New OM update

Latest from OM, who apparently has become a television-watching dope
fiend, with a morphine monkey on his back.
It's only one small step to black tar heroin now.
Can you imagine him during withdrawal? You'd need some sort of a tiger
cage to keep him in. :-)
Notice those specialized mechanical leg concepts of mine have started to
be designed:

"...Guess I'd better give you kids a new update for Patrick to pass on, eh?

* First off, they're talking about getting me out of here and on out-patient
status by Saturday. I'm holding off for Sunday just to make sure they're
still finding no signs of infections in the blood tests. Those tests have
shown AbZero signs since they cut off the foot almost two weeks ago. The
plan appears to do test fitting for the stump in about a month. I have a
wheelchair of my own now, and while it's not a Dean Kamen model, it's
actually quite comfortable. All I need to do is to get about four dogs to
pull the damn thing, and...

* Crutches are supposed to show up in the next day or so, but hopefully I
won't need them for long. From what the volunteer worker claimed the other
day they're snazzy enough that you'll actually want to wear them *over* the
pants leg. I'm tempted to put USB 2.0 drive in the damn thing, just so I can
pimp my gimp. LEDs in disco patterns might also be nice, or a panel that
matches Norman's belly button would work as well.

* For those wondering about that seismographic anomaly yesterday afternoon,
I did have a rather nasty spill. I was trying to move from the bedside
toilet back to the bed, and I got a bit dizzy due to unexpected orthostatic
hypertension. I managed to land on the left side of the body, which meant I
missed the amputation completely. The impact was felt more than heard, and
every nurse on the floor was in there within about 30 seconds trying to get
me back into bed. They were all scared that I'd hurt myself further, and
ended up using this "crane-like" contraption to get me off the floor and
back into the bed.

* I've had practically everyone in Wound Care drop by to check on me.
Apparently I'd become a "pet patient" down there, and the loss of the War
For OM's Foot hit them harder than I'd have expected. I talked to their boss
at some length yesterday, and I advised her to not take up the old saw about
"detaching from the patient" too forcefully. One of the reasons we got as
far as we did with trying to save the damn thing was the fact that I got as
good a care as I did. Ergo, it's not a -bad- thing to take special interest
in a special case every now and then, and if you jump someone's ass for it
you're actually doing more harm than good.

* We did have a brief relapse with the stomach on Monday, but this was
traced more towards taking too many pain killers on too empty a stomach. Mea
culprit.

* Again, the Diet Nazis are all ****ed at my inability to cooperate with
their accusations that my high sugar levels were due to my refusal to give
up my Dr. Pepper habits 100%. With the infection source gone for good, my
sugar hasn't been above 200 but once, and the average is ~120. The lesson
here for those with Type II Diabetes is simple: if you're really, truly
following your sugar levels and diet regimens, and taking your meds as
prescribed, and the sugars are still high, then there's something else at
fault and not you're just being a "fat turd with diabetes who's too
lazy/stupid to follow orders" like most of these hippie health food freaks
would love to claim you as.

* And while we're on that note, to help prove that there's another cause for
the high sugars, have your quack remove any diet restrictions. It'll also
help you get them to feed you stuff that's actually halfway edible *and*
match the diet you're used to at home. From my own experience, the Diet
Nazis' dogma is that one diet fits all, and if your sugars are off, then
it's your weight and diet that are the only possible cause. Again, I'm proof
that such dogma does run over your karma.

* A morphine-on-demand drip is your friend. Try this trick at home, kids! It
also helps out when there's nothing worth watching on TV, and Comedy
Central's channel isn't available on this particular TV in this particular
hospital room. On the other hand, missing "South Park" allowed me to learn
the answer to one of those unasked questions of Hollywood history: what
happened to all the costumes used on "Little House on the Prarie"?

A: Just watch all the interview footage from the Moron...er...Mormon
polygamist raid in Texas this week. Those gals were all wearing
hand-me-downs from their great4 grammaw's attics!

....ON a side note, I found it rather interesting that those bimbos had that
same "deer caught in headlights" stare that Linda Ham had after Columbia. Go
figure.

....Anyway, that's about all the updates I have at the moment. I'll post more
if they come to mind. Until then, I want to thank everyone who's shown their
concern and/or support either on the sci.space.* groups and/or in e-mail(*).
It's meant a lot to me, and has helped me get through this a lot better than
if I'd gone through it solo. Special thanks go to Pat, who's been my link to
the group since I stupidly forgot to put Agent on the notebook and get a
full header refresh *AGAIN*, just in case something like this happened
again. Hopefully there won't be a next time!


(*) Yes, it's true! The lurkers *do* support me in e-mail!

