Collecting My Thoughts

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Astrocytomas—American Cancer Society

There are many types of brain tumors.

Glioma is a general term for tumors that start in glial cells. A number of tumors can be considered gliomas, including:

Astrocytomas (which include glioblastomas)
Oligodendrogliomas
Ependymomas

About 3 out of 10 of all brain tumors are gliomas. Most fast-growing brain tumors are gliomas.

Astrocytomas are tumors that start in glial cells called astrocytes. About 2 out of 10 brain tumors are astrocytomas.

Most astrocytomas can spread widely throughout the brain and blend with the normal brain tissue, which can make them very hard to remove with surgery. Sometimes they spread along the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pathways. It is very rare for them to spread outside of the brain or spinal cord.

Astrocytomas (like other brain tumors) are classified into 4 grades.

Non-infiltrating (grade I) astrocytomas do not usually grow into nearby tissues and tend to have a good prognosis. These include pilocytic astrocytomas and subependymal giant cell astrocytomas (SEGAs). They are more common in children than in adults.
Low-grade (grade II) astrocytomas, such as diffuse astrocytomas, tend to be slow growing, but they can grow into nearby areas and can become more aggressive and fast growing over time.
Anaplastic (grade III) astrocytomas grow more quickly.
Glioblastomas (grade IV) are the fastest growing. These tumors make up more than half of all gliomas and are the most common malignant brain tumors in adults.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/brain-spinal-cord-tumors-adults/about/types-of-brain-tumors.html

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

New discoveries in human body--I always smile at this

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/new-discoveries-in-human-anatomy--67055

I love science articles. Particularly those of "new thinking," or "new discoveries." And then eventually, evolution and not God is credited.

"The brain’s drain
The lymphatic system, a body-wide network of vessels that drains fluids and removes waste from tissues and organs, was long-believed to be absent from the brain. Early reports of lymphatic vessels in the meninges, the membrane coating the brain, date as far back as the 18th century—but these findings were met with skepticism. Only recently has this view been overturned, after a 2015 report of lymphatic vessels in mouse meninges and the 2012 discovery of the so-called glymphatic system, an interconnected network of glial cells that facilitates the circulation of fluid throughout mouse brains. In 2017, neuroimaging work revealed evidence for such lymphatic vessels in human meninges.

Fluid-filled spaces
In 2018, researchers reported that the space between cells was a collagen-lined, fluid-filled network, which they dubbed the interstitium. They proposed that this finding, which emerged from close examinations of tissue from patients’ bile ducts, bladders, digestive tracts, and skin, may help scientists better understand how tumors spread through the body. The team also called the interstitium a newly-discovered organ, but many dismissed this claim. “Most biologists would be reticent to put the moniker of an ‘organ’ on microscopic uneven spaces between tissues that contain fluid,” Anirban Maitra, a pathologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Center, told The Scientist last year. . .

The fabella makes a comeback
The fabella, a tiny bone located in a tendon behind the knee, is becoming more common in humans, according to a study published last spring. After reviewing 58 studies on fabella prevalence in 27 different countries, researchers reported that people were approximately 3.5 times more likely to have the little bone in 2018 than 1918. The cause of this trend remains an open question, but the authors suggest that changes in muscle mass and bone length—driven by increased diet quality in many parts of the world—could be one explanation."

Imagine that. Diet changes and bone appears.

Ann & Phelim Scoop #30: Cancel Culture On Campus, . . .

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fY9V27SAsFc

Ann and Phelim have a podcast on current topics, and they make films and theater productions using actual news stories or trial records. I supported their film on Dr. Gosnell, the abortion doctor.

“On this week’s episode of The Ann & Phelim Scoop, we recap our recent interview with Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, the psychologist and memory expert who served as an expert witness for the Defense in the Harvey Weinstein trial. Dr. Loftus discussed her work as well as NYU’s cancellation of her scheduled campus lecture - likely in response to her work with the Weinstein team. “

Dr. Loftus Interview 1:33 Hillary Clinton segment 8:13 NYU segment 11:25 FBI Lovebirds at CPAC 13:55 Mark Steyn Dinner 18:00 Fracking Ban 20:15 Cats 27:20

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-07/memory-expert-elizabeth-loftus-testifies-for-the-defense-in-harvey-weinstein-trial

“Loftus, a distinguished professor at UC Irvine, has appeared as an expert witness in more than 300 trials and has testified in a number of high-profile sexual misconduct and murder cases, including those of O.J. Simpson, Ted Bundy and the officers accused in the Rodney King beating. She also consulted in the trials of Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby.

She has routinely testified that memories can be transformed and contaminated — and, in some cases, altogether false.”

Coronavirus is novel, but the old fashioned is bad, too

While coronaviruses aren’t new, this particular one (known as 2019-nCoV) is. “We’ve seen coronavirus before, but this is a new version,” Gonsenhauser says. “So any time there’s something new people automatically go to Ebola and the zombie apocalypse, thinking that it’s untreatable and deadly. That’s not what we’re seeing. It’s certainly spreading more rapidly than SARS did, but it’s not more dangerous than other viral strains.”

As U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stated in a Jan. 28 press briefing: "This is a very fast moving, constantly changing situation,” adding, “but, at this point, Americans should not worry for their own safety."

