To this. Except you can’t. No selfie you will ever take can trump what Steven Keating achieved:
[Warning: not (to me) gross stuff in the video below. But graphic. Front row seats and all that.]I love the utter commitment to the prinicple that more knowledge — even tough truths — is always better than less.
And with that, an open thread. What’s teasing the inside of your skull this afternoon?
Davebo
Wow, really didn’t need that.
Betty Cracker
[Pukes in wastebasket] Well, you said right in the title that it is brain surgery, but I thought it was a metaphor! S’alright — I’m one of the few non-medical professionals in my family, and they love grossing me out by describing such things, so I feel right at home in this thread.
This evening, my kiddo and I are going to see “The Avengers” in 3D with our special 3D glasses courtesy of valued commenter Amir Khalid, who came up with the concept of 3D clip-ons.
Ruckus
What am I missing here? I don’t see any video. Am I better off for that?
JCJ
Never been to a craniotomy. A friend from high school told me he went in to neurosurgery because he could get paid to put holes in people’s heads.
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
Ahhhhh!
For some reason it was blocked.
Tree With Water
Ted Cruz makes sense of it all: “You know I understand the concern that’s been raised by a lot of citizens about Jade Helm”.
raven
When my bride showed up at the ER yesterday I told her it was sweet of her to come but that she didn’t need to look at it and it was just my hand!
Phylllis
Not getting out of the boat, even for Tom. 35 work days left in this school year. White knuckling it from now till June 24th.
currants
@Phylllis: {{hugs}}
Used to teach high school. It literally made my stick-straight hair curl. I too used to count the days. It So glad I got out of that.
Seanly
I suppose I should be thankful that your link or video isn’t showing up…
raven
@Phylllis: Only 2 weeks to go in Georgia!
Keith G
Awesome. I love the notion that so many ailments that killed or disabled friends and family when I was a child are now treated and the patient walks out of hospital and resumes normal living.
And I hate the notion that so many in this country are left out – left out of a basic life that is sustaining, left out of even knowing that such hospitals as the one above exist, and left out of some of the simplest choices that most take for granted everyday.
Edit
@Seanly: Oh no. It really is interesting/amazing.
F
Not sure if anyone posted this yet, but this is hilarious.
http://carlyfiorina.org/
catclub
@JCJ:
Panning for gold, trepanning for profit.
chopper
boy and here I thought it was going to be about Ben Carson announcing.
Major Major Major Major
Just finished Krav Maga class myself.
“So, once you’ve removed their hands from your throat and kicked them in the balls I want you to elbow them in the head… Really doesn’t matter which way they turn their head at this point…”
leeleeFL
@F: That is very much like Cheney at the debate with Edwards. And Romney’s tech peeps. So much fail, it is delightful!
gene108
Cool vid…
It seemed to me, when they cut to audio, were the surgeons talking to the patient?
D58826
The state and federal authorities are being real quiet about those two guys that attacked Pam Geller’s party yesterday. What little that has come out makes it kind of obvious that it qualifies as a terrorist attack. The fools went for Geller’s bait and just wound up dead. I wonder if the relatively low key response by the authorities is because they are in the process of rolling up others in the plot? The right wing of course is going nuts and dreaming up all kinds of things that the liberals are at fault for. Never moind that the liberals never said any of it. Life is easier in a fact free bubble.
trollhattan
Know how fracking generates a LOT of waste fluid (mostly water and the rest a witch’s brew of chemicals) and it’s sometimes left in retention ponds and sometimes disposed underground via injection wells? Well, buckaroos, it’s also used to grow crops. After treatment and dilution, of course, but is so happens that it’s not treated for everything and the treated water isn’t tested for everything and, also, too, it’s the oil company doing the sampling and testing.
trollhattan
@F:
Mercy, equal parts funny and enraging. Well played.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
I haven’t seen it yet — I’ve been a bit under the weather lately, and I don’t fancy taking a cough to the cinema. But I should be okay in a day or so.
I was once shown a video of an autopsy, from start to finish, at a professional presentation of an imaging-based alternative to cutting up the dead. I mean, it showed everything. There were doctors (the real audience) present along with us journos. I did not see any journo throw up. (Not during the video, at any rate.) This is much briefer and less, ahem, comprehensive than that autopsy video.
gene108
@D58826:
I would not call them fools.
