Medispeak Multiple Choice

During my studies and reading, I come across some interesting words. Some medical terms that have a funny ring to them. Here's a few, and this list doesn't even include muscles! Can you guess what they mean?? How many can you use in regular conversation??

1 - Borborygmi
2 - Gubernaculum
3 - Hematochezia
4 - Melena
5 - Uvula
6 - Obstipation
7 - Verruca vulgaris
8 - Astrocytoma
9 - Xanthelasma
10 - Tophus


Possible answers:
A - soft tissue projection from the middle posterior edge of the soft palate, ie: the dangly thing at the back of your throat.
B - cholesterol deposits in the skin, often around the eyelids
C - rumbling or gurgling of the intestines, from movement of fluid and gas; stomach growling
D - dark or black sticky tar-like poop, contains partially digested blood
E - severe or complete constipation, not passing any gas
F - reddish-maroon poop, from bleeding in the colon
G - star-shaped brain tumor
H - folds of peritoneum (abdominal cavity lining) that attach to the gonads during development in the womb
I - large lump of uric acid deposits under the skin, often over the elbow, occuring in people with gout
J - the common wart


Answers:
1-C; 2-H; 3-F; 4-D; 5-A; 6-E; 7-J; 8-G; 9-B; 10-I

Scoring:
0-3 right answers = this quiz gave you obstipation?
4-6 right answers = take care of your borborygmi, then hit the books
7-8 right answers = no xanthelasmas blocking your view
9-10 right answers = genius! you can diagnose astrocytomas

Disappearance of Moral Knowledge

Just found an excellent article, via John Patrick, discussing why there is a lack of morality in society these days, why it has disappeared. This helps to answer what I brought up in my previous post about the absence of morality of doctors and the institution's attempt to fill it with "professionalism and ethics".

So without further adieu, here is an excerpt from Dallas Willard's Beyond Moral Bewilderment:

... There is a steady downward pull on human life, and special counter-forces are required successfully to resist it. In their absence, lives, dynasties, and nations crumble and fall. Many today think that, if our current state of affairs is not quite as Isaiah said, we are steadily moving toward it. Sometimes this is attributed only to enhanced will to evil. But one way of characterizing the condition of North American society at present is to say that moral knowledge—knowledge of good and evil, of what is morally admirable and despicable, of simple right and wrong—is no longer available in our world to people generally. It has disappeared as a reliable resource for living.

Grab a coffee and enjoy the read!!

Doctors and virtue

From "The Hand of God", by Bernard N. Nathanson:

The minimal description of a doctor then is this: a highly trained technician, daily exposed to exceptionally powerful material and spiritual temptations. It has been my experience that only those who have an inflexible inner spiritual column supporting the immense weight of medical obligations and responsibilities survive intact the lure of the worldly temptations in the medical world: the uninterrupted flow of money, the drumfire of flattery, and the inebriating effects of special privilege. It is no accident that great early physicians and scientists were deeply spiritual: Hippocrates swore his oath to his gods; Aristotle (perhaps the greatest empirical scientist of all time) revered the idea of God as the Prime Mover; Claudius Galen, who built upon the work of Aristotle and Hippocrates, early on declared himself a monotheist and was cherished by Arabic and Hebrew physicians who followed in his wake; and Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides), a codifier of the Talmud, was a talented physician to the court of Saladin in Egypt and wrote the Guide for the Perplexed, which strove to marry the elements of spirituality with the science of medicine. William Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of blood, was convince of the evidence of a Supreme Creative Intelligence and practiced his Protestant religion zealously. Without such an absolute guide to virtue, doctors, exposed as they are to greater temptations than most, are likely to fall further.

So this begs the question... what kind of doctor do you have? What kind of doctor am I?

Medical schools these days are good at selecting smart, even brilliant, students, but they have no way of instilling virtue. Indeed, there is often a bias against anyone with such a foundation, although we seem to get in anyways!

There has been the appearance lately in medical schools across Canada (and I'm guessing the States and elsewhere) of "Professionalism" and "Ethics" classes in an attempt to fill the void left by and increasingly secular and amoral physician body. And of course, we don't take the oath of Hippocrates anymore - it was changed and edited and spit shined in order to cover those that practice the more fringe medicine that we see being forced on society (abortion, assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell use, etc.). But I digress.

The point is, if you have the option, find yourself a doctor with moral integrity and virtue.

September Long Weekend...

If you haven't been, you need to go. Beautiful. Just be ready for the wind.

Abortion in Alberta... time is limited??

This, from Alberta ProLife:

Abortion is something we would like to wish away.

The fact is abortion is a business. You and I, as taxpayers, are on the hook for between $6 and $8 million each year. That’s what it costs to abort over 12,000* little ones in Alberta-each year. The provincial government says it only funds “abortions that are medically necessary.” In fact, it pays for all the abortions performed in the province, whether at hospitals or private clinics.

The truth is abortion is an act of violence that destroys people’s lives. In 2004 almost 40% of all abortions were repeat procedures (performed on women who have obtained a previous abortion). Less than 5% of all abortions are performed to protect the mother’s health or life.

The fact is the majority of Albertans polled over the past 15 years oppose tax-funded abortion.
The time has come to de-fund abortion.
Helpmake it happen.

This is a grassroots campaign to de-fund abortion in Alberta.
Give financially or volunteer your time or expertise.

Campaign to De-fund Abortion in Alberta
Box 11479 Edmonton, AB T5J 3K5
or e-mail apl@albertaprolife.com.
You can call us at 1-877-880-5433.
Donate • Contact yourMLA• CallUs

* Reference: Alberta Reproductive Health: Pregnancies and Births Surveillance Report 2009