Whoa, Nelly. Yes, I have a wound on my foot that could be described as a pressure wound. Yes, I'm a crip. Yes, it has been infected. No, I'm not dying. You're not all that lucky.
There are a lot of differences between my situation and Superman's. As a quad, all of Reeve's systems were severely impaired. His body couldn't fight the infection, let alone the actual wound. Quads usually die from one of two things: complications due to a wound or pnuemonia. The body simply no longer has the facilities to fight the massive attack that both of those situations create. Oftentimes antibiotics don't get to the wound via the normal channels and topical application is the best you can hope for. A small infection, therefore, can spread very quickly.
My wound has been infected, yes. However, that infection has never travelled to my blood stream. In addition, if that were to ever happen, antibiotics (intravenous or oral) could attack the bugs. In my case all of my "systems" work. Is my wound situation serious? It certainly could be. That's why I'm constantly taking care of it.
Yikes. That's more than I ever cared to discuss here. However, I've gotten more than a couple of e-mails. So... How 'bout those effing Yankees?
Posted by mikewolf at October 11, 2004 12:10 PMFuck the Yankees.
Posted by: Frankenstein on October 11, 2004 04:12 PMA vote for Bush is a vote against embryonic stem cell research. A vote for Bush also then means you're OK with the suffering of those who could possibly benefit down the road.
How about you, Mike? Is it clear yet whether such research, if successful, could help your situation?
Posted by: deano on October 11, 2004 06:04 PM"Hear, hear" on the Bushy and stem cells.
Alas, stem cells will never do much for neural tube defects like Spina Bifida. See, with SCI (spinal cord injury) folks there's something there to work with. The spine and its associated nerves are there, they just don't function correctly anymore. If stem cells could grow living spinal cells there's no reason they couldn't be used to trigger the nerve impulses.
In my case the nerves simply don't exist. Growing spinal cells would do no good as there's nothing for them to "talk" to and you certainly can't implant nerves (with tissue, at least).
So the moral of the story is this, if you or anyone you know is pregnant please make sure that they get a proper intake of folic acid. Studies have shown that 70% of SB could be eliminated with proper prenatal nutrition.
Posted by: mrw on October 11, 2004 06:30 PMI have a question.
How do you balance your very sincere vegan-ish beliefs with the idea of stem cell research? From what I understand of stem cell research, stem cells can only come from a fetus. People gather these stem cells from aborted fetuses. So essentially, stem cell research is linked to abortion. If there is no abortion, there can be no stem cell harvesting. (Tell me if I'm getting this wrong...)
What I can't understand is how you can cry from watching animals be abused, but not feel anything over children being killed. I understand that scientists hope to help other humans through stem cell research. But in this case, I don't feel that the ends justify the means.
If "meat is murder," surely then "murder is murder."
You know I want an honest answer, I'm not just saying this to provoke you.
Posted by: Meredith on October 12, 2004 10:54 PMSimple and not meant to be flippant in any way whatsoever -
Abortion, to me, doesn't equate to murder. That's an opinion that I know you and I don't share (and, for all I know, a lot of readers don't share with me).
Missy, you and I can take this off-blog if you want to discuss further (and you know I'd be more than happy to) but this issue would/could become a comment thread that I don't really care to go nuts on as I'm not looking to sway anyone's opinion and mine is immovable.
Posted by: mrw on October 12, 2004 11:01 PM