There seems to be some very serious (about their religion) Muslims, who want to kill the next person, who depicts a visual image of the Prophet Mohammed.
They need to re-examine their relationship between both their faith and their stay in a non-Muslim country, because something has to give.
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
I know you’re just trying to get my goat. But my goat is safely hidden, so there.
gene108
@efgoldman:
Wish I was closer to retirement…stooopid lottery tickets not winning for me…
A small fraction of the lottery tickets that have not won me enough money to retire on:
:-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(:-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(
Probably less than 30,000 but who is counting (not me)
WereBear
You gotta check out Wonkette:
Hero Waitress Tells Kansas Gov. Brownback Exactly Where To Shove His Tip (Into Schools, Duh)
The waitress says instead of a tip he should “tip the schools.” He tips a Republican 10%.
Giant Screaming Asshole. WHY DID YOU PEOPLE ELECT HIM?
If he was running against Beelzebub himself, I could see it. Maybe.
D58826
@gene108: Point well taken. Maybe I should have said ‘foolishly took the bait’. The local Muslim community apparently was urging their people to stay away and not even dignify it with a picket line. They didn’t want to give Geller the photo op. Unfortunately these two guys have given her a big one.
Pogonip
@Major Major Major Major: Become familiar with the self-defense laws in your state in the unfortunate event you need to use your techniques. Your school should give you the basics but many never get around to it.
Major Major Major Major
@Pogonip: I know the laws all too well. I’m not there to work out.
Elizabelle
Meanwhile, Mr Sheryl Sandburg’s possible cause of death at 47 is head trauma. Falling off a treadmill at posh resort and cracking his head open.
Kind of apropos for the thread.
MomSense
It was finally warm today so I took the nicest walk at lunchtime. I walked past the dog park and saw all kinds of dogs just running and playing while their humans sat on benches and watched. I will probably take the pup there so she can play. She has a lot of attitude with other dogs and does not seem to realize she is smaller than most of them.
This morning I heard a piece on NPR that got me fired up. http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/05/04/401971833/a-novel-dutch-lawsuit-demands-govt-cut-carbon-emissions
I’m sick of waiting while our politicians do nothing.
Amir Khalid
@gene108:
That is not what they need to examine. What they need to examine is how easily they let other people push their buttons and manipulate them into murderous anger.
As for Pam Geller, she’s not going to examine her actions — ever. She probably sees what happened there as a vindication of her beliefs about them, Muslims, and their bloodthirsty intolerance. She certainly has proof that her hateful provocations were, in this instance, a success.
raven
@Elizabelle: I thought about how lucky I was yesterday to go off the top step and only cut my hand.
Death Panel Truck
An annoying fucking headache is what. I had an appointment with my nephrologist this morning, and everything is great. Comprehensive metabolic panel and CBC were all normal. I’m holding my own against FSGS.
Came home in a great mood, and then my head started pounding. I rarely have headaches, and aspirin usually knocks them out, but this one is a stubborn SOB.
D58826
@Amir Khalid: She is already claiming vindication and planning her next ‘performance’
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
Kaus will never find my kambing.
WereBear
@Death Panel Truck: Mine are often from dehydration, but I don’t know how you manage that with FSGS?
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Why do you hate Amir’s goat?
scav
Those heavily armed paragons of morally perfected xians that loudly whine about taking their country back and about oppression if they don’t hear their exact preferred seasonal greeting, gee golly, perfected beacon of religious rectitude, moderation and tolerence that — soooooo impressed by their superior moral culture of taunting other religions into violence while at the same time legislating the freedom to be above the law while enforcing their own religious prejudices.
shell
Under the category of ‘Truth stranger than Fiction…’
A musical based on the family featured in the “Duck Dynasty” reality TV series is closing in Las Vegas, a little more than a month after it opened.
********
There’s been lots of bad ideas for a new musical, but really, these homophobic fuckers? A musical?
Damn, now I want to see some of the titles of those songs.
Eric U.
@shell: wikipedia is strangely silent about the nature of the musical. Apparently it is based on a book
CONGRATULATIONS!
