Re: Threeious

1

Long list of possibilities for any aspiring differential diagnosticians. http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/childhood-anaemia

Iron deficiency is the most common cause but if that was it then surely the doctor would just have got her on iron supplements and all would have been fine.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 8:36 AM
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2

"I'm a soldier in the war on poverty" suggests the singer is talking about money.


Posted by: Todd | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 8:41 AM
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3

Nari is my new hero. That's the only thing I've ever seen that made online dating look fun.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 8:42 AM
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4

I'd guess it was pernicious anemia rather than standard iron-deficiency anemia, but I don't actually know when that became treatable. It can cause problems in later life. I'm sure ajay's link covers this, but guessing seemed like more fun.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 8:57 AM
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5

I sort of assumed for a minute that the quote in 2 was Spice Girls but it seems it isn't.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 8:57 AM
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6

What exactly is the equation referring to, romantically?

Poop.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 8:59 AM
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7

Speaking of Texas, George W tells a cock joke.

"Former presidents compare their libraries the way other men may compare their, well ...," he said, to laughter. "Just wondering how LBJ would have handled that. He was a funny guy at times."


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:02 AM
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8

Nari is wonderful. Most of her correspondents seem fairly good natured as well.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:03 AM
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9

Nothing from nothing leaves nothing,/i>

Does this mean 0-0=0, or 0+0=0?

I'm leaning towards 0+0=0.

The classic lyrical expression of 0-0=0 is "When you ain' got nothing/ You got nothing to lose".


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:15 AM
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10

There's a family we know in the neighborhood whose teenage daughter has something that I can't remember the name of, but that is essentially Victorian maiden disease; some kind of heart condition that means that she's fine as long as she only has to be alert for four or five hours a day, doesn't exert herself, and spends the rest of the time fainting on a couch. Apparently the specific thing it is generally resolves some time in the late teens/early twenties, and people with it are fine afterward. If I didn't know the parents, I'd think that the whole thing was some kind of mental/emotional disorder, either on her part, their part, or both, but everyone's very convincingly sane and reliable.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:28 AM
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11

Neurasthenia, eh? Flaubert had some things to say about bourgeoisie producing that diagnosis.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:31 AM
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12

My mother spent a year in some sort of home for ill children (rheumatic fever). This was the 40s. It munched her heart valves.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:36 AM
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13

but that is essentially Victorian maiden disease...

To really merit the designation "Victorian" it needs to be either consumption or the vapors.


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:40 AM
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14

fine as long as she only has to be alert for four or five hours a day, doesn't exert herself, and spends the rest of the time fainting on a couch.

=me.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:42 AM
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Maybe =I. Does "to equal" govern the objective or, like "to be", the subjective?


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:43 AM
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16

Rheumatic fever, like scarlet fever, is basically a staph infection. But of the heart! Wow.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:48 AM
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17

16: I think that was what I was supposed to be avoiding getting by taking a fistful of antibiotics every time I went to the dentist for many years of my life until they were like "never mind, that's probably not a thing."


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:49 AM
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18

fine as long as she only has to be alert for four or five hours a day, doesn't exert herself, and spends the rest of the time fainting on a couch.

=me.

This reminds me, I've been wanting to talk about Maria's recent CT post about rest. It's a subject that I have strong opinions about because (like Smearcase, apparently), I am very aware of when I need rest, and my ability to perform starts to degrade rapidly.

I've seen all sorts of studies that show that this is, in fact, true of most people, and yet nobody behaves as if that's true. I alternate between thinking that I am just more fragile than the average person, that the average person is just somewhat oblivious to their own need for rest and doesn't notice when they have stopped being able to make good decisions, or that there's an enormous collective fiction about the amount of rest people need and everybody wanders around going, "am I the only one who thinks this is crazy?"

(Sorry, Heebie, it's a little early for a threadjack, but it seemed like it was on-topic).


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 9:53 AM
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19

my ability to perform starts to degrade rapidly.

When I was in the Marines we had a class on this subject. "Sleep Deprivation: The Debt That Must Be Paid" I think of that every time I get sleepy.


Posted by: Tasseled Loafered Leech | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 10:02 AM
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20

I wonder about this. I would like very much (and would have liked at any time in the last fifteen years or so) to spend a couple of months with no responsibilities and sleeping as much as I liked. I don't actually know if I'm a less effective worker because I don't get it, though.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 10:12 AM
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21

2: Todd is exactly right.

10: essentially Victorian maiden disease

Hysteria?


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 10:20 AM
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22

Oh god, I'm so fucking exhausted these days. Three more weeks of classes. Three more weeks of classes. Three more weeks of classes.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 10:42 AM
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23

Iron deficiency is the most common cause but if that was it then surely the doctor would just have got her on iron supplements and all would have been fine.

