Just Scroll Down to the End...
If you don't want to read my babble about inane, random topics. This is the first breather I've had in awhile so I was indulgent and pontificated more than usual about myriad subject matter.
Orgo II was Hell Today
I bombed my Orgo II test today. I blanked on malonic ester and acetoacetic ester syntheses! I also forgot what potassium permanganate does.
The lecture after the test and recitation went by so slowly, it was like Chinese water torture.
The good news, was that today was the last day of Orgo lab!
The CrossFit Casualties Keep Mounting!
(Disclaimer: CrossFit was a hobby turned obsession for me and I have a lingering suspicious that I'll go crawling back to it when I'm healed, so I have nothing against it personally but I find it disturbing how many of my friends this past month have been seriously injured either directly or indirectly from the sport and it cannot be denied, even by the most diehard CrossFitter that there seems to be a connection, however tenuous.
I also want to add and give props to my local affiliate for taking a step in the right direction. .380 has voluntarily opted to take down the clock and chalk to de-emphasize the competition and intensity over proper form and safety. I'm confident in saying that if you practice CrossFit just for fitness and not to compete, then you most likely will NOT get injured, but if you want to excel on a competitive level then it's my humble opinion that SERIOUS injuries, as in probably requiring orthopedic surgery, are likely at some point in your athletic career.)
Today I found out that the owner of the CrossFit box I used to attend, Dave M., has a ruptured bursa sac in his elbow! It's also infected and they think it might be staph or MRSA. Now I don't know if this injury was due to BJJ or CrossFit (maybe a little of both) though he did say in his FB status update that he felt off during the WOD this morning and then wound up in the orthopedic surgeon later getting his sac drained off.
Turns out Dave also has been getting spinal injections...sounds familiar with what Carolyn H. had been doing prior to her lumbar surgery.
Oh and I forgot to mention in my last post that Chad D. got injured during the CrossFit Open Games last year as well. He was doing overhead squats in Open WOD 3, I believe, and wound up pinching a nerve in his neck. He said he was out of commission for months and every time his blood pressure elevated for any reason he would get blinding migraines. On top of that his wife, Kamwin D., had a hernia, I suppose from weightlifting. Then, she also had back surgery a few months ago before Chad's freak car crash accident. (The CrossFit celebrity, Bob Harper, even had a shout-out in a short video for Chad to get better.)
Chris H., Carolyn H., Tina V*., Jake W., Kamwin D., Chad D., Dave M., Brista M., and your's truly.
Hate to say it but...WHO'S NEXT? 0_0
(*Good news is that Tina was told by her chiropractor that she won't need surgery and she doesn't have a bulging disc in her cervical vertebrae. She just needs to rest. I'm skeptical because I was told comforting words by a chiropractor initially too. However, not every case is the same.)
I think people easily brush off these injuries as just a sign of getting old or bad luck...however I know plenty of "old folks," who don't have any health ailments and every action has a consequence. I think you can only get away with punishing your body for so long until it starts to push back (Newton's Third Law.)
Watch out for Poison Ivy, Y'all!
This is totally random but my friend Stacey H. got poison ivy on her face and hands and has pustules and contact dermatitis on her face from the urushiol oil. I've always lived in the 'burbs so I know close to nothing about Poison Ivy or sumac.
(So apparently the cut-off time for this is 10 minutes tops. After that and the nasty urushiol oil has already absorbed into your skin signaling your immune system to attack the affected epidermal cells!
"Before Urushiol has been absorbed by the skin it can be removed with water. However, time is of great importance as 50% of urushiol is absorbed in 10min. Once Urushiol has penetrated into the skin, attempting to remove with water is inefficient. Once urushiol has been absorbed by the skin it is recognized by dendritic cells called langerhans cells that are part of the immune system, these cells then migrate to lymph nodes where they present the urushiol to T-lymphocytes and thus recruit them to the skin, once in the skin the T-lymphocytes cause pathology by producing cytokines and cytotoxic damage to the skin.")
This website is a wealth of information though.
This made me LOL: "Note that all parts of the vine contain urushiol, including the hairs. Using a chain saw to cut down such a tree produces flying poisonous sawdust."
I'm surprised terrorists haven't synthesized urushiol oil and used it as a biological/chemical weapon hah.
The most insidious part of this is that besides the first image (on that website linked above), the rest look like innocuous, run of the mill weeds in your yard. I wouldn't think twice about mowing that down with a lawn mower and then getting urushiol oil bukkake'd all over my exposed legs or whatever.
Ah well, I guess I'm not going into the country anytime soon.
Mosquitoes, poison ivy, chiggers, mites, black widows — these are a few of my least favorite things...
Oh yeah and this sneaky f*cker won't even stay the same. Apparently as the seasons change, poison ivy does too, and not just in color but also in form:
"At this time of year, looking for three leaves will not work. The green lines indicate where two leaves have already fallen off. The asymmetric leaf shape and the color pattern are the best keys in autumn."If you don't want to read my babble about inane, random topics. This is the first breather I've had in awhile so I was indulgent and pontificated more than usual about myriad subject matter.
Orgo II was Hell Today
I bombed my Orgo II test today. I blanked on malonic ester and acetoacetic ester syntheses! I also forgot what potassium permanganate does.
The lecture after the test and recitation went by so slowly, it was like Chinese water torture.
The good news, was that today was the last day of Orgo lab!
The CrossFit Casualties Keep Mounting!
(Disclaimer: CrossFit was a hobby turned obsession for me and I have a lingering suspicious that I'll go crawling back to it when I'm healed, so I have nothing against it personally but I find it disturbing how many of my friends this past month have been seriously injured either directly or indirectly from the sport and it cannot be denied, even by the most diehard CrossFitter that there seems to be a connection, however tenuous.