@MomSense: Now that my dog has gone to the great tummy rub and bacon distribution center in the sky, the undisputed queen of the block is a dog that would mostly fit under my shoe. She is tiny, smaller even than all the cats, but is utterly fearless and has even the giant, unsocialized German Shepherd scared shitless of her.
It’s been a year and eight months and I still miss my dog. This never ends, does it?
@gene108: Very likely. One of the more interesting things about brain surgery is that the patient is usually awake for it.
Amir Khalid
@shell:
The Bezos Post sums it all up for us.
WereBear
@shell: Somehow, I’m hearing the orchestration including duck calls…
Elizabelle
@raven: Truly.
WereBear
As I explain in:
After a loss, how to get a new cat?
We never stop missing them.
Pogonip
More medical: my dad had a mini-stroke because he mistakenly thought he was supposed to stop taking a daily aspirin. ER people suggested always repeating back what you think you heard your doctor said. I pass that on.
MomSense
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
No, it never ends. It’s only been five months since I lost my dog but sometimes it still feels acute. I was telling the kids stories about some of the things he did as a puppy the other day and we had such a good laugh. Ugh I miss that old scoundrel.
raven
@Pogonip: They saw a “lesion” on my xray and referred me to an orthopod. I called and got an appointment tomorrow but I can’t remember when!!!
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Got 3-4 yrs till I go from semi to full retired. If the part time thing is to be believed, I’m going to enjoy it.
Keith P.
I could really go for a Junior Mint.
raven
@efgoldman: I’m shooting for 2 more years to try to get 20 in the system and have 40% of my salary. Maybe the fucking addition will be done by then.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@efgoldman: That’s a mean thought; shame on you. I’m sure Amir Khalid has a very nice goat.
raven
@Amir Khalid: You have a GTO??? Hell yes!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_FSicQWimU
Little GTO, you’re really lookin’ fine
Three deuces and a four-speed and a 389
Listen to her tachin’ up now, listen to her why-ee-eye-ine
C’mon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO
Josie
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
It really doesn’t. The sense of loss is not as acute, but it is always there. I lost my big girl, Teddi, three years ago and still think of her almost every day. I have a sweet corgi whom I love a lot, but Teddi will always be with me.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: As beat up as your hand is, I’m not surprised there is a lesion. Of course I hope it’s nothing. Isn’t the stitched pinky crooked like your old man’s?
(Clearly I pay way too much attention to the details people post.)
raven
@efgoldman: Yea, we’re one of the few “defined” plans left. We even get a 3% cola.
raven
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Yea, this finger has been dislocated, a big fishook through it that I had to pull through the tip because I got hooked by a guy on the other side of the boat (with a damn electric reel) and now this!
Xboxershorts
My sister in law has one of these on her right side frontal lobe. Diagnosed about 8-9 years ago. Been in surgery twice for it and 3 rounds of chemo. She was never the sharpest tool in the shed but it’s been painful to watch the logic slide even further. Her super sweet disposition has never faltered though, but now it makes her a target for manipulation.
This will kill her eventually but she’s done better than most even expected.
Corner Stone
@Keith P.: It’s chocolate, it’s peppermint– it’s *delicious*!
Corner Stone
@trollhattan:
Holy.Fuck.Balls.
Goddamn unfettered capitalism.
karen marie
@CONGRATULATIONS!: No, it doesn’t. I will always have an empty place where my James used to be. My current dog Lucy is a wonderful girl but James was one in a million.
WereBear
In addition, we usually mourn a pet at the end of a long and fruitful relationship, while the new pet is still in an ongoing development stage for quite some time.
Last fall I had to say goodbye to my cat James Bond. Eighteen years is a long time, and huge chunk of my life bound up with his.
srv
Where is the State Guard?
heckblazer
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Yup. If the patient is awake you can ask them questions and so precisely map out the problem areas, like they do at Johns Hopkins:
Brachiator
@Elizabelle: Very sad if this is true. Reminds me of Natasha Richardson, Liam Neeson’s wife dying of a head injury she sustained in a skiing fall.
skerry
My daughter, at age 13, fell on the asphalt playground at her middle school during a game of tag. She had a seizure and later diagnosed with bleeding in the brain. She was transported via helicopter to Johns Hopkins where Dr. Ben Carson (who I used to like) and others operated on her and saved her life. She was in the pediatric ICU for 10 days. She is now 25 and has no long-term effects. The doctors said her age definitely was a factor in her prognosis.
