, parliament of owls, crash of rhinoceri.

For a longer list of terms of venery, check out the site Fun with Words at http://rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml or Ojohaven's Collective Noun page at http://www.ojohaven.com/collectives/.

All too human

It was in late December when a friend was rushed to a hospital because of an infection in her spinal cord. After learning of her condition, I immediately searched the internet of the symptoms and causes. I felt crushed to read that for some, recovery is generally poor. Some patients even show no signs of recovery at all.

As humans, we are not exempt from sickness or diseases. This oftentimes jolts us back to the reality that we, after all, are mere mortals and are subject to decay. But for some, this realization comes so sudden and unexpected.

I visited her in early January. In the wall of her room are posted routine exercises which are very easy and even negligible for us to perform, but for her was crucial in order to regain mobility. She was given doses of steroids that were perhaps beyond the normal dosages. But behind all the medicines and therapy, I saw someone determined to overcome her ailment. Not dismissing the miracle which God bestows to His people, and the prayers of her friends, I felt it was also her determination that made her survive the worst of her condition.

It must be this kind of determination which Viktor Frankl meant when he quoted Friedrich Nietzsche’s words “He who has a will to live for can bear with almost any how.” In Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning, he told of prisoners in the holocaust who, when all hope or faith in the future is lost, would eventually lead to their doom.

“The prisoner who had lost faith in the future - his future - was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay. Usually this happened quite suddenly, in the form of a crisis, the symptoms of which were familiar to the experienced camp inmate. We all feared this moment - not for ourselves, which would have been pointless, but for our friends. Usually it began with the prisoner refusing one morning to get dressed and wash or to go out on the parade grounds. No entreaties, no blows, no threats had any effect. He just lay there, hardly moving. If this crisis was brought about by an illness, he refused to be taken to the sick-bay or to do anything to help himself. He simply gave up. There he remained, lying in his own excreta, and nothing bothered him any more.”

Last Sunday, I was surprised to meet her along with some friends over lunch. Although I could not muster to tell her how ecstatic I felt to see her again, even with surgical mask in tow, sharing with us her story and laughing at our own stories as well.

In the same lunch however, another female friend shared to us a medical condition that she herself would have to undergo. A lump in her breast was found and she is pondering on the option of having the lump surgically removed through excision, or of going through mastectomy. The latter would involve a partial or complete removal of the breast while the former would have it conserved. In the first option however, a hefty financial amount may be necessary. As we bid farewell to one another, the glint in her eyes cannot hide her fear. I am not a woman, obviously, but I can feel her fear, albeit masked in her smile, as it must be in every woman who would be in her shoes. At the same time, I can also sense her stillness in such a daunting situation. We prayed for her before we left. In the end, who else do we turn to for help but God?

Both of them are dear friends. I have known them for so many years that I treat them like real sisters, blood-sisters. And as such, I admire their courage and strength. More than that, I admire their faith. If I, God forbid, would undergo a similar or even less trial, I hope that I would be as courageous, as strong and as faithful as they are. I can only turn to God for help.