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Showing posts from February, 2007

A Healthy Heart

When I had my post-residency dispersal at our provincial hospital, a lot of cases of cardiovascular accidents ("stroke") happened. It would not have caught my attention if the victims were older people, like those belonging to the 40-75 age bracket. It was unusual, as I would see it, because the cases involved people of my age, 20-40 age-bracket. Looking at the possible cause, i could only hypothesize that it is probably be due to high carbohydrate intake, as the people in my province eat a lot of rice, attributed to the fact that 'planting rice' is the predominant livelihood in the area. I cannot trace it to lack of exercise as the people are obviously hard-working from sun-up to sun-down. Smoking and alcohol intake maybe higher than other communities but it has always been a lifestyle of many that you wonder why these cases did not happen before if it is the culprit. At any rate, i am sure there are a lot of unreported cases of 'stroke' and 'heart

The Pure Heart

Here's a story sent to me entitled The Smell of Rain. It's really touching and I hope as we continue to celebrate the month of Hearts, we will remember that only God has the purest! A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery. Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does

Lend Me your Ears!

Have you ever seen someone who has no ear opening like the one in the picture? Have you ever wandered if the person can hear you despite the absence of the canal, and if it would be possible for an "operation" that could create an ear opening? Let me introduce you the condition called AURAL ATRESIA. Lend me your ears and know a little bit something about this. Absence of the ear canal is referred to as aural atresia. This condition resulted from failure of the external ear canal to completely develop. It occurs in 1:10,000 live births and is more commonly unilateral.The reason for its occurence is still unknown.In other words, it's one of those I call "God's will" that is part of one's fate. Regardless of whether this condition is present in 1 or both ears, hearing function must be assessed in both ears by means of specialized audiologic testing, such as auditory-evoked brainstem responses elicited from both air and bone conducted signals. If bila

A different Valentine, anyone?

It's February and I am sure everyone is preparing to spend their "hearts day" with someone who is dear. Aren't we tired of doing the same routine year in and year out? I saw this pic and it struck me. Why not do something different this year? How about sharing the day of hearts with people who needs love beyond the concept of romanticism? Just a thought.