It is amazing that a “simple” fall can cause such life-threatening damage.
NotMax
@skerry
We’re quite fragile creatures.
Lord Carnarvon, financier of the King Tutankhamen expedition, died of complications arising from an infected mosquito bite.
satby
@CONGRATULATIONS!: They stay with us always, because they were loved ones.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@skerry:
Other bicyclists sometimes try to talk me out of always wearing a helmet, even in “safe” places like bike paths, but head injuries are serious shit and if my head hits the ground at 10 or 15 MPH, it doesn’t matter if it was my fault or someone else’s fault, I’m still going to be seriously injured.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax:
At the same time, we can also absorb astonishing levels of physical abuse.
Bobby B.
@catclub: I remember Steve Martin’s “Theodorick, Barber of York”
Corner Stone
“Kevin Durant’s a baller, not a lawyer.”
Pogonip
@Omnes Omnibus: Goatophobia runs rampant these days, even in blue states.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Why would an experienced cyclist try to convince another cyclist to not use a helmet? Did they get dropped on their head?
Pogonip
I hope all the sick and injured mentioned here get well quickly, or if terminal, that they die peacefully.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
She probably wanted to hold your hand — the one thing you didn’t want her to do right then!!
(Sent you a kind of well-wish message down at the bottom of the Bridgegate thread.)
pacem appellant
I did it! I watched it without heaving! Whew. Can I watch something else now? Ohh, what’s this? I found the story of Lilly Carollo after that link, a trans woman living in CA. The editing to be pitch-perfect for Burbank (lots of car driving). Also, Lilly is beautiful. May she find peace.
Pogonip
I am awed, not only that surgeons see the inside of a living brain, but that even the average slob like me can see it these days!
Corner Stone
Who would’ve guessed that King James actually needs a little Love to get through these playoffs?
skerry
@Mnemosyne (tablet): My brother took a nasty fall on his bike a few years ago. Busted his collar bone and cracked the helmet. No concussion or other damage to his head though.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
efg: You will LOVE retirement. I guarantee it! (Interestingly, you and a dear friend in California, who is a reader for Warner Brothers, is also retiring in 56 days. And two years ago, I, too, retired on June 30th. Seems like a good choice of date.)
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear:
I saw the initial story, but didn’t hear the follow-up, that Brownback tipped a measly 10%. That’s just fucking insulting.
Corner Stone
Shumpert for 3!
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Sir Walter Scott put it this way:
“The misery of keeping a dog is his dying too soon. But, to be sure, if he lived for fifty years and then died, what would become of me?”
It never ends. I miss all my departed dogs, some from decades ago, the latest just a couple years back. Time helps salve the wounds, as it does for any grief, but only just.
Our current pack has one old darling of around 13 who is not very far, I don’t think, from his end. Perhaps another year or so, maybe less. This one will sting my wife more than any other yet — you’re not supposed to have favorite children, but though she’s loved them all, this sweet boy has had an ineffable specialness for her.
It never ends.
Corner Stone
LeBron looks like he has lost some muscle mass.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
I can’t take any pleasure in that story, though (and I’m pretty sure you didn’t mean it that way).
Corner Stone
@WereBear: I recently had a lengthy discussion on tips, and the nature of a tipping establishment with my son.
Fascinating to hear it back from someone who doesn’t understand why someone would tip.
SiubhanDuinne
@shell:
No. No, you really don’t.
Corner Stone
@Elizabelle:
I’m wondering if we might not find out in the days ahead that he suffered a stroke or mini-stroke as primary cause. Not to be ghoulish about it.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Brachiator:
I don’t get it, either. There’s a weird anti-helmet movement in the cycling community. I sort of understand the people who get annoyed that helmets are presented as the all-encompassing safety measure that will protect you from all harm so other measures (like protected bike lanes or better driver education) aren’t necessary. I do NOT understand the people who try to convince others that wearing a helmet is actively dangerous and it’s safer to go without one.
