Skip to main content

Alphabet diseases

I have unfortunately learned over the past year about a segment of medicine that I would have rather not. That segment is what I call the alphabet diseases. When you go to the doctor with a complaint or problems you are looking for a diagnosis and then a treatment and/or cure. What you do not want is a diagnosis and a pat on the back. The latter is what seems to happen with the alphabet diseases. What are the alphabet diseases, you ask? You are aware of some of them such as MS, MD, and ALS. These are terrible diseases in their own right with prognoses that are not good. However, I have learned of others that are as bad and/or worse due to the lack of knowledge and information available. How would you like a disease that when you are seeing medical staff for the first time have to be told what the disease is. Blank stares or mumbles signify a lack of understanding for what the jumble of letters you just threw out mean. Two of these alphabet diseases that I have some personal knowledge of now are MSA (Multilple System Atrophy) and PSP (Progressive Supernuclear Palsy). These are both diseases that have a terrible prognosis and worse than that, no treatment or cures! Not only that, but as I said above they are almost unknown in the medical world as well. MSA is such a rare and"orphaned" disease that the national support organization had to cancel the plans for the annual meeting due to lack of funds. They have no spokesperson or telethon, like I said they can't even get support for an annual convention. PSP does have a Patricia Richardson (of Tool Time fame) fame as a spokesperson due to her father dying of the disease, but again -ask most medical people what it is and wait for the stammering to begin. I started this two days ago and have been interupted twice. I have lost my original thoughts and fervor for the subject. Basically it is a warning that you do not want to hear a diagnosis with an alphabet disease in it. G'Day
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who's got gas?

Here is another thing that is bothering me - I am tired of people whining about gas prices. Gas was never free!! When people whine about "$40 to fill my tank" they forget that even at $2 a gallon it was $25 or so to fill it!! Here are some numbers: The average car in the U.S. is driven about 12,000 miles a year. If you get 20 MPG (hey if you are driving a Hummer, getting 10, I don't want to hear it!) That is 600 gallons of gas a year. Most people would be estatic if gas was at $2 a gallon again -SO, that is about $600 a year (for the extra $1 a gallon) or $11.54 a week. Now I know there are a LOT of folks that were struggling to pay the $2, but the average person I know was not. Here is another way to look at it. How many Starbuck's coffees or lattes have you had lately at $$37.33 a gallon? ($3.50 for a 12 oz one) How about a beer on an airplane at $53.33 a gallon? ($5 per) Then there is bottled water at $10.66 a gallon. ($1 a 12oz bottle -and it can be MUCH higher
1 comment
Read more

Our Guv'ment

Section 8 - Powers of Congress The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises , to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and Post Roads ; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings a
2 comments
Read more

Being Thankful

Here on the eve of Thanksgiving I thought it would be appropriate to be thankful. However there are many, many reasons to be thankful. We are thankful that we live in a country where fortunes can be made by lawsuits over the temperature of a beverage. We are thankful that we have cameras to record every movement of the latest pop tart exiting a limo. We are thankful that we have more lawyers than any other nation on earth - over one million. (I just read that 70% of the lawyers in the world are in the U.S.) We are thankful that we are innocent until proven guilty - unless the charges are of a nature as to be offensive to someone. We are thankful that we have hundreds of channels of television, still with nothing on worth watching most times. Along that theme, we are thankful to be able to watch exiting "sports" like spelling bees and baccarat. We are thankful to have devoted public servants and elected officials that look upon their job as a way to line their pockets. We ar
1 comment
Read more