Easter Week

has been a time of convalescence for me, so far. I started sneezing a week ago Monday in the Quirinale Gardens (the greyed in pathways between Via 20 Settembre and Via Piacenza). No, not the fabulous ones, open to the public rarely, if ever. Rather, a small public park, just a couple of blocks away from the Quatro Fontane.

The cold (I assumed it was an allergy, given the Spring blossoms that were everywhere around me) settled in my chest after the marathon flight home, but didn't seem so bad. So as of Easter I believed I would be back at work on Tuesday as per my schedule. But Monday it turned into a low-grade fever and general weakness. So today will be sick-day number two and decision day.

Either I go to work tomorrow morning and tough it out, which is my preference. Or I go see the doctor and see if this is something to be concerned about. I don't remember seeing this frailty being written up in the brochure about old age. I've been sold a bill of goods. Who do I sue?

And Here I've Been Worried For No Reason

My brain is actually getting better:

Older brain really may be a wiser brain: "

From the New York Times: Older Brain Really May Be a Wiser Brain.

When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.

Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit.

The studies are analyzed in a new edition of a neurology book, 'Progress in Brain Research.'

Some brains do deteriorate with age. Alzheimer’s disease, for example, strikes 13 percent of Americans 65 and older. But for most aging adults, the authors say, much of what occurs is a gradually widening focus of attention that makes it more difficult to latch onto just one fact, like a name or a telephone number. Although that can be frustrating, it is often useful. [continue]

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(Via Mirabilis.ca.)

Pain Management

is an issue for my best friend, whom I was visiting yesterday. The science part of this issue is brought up in this:

Breakthrough Pain: "

The Oxford American Pain Library provides practical guides that cover current approaches and new developments in the assessment and management of pain. The Diagnosis and Treatment of Breakthrough Pain is meant for doctors and nurses but can also provide some insight into treatment options for patients suffering from uncontrolled pain flares. In the excerpt below we learn what breakthrough pain really is.

The term ‘breakthrough pain’ began appearing in the medical literature in the 1980s on the heels of the increased attention, brought about by the World Health Organization, to the global problem of undertreated cancer pain. During that time, it became apparent that cancer patients commonly experience intermittent exacerbations of severe pain against a background of continuous, or baseline, pain. Episodic pains that would ‘break through’ during the treatment of background pain that was otherwise well controlled through the use of around-the-clock opioid therapy were catergorized by Portenoy and Hagen (1990) in a seminal work titled ‘Breakthrough pain: Definition, prevalence and characteristics.’ The definition of breakthrough pain proffered in that article took root and has been used in pain management parlance ever since.

As opioid therapy has become more commonly used in the treatment of chronic noncancer pain over the last decade, it have become equally apparent that similar patern of supervening severe pain episodes can confound otherwise well-managed chronic pain (Seppetella et al., 2001). Recognizing the similarities of sympotms, independent of underlying pathophysiology, a group of pain managment experts came together in 2006 to create a unifying definition, based on a review of all the literature on the subject in all populations studied to date. The more generalized definition incorporates the additional observation that breathrough pain seriously disrupts the quality of patients lives. Therefore, the term breakthrough pain is now categorically determined to define the particular clinical circumstance wherein patients who have controlled baseline pain experience severe episodes of pain that breaks through the medical therapy (usually opioids) that has relieved the baseline pain.

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(Via OUPblog.)

Fat-free?

Maybe all that BMI stuff is oversold. There's at least some evidence that being "overweight" could be good for you.



Thanks to William E. on ROFTERS (more about them here).

Spring Update

The iPod is being filled with the photos from our trip. I'll try to post some once the process is complete.

In the meantime, the English class has begun. The first week seems to be dedicated to "getting to know you"--meaning both the participants and the program (it's an on-line course). I'll clean up my desk upstairs and begin reading next week's assignment. The art of essay writing is there to be mastered.

And the weigh-scale at work is just as hostile as ever: I'm one kilo over my pre-cruise weight, which is ten kilos over the weight my doctor wants me at. So, now that I'm over the worst of the chest cold, exercises start today. Oh, and diet too.

Spring is the time of new beginnings.