SiubhanDuinne
@skerry:
She, and you, and your whole family, were incredibly fortunate. And I think all of us who are horrified at the very thought of Dr. Ben Carson as President of Anything, let alone the United States of America, are more than happy to celebrate his very real skills in medicine and surgery.
Best wishes to your daughter. May she have a long, healthy, and joyous life.
Phylllis
@efgoldman: 474 days for me. Unfortunately, they’re spread over the next three school years. But I can see retirement from Sarah Palin’s porch at this point.
Corner Stone
Cavs aren’t doing anything to switch off to stop Pau Gasol because they can’t.
Corner Stone
Stupid TO LeBron. Stupid.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: EPU’s as we called it at FDL
Hey! Nah, it ain’t bad. Random sharp pain but very seldom and, if I hit it the wrong way it hurts a bit. I have a splint that is keeping it immobile and I’w changed the dressing and cleaned it once. I took a pill last night and it totally fried any sleep so we’ll pass on that.
thanks
eta Call the Midwife continues to amaze!
Corner Stone
@efgoldman: We actually went over a pretty wide spread on this topic. Mainly we discussed the nature of control.
It’s tough when the other person has never worked for a wage *cough* Mitt *cough*, but I think my 10 year old gets it.
Phylllis
@Phylllis: Make that 694 days–I keep trying to shave off a year.
SiubhanDuinne
This is O/T but tangentially related, as it involves surgery. On Friday, in his “Out on the Weekend” post, Charlie Pierce ended with:
Ouch ouch ouch, but I couldn’t help noticing that CPP didn’t post anything today. Understandable: I assume he’s either in major pain or so looped on farmasootikles that he can’t get his fingers to hit any of the right QWERTY keys. Hope he’s back with us in a day or two; I want to read his take on ChriChri, CarFi, BenCar, and the rest of the gobshites.
Corner Stone
LeBron needs to use a shotgun next time as he is missing every damn thing he’s shooting at in the second half.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: A torn quad tendon
is really bad.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I always think, “professionals wear helmets. What makes you better than a professional?”
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Cheap hotels (or stay with friends), meals, and gas for the car. That was about it.
Anyhow, you’ll certainly have more time to spoil your granddaughter just rotten, yes?
I’m coming up again in mid-July, but not sure I’ll be able to do any socializing along the way. It’s the 70th birthday of our mutual friend in Boston, and his spouse is having a few people surprise him. Since I’m doing a major Midwestern drive in the fall (family reunion in Oak Park, plus, hopefully, meeting Tommy and jeffreyw and a few other friends en route), I’m pretty much planning to zip up to Boston and back so as not to blow all my travel budget too soon. But if it works out that I get an overnight near you, I’ll shout!
skerry
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks so much.
She has become a wonderful young woman. She graduates from NYU with a Master’s degree this month and will be married in July.
Karen in GA
@SiubhanDuinne: Ugh. My husband tore his quad tendon a few years ago. Nasty injury.
And yeah, I’m guessing the absence is due to sweet, sweet painkillers.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Sounds bad. I’ve never done it, but it seems like something that would be all too easy for an older (*cough*) person to do. Hope Charlie recovers quickly and fully.
SiubhanDuinne
@skerry:
Mazel tov to her! Twice!
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen in GA:
Oh, I’m glad you posted! Watch your FB messenger!
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Minnesota? Que? (Or should I say, Pourquoi?)
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Sorry, it sounds like a complicated family thing I haven’t followed. None of my business, but safe travels to everyone.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
OH! You’re talking about John’s daughter! I was trying to make it all about your own granddaughter and son-in-law, no wonder I was confused.
To answer: I expect so, but I don’t know the details. If so, want me to ask Ilana to invite you? I’m sure she’d be more than happy.
(Addie?)
cckids
@efgoldman:
Several of the surgeons we’ve had for our son have fit both those definitions. We’ve always said we need the skill, not the personality.
Though when you find a surgeon who has both, they are the best.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Okay, no big.
Groucho48
@srv:
Let me guess. Only abstinence is taught and no condoms available?