But anyway, saying "iron deficiency is a common cause of anemia" is about like saying "lack of water is a common cause of drought", no? I didn't click the link.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 10:45 AM
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24

Iron deficiency in diet as opposed to hemoglobin level, I guess.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 10:50 AM
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25

Also, to totally guess at 3 in the OP,

Vitamin B12 was discovered from its relationship to disease pernicious anemia, which is an autoimmune disease in which parietal cells of the stomach responsible for secreting intrinsic factor are destroyed, the same cells responsible for secreting acid in the stomach. Intrinsic factor is crucial for the normal absorption of B12, so a lack of intrinsic factor, as seen in pernicious anemia, causes a vitamin B12 deficiency.
The production of VitB12 wasn't developed until the mid-50s, but probably took longer to be in common use. Maybe something like that, plus efforts to fortify foods with B12.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:05 AM
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26

When I was in the Marines we had a class on this subject.
The military seems to pay a lot of attention to this, and rightfully so. The civilian medical establishment doesn't seem to agree (see: crazy hours for medical residents, etc.). I wonder how this shakes out for military doctors.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:09 AM
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The military seems to pay a lot of attention to this, and rightfully so. The civilian medical establishment doesn't seem to agree...

To be fair, depending on what sort of weapons or vehicles they're in charge of handling, I suppose a military person who nods off for a moment or presses the wrong button due to inattention could inadvertently kill a lot more people at once than a doctor could.


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:17 AM
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28

25: But also, what on earth is "blue milk"? She said "I was nursing and my mother wasn't producing any milk" yet she implied that it took months to realize this. I can't figure it out from online. She almost made it sound like her mother was producing something other than milk. (Colostrum? water?)


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:21 AM
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29

Hysteria?

Didn't they use to prescribe OM for that?


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:23 AM
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30

In the first act of King Lear, Lear says to Cordelia "Nothing will come of nothing" Always hear Billy's voice.
YouTube to see a duet with Nat when Billy's ten.


Posted by: idp | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:27 AM
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In the first act of King Lear, Lear says to Cordelia "Nothing will come of nothing" Always hear Billy's voice.
YouTube to see a duet with Nat when Billy's ten.


Posted by: idp | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:27 AM
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32

I'm going with the pernicious anemia Dx. The bill is in the mail.


Posted by: biohazard | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:42 AM
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33

Trying to learn to post from my new phone.


Posted by: idp | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:44 AM
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34

What exactly is the equation referring to, romantically?

Per 9.last, freedom!


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:50 AM
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35

||

Finally: Mutombo on Mutombo.

|>


Posted by: lurkn | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 11:53 AM
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36

goddamit, pwned by deadspin and ogged.


Posted by: lurkn | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 12:02 PM
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37

The military seems to pay a lot of attention to this, and rightfully so.

Interestingly, over the last decade or two the related topic of fatigue and injury prevention has become a big deal in professional sports.

McKechnie uses Catapult as a myth-buster device. Some long-standing training methods could appear to help a player improve, but may be counterproductive.

"One interesting thing is sometimes the volume of work is seen as somewhat an easy day," McKechnie says, "when in fact the volume of work is extremely taxing on the player's body."

Take, for example, a seemingly harmless basketball exercise: the shooting drill. Just getting some shots up can't hurt, right? Catapult data suggest otherwise.

"In a normal shooting drill, the intensity of movement is the constant jumping," McKechnie says. "But it's not the actual jumping action that concerns us, it's the deceleration loads in the landing process. That breaks down the muscle groups. After a game, we'd shoot the very next day, but our players couldn't get out of the low intensity level. Actually, the shooting workout was feeding into dysfunction as opposed to helping the player."

After observing this phenomenon, McKechnie then worked with the coaching staff to reduce shooting drills and to alleviate the wear and tear on practice days, especially the day following game action. Raptors coach Dwane Casey was all ears. And his belief in McKechnie and his scientific methods hasn't frayed.

"It all starts with Alex," Casey says. "He's one of the best in the league as far as rehab, preventative training and staying ahead of the curve. And not only after guys get hurt, but before they get hurt to maintain their core strength and avoid a lot of things that hamper guys during the season."


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 12:14 PM
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38

That was me, as was the earlier link to Crooked Timber. Apparently I forgot my personal info.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 12:15 PM
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39

28: Blue milk is slang for skim milk (because it's not as opaque as whole milk and looks bluish in the right light). I assume what she's trying to say is that the milk wasn't as nutrient-rich as it should have been, maybe due to her mother's diet, maybe just a biological quirk. (The other option would be that she had poor absorption of various nutrients.) I think that's a fairly well-known cause of anemia/B12 deficiency in infants who are breastfed. Strict vegans are supposed to take B12 supplements.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 12:16 PM
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40

40th comment threadjack: Is there any evidence/speculation on the possible influence of Bhutanese architecture on the Prairie School/Frank Lloyd Wright?