OM"

I got my new Scientific American this evening and looked through it.
They had an article about limb regeneration in mammals. I saw
something about OM here in these newsgroups, and for some reason
thought I should post that fact here.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...ng-human-limbs

Good luck.

On Apr 17, 7:08 pm, wrote:
I got my new Scientific American this evening and looked through it.
They had an article about limb regeneration in mammals. I saw
something about OM here in these newsgroups, and for some reason
thought I should post that fact here.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...ng-human-limbs

Good luck.

Now your bipolar mind thinks intelligent design is perfectly fine and
dandy. Good for you.
.. - Brad Guth

wrote:
I got my new Scientific American this evening and looked through it.
They had an article about limb regeneration in mammals. I saw
something about OM here in these newsgroups, and for some reason
thought I should post that fact here.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...ng-human-limbs

Good luck.


I'll forward this to him; I still think that amphibian DNA is the key. :-)

Pat

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
news:VN6dnchVaMa3cprVnZ2dnUVZ_t2inZ2d@northdakotat elephone...
Latest from OM, who apparently has become a television-watching dope
fiend, with a morphine monkey on his back.
It's only one small step to black tar heroin now.
Can you imagine him during withdrawal? You'd need some sort of a tiger
cage to keep him in. :-)
Notice those specialized mechanical leg concepts of mine have started to
be designed:

Glad Hopalong's feeling better. Maybe, to help prevent the with-drawl, we
can get rid of the damn Texan accent? ;-)

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
news:GdudnRcAGIUktZXVnZ2dnUVZ_t_inZ2d@northdakotat elephone...

I'll forward this to him; I still think that amphibian DNA is the key. :-)

Why; you want him to grow gills out of the stump? geeez. ;-)

Alan Erskine wrote:
Glad Hopalong's feeling better. Maybe, to help prevent the with-drawl, we
can get rid of the damn Texan accent? ;-)


He doesn't write like he has one, although I can tell you one thing
though...he _has_ to be on some sort of a opium-derivative drugs,
because his choice of words has dropped to a soft PG rating.
That _has_ to be the soul-deadening effect of the morphine drip. :-D

Pat

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
news:hf2dndbvVp0sGpXVnZ2dnUVZ_jSdnZ2d@northdakotat elephone...


Alan Erskine wrote:
Glad Hopalong's feeling better. Maybe, to help prevent the with-drawl,
we
can get rid of the damn Texan accent? ;-)


He doesn't write like he has one, although I can tell you one thing
though...he _has_ to be on some sort of a opium-derivative drugs,
because his choice of words has dropped to a soft PG rating.
That _has_ to be the soul-deadening effect of the morphine drip. :-D

Pat

Let's pass the hat around to keep that drip (and the drip it's attached to)
going. ;-)

Alan Erskine wrote:
Why; you want him to grow gills out of the stump? geeez. ;-)


No, but with a little work, he can enter the hospital with two lower
legs, lose one... and emerge with _three_ lower legs!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21584381/
http://mac.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklet...s/realfrog.jpg
Ah, the wonders of amphibian limb regeneration!
One cannot help but wonder that if we were to cut him in half right down
the backbone, the end result would not inevitably be _two_ regenerated
and complete OM's, like would occur with a Planaria worm!
Science marches forward, no matter what the cost to the experimental
specimens that it leaves in its wake.
You get the tickets to Texas; I'll get the chainsaw!
He'll understand.
If not, in his morphine-dulled state, he'll hardly even feel it.
Especially if we start at the top. :-D

Pat

On 18 Apr, 08:33, "Alan Erskine" wrote:
"Pat Flannery" wrote in message

news:GdudnRcAGIUktZXVnZ2dnUVZ_t_inZ2d@northdakotat elephone...

I'll forward this to him; I still think that amphibian DNA is the key. :-)

Why; you want him to grow gills out of the stump? *geeez. ;-)

No, no, it is NOT amphibin DNA, or at least not specifically. The
reason why stem cells are so valued is that they are capable of
growing into ANY tissue. The real question in biology is not so much
"Why can amphibians do it, but not us?" but "how do stem cells become
muscle, brain etc etc?". The DNA is all there, some parts of it get
switched off when the embryo differentiates to use the technical term.
Researchers are trying to answer this very question, hence the
tremendous interest in stem cells.

I have BTW very little sympathy with the religious objectors. I feel
it should be pointed out that the Catholic Church has only had the
theology of "life beginning at the moment of conception" comparatively
recentlt (late 19th century). Througout the Middle Ages it was 14 days
(differentiation in effect). Islam in point of fact comes down to what
is (in effect) the medieval position.

http://www.lawandreligion.com/new_devs/RJLR_ND_56.pdf
http://www.islam101.com/science/stemCells.htm

This seems fairly sensible to me. The Catholic heirarchy have to me
way of thinking never made any logical claims for their position.


- Ian Parker