Here on gilligan's isle

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailin' man, the skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day, for a three hour tour..."

Do you know the rest of the words? No, I don't either. Did you know that for a mere $90,000 that you too can own the famed S.S. Minnow from the Gilligan's Island television series? Thanks to the person who sent me this link from CNN.Com talking about this story.

The twin-diesel, 36-foot (11-meter) mahogany Wheeler Express Cruiser hit a reef in Hecate Strait as the former owner was taking the vessel down the coast from Alaska. Scotty Taylor of Parksville said the owner sold the 46-year-old boat to him for salvage on condition that he promise to restore it.

Schultz, a boat broker, estimated Sunday that the work cost more than $180,000...

Taylor is selling the storied vessel because he is tired of it.

"He's going on 70 now and doesn't want to bother with it anymore," Schultz said. "It would make a great investment for a three-hour tour."

Likely story. I heard that this guy just got sick of all the Gilligan's Island jokes. Wouldn't you? I don't blame him. Give this guy some cider. I think that will definitely make him feel better.

Pain

When I first started exploring blogs, I was amazed by the amount of bloggers out there writing about pain. Pain that was difficult to diagnose. Pain that was/is difficult to treat. Pain that no one would believe -- except the blogosphere.

I read this interesting article from the Washington Post this morning talking about patients who have pain without a known cause -- meaning all testing that has been done is negative. The term somatization disorder is given to these individuals.

(Don't get me wrong, all the blogs that I read talking about pain do have a medical diagnosis and are receiving treatment. I want to be clear that I'm not labelling anyone that I read with the above term.)

I found the article interesting because it describes a treatment called "Cognitive Behavior Therapy," that teaches patients practical skills to help manage their symptoms.

The patients' ability to function, as measured by the number of stairs they could climb and the distance they could walk, was improved, and they reported being less troubled by 40 symptoms, including headaches, nausea, joint pain and difficulty swallowing.

The article goes on to say that those with this disorder may be more focused on their bodies than other people and have difficulty determining what is "normal" aches and pains - perhaps a "hypersensitive nervous system."

Arthur Barsky, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and expert on medically unexplained symptoms, said he considers cognitive therapy essential.

"I focus on the way people think about their symptoms and try to decrease their hyper-vigilance," said Barsky, who has published studies of both somatization and hypochondria. He teaches patients to stop scrutinizing how fast their heart is beating, for example, to quit touching their neck to see if a lymph node is swollen, and to avoid searching the Internet for clues to their symptoms.

From my perspective, pain is a difficult thing to get a handle on. There has been a movement, especially in the medical community, to make an assessment of pain (during an office or hospital visit) as common as taking a blood pressure or obtaining other vital signs. I think this is a good thing, because I admit that docs probably don't address pain very well.

I definitely agree that there is a mind/body link. With that in mind, there has to be options for these individuals with somatization disorder. If cognitive therapy is proven to help is most cases, I'll definitely utilize this treatment option. I'll be closely watching the scientific/clinical studies as they further unfold.

Cider elixir

Those wild and crazy researchers at the University of Glasgow have really come up with something interesting. According to All Headline News, it all has to do with cider.

English cider apples are known to have a high quantity of phenolics - antioxidants that are associated with prevention of stroke, heart disease and cancer. Researchers are now looking into whether these same benefits could be observed in cider drinkers.

Researchers led by Serena Marks and funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the National Association of Cider Makers will be looking at the effect of drinking cider in 12 volunteers in the next few weeks. The purpose will be to study how phenolics are absorbed and metabolized by humans.

Hey! Over here! I'll be happy to volunteer my services for the sake of science. I'll even bring my own cider -- my favorite one is right here. *LOL*

Cell suicide

There's a story out today stating that scientists at the University of Illinois have found a way to make cancer cells "commit suicide" thereby "stopping [cancer] in its tracks." If this research can eventually made into some kind of medical treatment, other than side-effect-filled chemotherapy and radiation therapy, this is great news!

Here's a sample of the news coverage today --
Medical News Today: Making Cancer Cells Commit Suicide
Scientific American: New Compound Causes Cancer Cell Suicide
BBC News: Cancer Cell "Executioner" Found
New Scientist: Reawakened "Executioner" Makes Cancer Self-Destruct
MedIndia: A Synthetic Molecule Instigates Cancer Cells to Self-Harm

I'm probably the only one that finds this curious, but I was very surprised by the "non politically correct" language that was used in describing this news story. If a person committed suicide, would that be in the headline? Would the word "executioner" be used in a headline? Maybe I think about things too much. You're right, I should just get back to work.

Talk

"Thank you so much for inviting me to speak at your Alzheimer's Association support group this evening. I really appreciate this opportunity..."

I mentioned a few of weeks ago that I was going to do this talk. Thanks to all those who gave me comments and e-mail on this. This feedback helped me in my preparation.

I did a similar talk about 3-4 years ago at the hospital. There must have been 70-80 people there. When I showed up to the support group meeting, there were seven people. My reflex, at first, in a totally selfish thought was, "Only 7 people? I prepared a talk for only 7 people?"

After a few seconds of reflection, I knew I was being ridiculous and very selfish. I also knew that if there was only one person there, that one person took the time out of her/his schedule to hear a doctor talk about this mysterious disease.