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 12:42 PM
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41

Nari is hilarious. I think I've mentioned before that the best message I ever got on OkCupid was the simple unpunctuated "i drive a yellow truck". I didn't respond, but I have to imagine there's a demographic for whom "i drive a yellow truck" is huge turn-on.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 12:42 PM
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42

25: Probably just very dilute milk. As when you add a tid bit of milk to water in a clear vessel, it looks blue? Tyndall effect for the win?


Posted by: Annelid Gustator | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 12:43 PM
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But what lactation problem is "very dilute or skim milk"? That doesn't map onto any modern problem I've heard of, except I suppose insufficient production. But then the baby is screaming its head off, not falsely sated with watery milk.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 12:47 PM
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To 42 or to 39? I suspect the actual medical explanation got a little mangled and would guess the milk was lacking in B12 (or something else), which would still sate a baby but cause anemia.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 12:53 PM
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40:

I've never heard of any, but it was a very eclectic age. I'm sure the writing of Lafcadio Hearn on Japanese esthetics would have been familiar to Wright, who did the Imperial Hotel in Japan years later, in the 20s.

I'm reading They All Fall Down: Richard Nickel's Struggle to Save America's Architecture, by Richard Cahan on my commute now. It's mostly about Nickel's fruitful obsession with Louis Sullivan. What actually interests me the most are the glimpses of Chicago Bohemia in the late 50s and early 60s, when there was such a thing. The late Michael Harrington, like me A.M. U of C, wrote about it memorably. Harry Callahan, Nickel, Aaron Siskind living an art life on nearly nothing. Simone deB keeping assignations with Nelson Algren in his 2-flat in the path of the Congress Expressway.

Glory!


Posted by: idp | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 1:05 PM
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46

Ok, my curiosity is then sated, too.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 1:08 PM
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47

My first guess would actually be that there wasn't a thing wrong with the mother's milk, and the 'blue milk' thing was either a nutty folk diagnosis for some ailment that had nothing to do with the quality of the breastmilk, or a nutty pediatrician diagnosis. If she's in her fifties now, that would have been right when breastfeeding was a really weird thing to do.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 1:11 PM
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47 was a suspicion of mine, too.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 1:22 PM
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49

It's bantha milk.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 1:34 PM
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50

I'm with Smearcase and whoever 18 is. Also, delaying meals by more than an hour or so past when I'm used to eating seems to bother me more than most people. Things like "let's just wait and get lunch at 4 because I want to finish working on this thing" or "let's work until 8 PM, grab a quick bite, and keep going until 2 in the morning" just don't work for me at all.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 1:35 PM
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51

Wow, I killed this thread so dead.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 3:39 PM
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My opinion is that every comment not responded to shares equally in killing the thread.

I feel as if I'd been a sleepwalker for much of the last few years, for no good reason. I'm trying to correct that, and get my 8 but it's hard.


Posted by: idp | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 5:21 PM
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Nari is my new hero. That's the only thing I've ever seen that made online dating look fun.

Don't worry, it isn't.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-11-14 7:55 PM
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The product in the OP, to be commercialized as 'GMO Fleshlight' ?


Posted by: C. Everett Koop | Link to this comment | 04-12-14 8:21 PM
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I think you've got the wrong thread there, Doc.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-12-14 8:23 PM
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But anyway, saying "iron deficiency is a common cause of anemia" is about like saying "lack of water is a common cause of drought", no?

Yeah, sorry, lack of iron in the diet. Anaemia = "not enough haemoglobin in your blood" so it could be caused by lack of iron input, or loss of blood, or inability for various reasons to process dietary iron into haemoglobin or to produce adequate numbers of healthy red blood cells, or abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 04-14-14 1:54 AM
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But then the baby is screaming its head off, not falsely sated with watery milk.

My BiL was raised on buttermilk because it was the only thing he could process. Not that different,


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 04-14-14 2:07 AM
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20:I did that, after five years of mostly working 10AM-2AM with some naps under my desk while the compiler ground away. I mean, I was also RSI-crippled by that time, but I basically moved the chaise longue so I could see outdoors while napping during the day. I couldn't hold a book up, or open. When I came to I changed careers, though not in a way that would have been unimaginable beforehand.

I would probably have done better work on a healthier schedule, but (and this is why the company ran us like that) not as much work or finished as soon. I file it with quandaries over whether we should all be taking smart drugs: probably we'll do different work with the two styles, but I don't have much evidence for believing that `slow work' is better. I have a little for thinking that `slow work' is more concerned with externalities, just because there's enough time for someone to mention them.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 04-14-14 1:34 PM
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Posted by: makers | Link to this comment | 05-11-14 4:49 AM
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