I also want to add and give props to my local affiliate for taking a step in the right direction. .380 has voluntarily opted to take down the clock and chalk to de-emphasize the competition and intensity over proper form and safety. I'm confident in saying that if you practice CrossFit just for fitness and not to compete, then you most likely will NOT get injured, but if you want to excel on a competitive level then it's my humble opinion that SERIOUS injuries, as in probably requiring orthopedic surgery, are likely at some point in your athletic career.)
Today I found out that the owner of the CrossFit box I used to attend, Dave M., has a ruptured bursa sac in his elbow! It's also infected and they think it might be staph or MRSA. Now I don't know if this injury was due to BJJ or CrossFit (maybe a little of both) though he did say in his FB status update that he felt off during the WOD this morning and then wound up in the orthopedic surgeon later getting his sac drained off.
Turns out Dave also has been getting spinal injections...sounds familiar with what Carolyn H. had been doing prior to her lumbar surgery.
Oh and I forgot to mention in my last post that Chad D. got injured during the CrossFit Open Games last year as well. He was doing overhead squats in Open WOD 3, I believe, and wound up pinching a nerve in his neck. He said he was out of commission for months and every time his blood pressure elevated for any reason he would get blinding migraines. On top of that his wife, Kamwin D., had a hernia, I suppose from weightlifting. Then, she also had back surgery a few months ago before Chad's freak car crash accident. (The CrossFit celebrity, Bob Harper, even had a shout-out in a short video for Chad to get better.)
Chris H., Carolyn H., Tina V*., Jake W., Kamwin D., Chad D., Dave M., Brista M., and your's truly.
Hate to say it but...WHO'S NEXT? 0_0
(*Good news is that Tina was told by her chiropractor that she won't need surgery and she doesn't have a bulging disc in her cervical vertebrae. She just needs to rest. I'm skeptical because I was told comforting words by a chiropractor initially too. However, not every case is the same.)
I think people easily brush off these injuries as just a sign of getting old or bad luck...however I know plenty of "old folks," who don't have any health ailments and every action has a consequence. I think you can only get away with punishing your body for so long until it starts to push back (Newton's Third Law.)
Watch out for Poison Ivy, Y'all!
This is totally random but my friend Stacey H. got poison ivy on her face and hands and has pustules and contact dermatitis on her face from the urushiol oil. I've always lived in the 'burbs so I know close to nothing about Poison Ivy or sumac.
(So apparently the cut-off time for this is 10 minutes tops. After that and the nasty urushiol oil has already absorbed into your skin signaling your immune system to attack the affected epidermal cells!
"Before Urushiol has been absorbed by the skin it can be removed with water. However, time is of great importance as 50% of urushiol is absorbed in 10min. Once Urushiol has penetrated into the skin, attempting to remove with water is inefficient. Once urushiol has been absorbed by the skin it is recognized by dendritic cells called langerhans cells that are part of the immune system, these cells then migrate to lymph nodes where they present the urushiol to T-lymphocytes and thus recruit them to the skin, once in the skin the T-lymphocytes cause pathology by producing cytokines and cytotoxic damage to the skin.")
This website is a wealth of information though.
This made me LOL: "Note that all parts of the vine contain urushiol, including the hairs. Using a chain saw to cut down such a tree produces flying poisonous sawdust."
I'm surprised terrorists haven't synthesized urushiol oil and used it as a biological/chemical weapon hah.
The most insidious part of this is that besides the first image (on that website linked above), the rest look like innocuous, run of the mill weeds in your yard. I wouldn't think twice about mowing that down with a lawn mower and then getting urushiol oil bukkake'd all over my exposed legs or whatever.
Ah well, I guess I'm not going into the country anytime soon.
Mosquitoes, poison ivy, chiggers, mites, black widows — these are a few of my least favorite things...
Oh yeah and this sneaky f*cker won't even stay the same. Apparently as the seasons change, poison ivy does too, and not just in color but also in form:
So for those who forget that plants are living organisms. Realize that they too want to live as much as any other animal life form, like us. They also have defense mechanisms to fend off predators, who view them as food. We tend to forget this reigning complacently at the top of the food chain.
I'm not just talking about the popularly known ones like the venus flytrap or other plants that consume insects. There's also the cassava (yucca or manioc) root, which naturally contains high level of cyanide.
From Wikipedia: "It must be properly prepared before consumption. Improper preparation of cassava can leave enough residual cyanide to cause acute cyanide intoxication and goiters, and may even cause ataxia or partial paralysis. Nevertheless, farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, and thieves."
It's also well-known that many mushrooms are poisonous and contain mycotoxins that can cause convulsions, hallucinations, abdominal cramping, coma, and even death.
So next time you dig into that healthful salad, give thanks for your green friends your consuming and hope they aren't poisoning you. I'm sure they're working on it though. ;-) Food for thought.
The Facts & Figures
*Fund Amount (as of 10:20 PM, 4/25/12): $2,322.77
(*Once again, this amount reflects the PayPal account money including $ already spent on surgery and fees, but excluding checks sent in the mail.)
Updated Contributors List!
Cream O' the Crop
Jorge Salhuana
David Wu
Alvin Lin
Niven Hsu
Ted Glomski
Alex Holliday
Kyuha Lee
Siby Spurgeon
Jonathan Ko
Uber-Generous Group
Jessica Wang
James Ash
Molly Wang
James Haver
Chase Park
Tina Ayala-Vance
Shawn & Stacey Hiller
Pearl Chang
Valerie Easterling
Kim Palumbarit
Gonna Get My PT On Thanks to Y'all!
You guys are amazing. I was going to just YouTube physical therapy after I get my cast off but now maybe I can actually afford an actual PT when this is all said and done! ;-p
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