What usually happens is that the question and answer session is better than anything that I prepare. So, I condensed a 60 minute presentation into about 20 minutes. "Are there any questions?" -- And, boy there were! A few of them were right along the lines of Moof's questions from earlier this month: How soon do you really want to know, Suicide: Acceptable in Alz, and If You Could Choose. Cathy has also posted about Alz before - namely devoting her blogfest to Alz Assoc, and this post called Skin Test.

Each person there shared her/his story about Alzheimer's. I couldn't help but feel helpless. With all the knowledge and training that I have, I knew that there is no cure for this disease, yet. One person there had concerns that her husband may have Alz. She was afraid to tell him that she was going to attend the meeting, and had questions "that only a doctor could answer." Unfortunately, I did not have a lot of answers, but I think she felt ok with what I said.

"In this day and age," one of the group members said, "older people would rather have cancer than Alzheimer's Disease." I have not stopped thinking about this statement since that night. Such a powerful statement, yet, I believe it's true.

Anniversaries

I usually don't get even close to political commentary. But, as a disclaimer, this post may go there.

I turned on the news this morning and the two news stories getting the most attention were Hurricane Ernesto in the Atlantic and the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. There was a five minute segment on Ernesto and a 25 minute segment on Katrina. The survival stories of the people from New Orleans are inspiring, yet saddening because some still have nothing.

What frustrates me are the politicians (usually democrat) that are brought onto these shows who just hammer away on how Katrina relief was slow (which I agree with - local, state, and federal gov't could have done better) and how we're not ready for an Ernesto disaster if that happens. Is this the media coverage that's going to happen for the next two weeks? I see politicians re-hashing this thing all over again just to advance their political agendas.

I turned to another channel this afternoon, and watched one of the many stories from September 11. These are all moving stories which effect me, even years later. But, this story was followed by a politician (usually republican) who appears to be trying to advance a political agenda. I have heard that the next two weeks will be best time (politically) for democrats, then the republicans will have their turn.

Just as a friendly piece of advice to all the politicians and political pundants out there, stay away from making these anniversaries into a political statement. I am not trying to take away from the tragedies that happened, but what frustrates me is politicians and other people trying to capitalize on this.

I know it's an important election year in the United States. And, I know that these two dates bring on a lot of emotion. But, if people try to score some political points at the expense of human suffering, that's going to turn a lot of people off, including me.

Sidebar

If nothing else, I'm responsive to my loyal readers (that's all of you). I've added a few things to my sidebar this morning. Check them out and let me know what you think. I'm playing soccer doc today and I'll be back tonight. Have a great day!

Fore-ward

I hate when people quote themselves, because it's an egotistical thing to do *grin*, but I'm going to do it anyway. Here's what I wrote on July 27, 2006 when I was Done With Cycling:

I've decided. I'm done with cycling. I just can't take it anymore! I stopped watching baseball because of Barry Bonds. I'm also done with football and basketball. Olympics - yeah right! Definitely not the summer games. Maybe my beloved golf is the last bastion of honor in all of sport. Unfortunately, I betcha that they'll start drug testing Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam in the near future.

Well, now it's happened. Not really drug testing yet, but the debate has started in the golf world about drug testing its players. I was very surprised by who started this debate -- it was Tiger Woods himself. You'd think it would be one of the other players who are whining because Tiger is winning all these tournaments.

In this article from SI.com, Woods reacted to the statement from PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem who saw no need to drug test its players without evidence of steroid use.

"I think we should be proactive instead of reactive," he [Woods] said. "I just think we should be ahead of it and keep our sport as pure as can be. This is a great sport, and it's always been clean."

I am definitely all for this move to test professional golfers. Many people have said that Tiger Woods has increased the popularity of golf just like Lance Armstrong increased the popularity of cycling. With the events of this year's Tour de France, I think cycling will fall back into obscurity because of its drug scandal. If golf takes this fore-ward step, I think its popularity will continue to rise and golf will remain a sport above the rest.

Dwarf planet

I'm feeling like Rip Van Winkle right now. I take a little nap this afternoon and my entire world is changed - more like the universe I knew is smaller now.

In case you've been in a cave today, the big new story today is that our dear friend Pluto was demoted to the status of "Dwarf Planet" by those mean people at the International Astronomical Union.

After having his planet card revoked, I just saw Pluto at the "Asteroid Bar" and it's not pretty. He's up there singing karyoke, drinking, depressed. It's not a pretty sight.

I'm so upset by this and I'm going to do something about it. I've hunted around the internet and found the perfect "Save Pluto" t-shirts on this site. I think that we can still change this. It's a travesty of justice. How can people just arbitrarily decide what a planet is and what a planet is not. I'm not standing for it, and you shouldn't either. Join us to save our friend Pluto! *LOL*

BA tomorrow

Ladybug is having the post-final-exam Blogaholics Anonymous meeting tomorrow at her place. (BTW, good luck on your exam). Don't know what a BA meeting is all about? Never been to one? Don't be afraid, we're all nice people. As always, it is BYOB -- Bring Your Own Blog!

I encourage you to check out my sidebar for the "minutes" of the past meetings. They're kind of fun, actually. The links are below my new side bar photo, like it?

Me, I'm going to bed. No, not what you think. I wasn't blogaholic insomniac. I was on-call insominac. Not a lot of sleep last night. Now that it's almost noon here, finally got to the office after finishing up stuff at the hospital and making sure my patients are plugged in with the appropriate people, resources, services, testing, etc.

See you at the meeting tomorrow. I'll have my McDreamy self there.
Will you be there? *smile and wink* (Can I pique you interest any more?)