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/the-flu-has-killed-10000-americans-as-the-world-worries-over-coronavirus-221101770.html

We’ve been sitting in a hospital for 5 days and observing a lot of sick people with relatives and friends coming and going. Face masks, tissues, gloves, hand sanitizers and signs in Chinese seem to be everywhere. Still, I see a lot of medical personnel ungloved, perhaps an allergy to the latex?

I’ve been out of the news loop for some time, but I think I heard on a radio news show that 750,000,000 Chinese have been quarantined. I can’t even imagine that—twice the population of the USA and they are restricted in movement? I keep wondering—who gets out to repair things that break down? Who is stocking the stores? Who is doing the transport?

This account, assembling stories from various sources, sounds quite draconian. Even stories of people be welded inside their apartments. Have no idea if it is authoritative of just click bait. https://www.theorganicprepper.com/quarantine-in-china/

Monday, February 17, 2020

I’ve learned to spell abscess

One of my cardinal rules is don't post about family without permission, but I'm claiming James 1:5, asking for wisdom and in faith receiving it. Our son Phil is in ICU so I'm crowd sourcing prayers for this setback from those who know him and us. Even if you're a total stranger--that's OK. This has nothing to do with his brain cancer, but has resulted from an infected tooth, which created an abscess, swelling and closed his airways. We took him to the ER (local small hospital near his home) on Saturday afternoon and after testing and waiting for a room, he was transferred to St. Ann's in Westerville late in the evening. Sunday morning the hospital chaplain called about 5 a.m. to say he'd been intubated so the four of us went right out. We were with him most of the day, and by late afternoon it looked like the antibiotics were kicking in and he was trying to kick butt for all the indignities of tubes, machines, beeping, noise, mother hover, etc. So that's a good sign. Don't mess with Phil. He can't talk right now, but he can say a lot with a thumbs up or an eye roll every mom knows. As soon as he is strong enough, there will be surgery.

The pastors from his church have visited and had prayers with all of us, and Pastor John said they played his favorites in church where he’s in the praise band.

Thursday, February 13, 2020

The truncated Daniel—what a loss for Protestants

This morning in my devotions I was reading the Prayer of Azariah in the book of Daniel. It is so lovely. What a shame that Protestants don’t know it except in excerpts of songs and liturgy. It’s beautiful passage and devotion to read when in the furnace of fire of suffering.

The Orthodox Wiki explains how it is interpreted and used by Orthodox Christians: “The song constitutes a hymn of thanksgiving to God for deliverence from the fiery furnace into which the three young men, Ananias, Azarias and Misael (also known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) had been cast by the Persian king Nebuchadnezzar. They were cast into the furnace for refusing to worship a golden idol that Nebuchadnezzar had created. However, an Angel of the Lord entered the furnace and protected the three young men. In liturgical practice, the event is seen to presage the Resurrection of Christ, thus its inclusion in the canon.”

The note in the Roman Catholic Bible reads: * [3:24–90] These verses are additions to the Aramaic text of Daniel, translated from the Greek form of the book. They were probably first composed in Hebrew or Aramaic, but are no longer extant in the original language. The Roman Catholic Church has always regarded them as part of the canonical Scriptures.

Prayer of Azariah.^* 24 They walked about in the flames, singing to God and blessing the Lord. 25 Azariah ^* stood up in the midst of the fire and prayed aloud:

26 “Blessed are you, and praiseworthy,

O Lord, the God of our ancestors,

and glorious forever is your name.

27 For you are just in all you have done;

all your deeds are faultless, all your ways right,

and all your judgments proper.

28 You have executed proper judgments

in all that you have brought upon us

and upon Jerusalem, the holy city of our ancestors.

By a proper judgment you have done all this

because of our sins;

29 For we have sinned and transgressed

by departing from you,

and we have done every kind of evil.

30 Your commandments we have not heeded or observed,

nor have we done as you ordered us for our good.

31 Therefore all you have brought upon us,

all you have done to us,

you have done by a proper judgment.

32 You have handed us over to our enemies,

lawless and hateful rebels;

to an unjust king, the worst in all the world.

33 Now we cannot open our mouths;

shame and reproach have come upon us,

your servants, who revere you.

34 For your name’s sake, do not deliver us up forever,

or make void your covenant.

35 Do not take away your mercy from us,

for the sake of Abraham, your beloved,

Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one,

36 To whom you promised to multiply their offspring

like the stars of heaven,

or the sand on the shore of the sea.

37 For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation,

brought low everywhere in the world this day

because of our sins.

38 We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader,

no burnt offering, sacrifice, oblation, or incense,

no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you.

39 But with contrite heart and humble spirit

let us be received;

As though it were burnt offerings of rams and bulls,

or tens of thousands of fat lambs,

40 So let our sacrifice be in your presence today

and find favor before you;

for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.

41 And now we follow you with our whole heart,

we fear you and we seek your face.

Do not put us to shame,

42 but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.

43 Deliver us in accord with your wonders,

and bring glory to your name, O Lord:

44 Let all those be put to shame

who inflict evils on your servants;

Let them be shamed and powerless,

and their strength broken;

45 Let them know that you alone are the Lord God,

glorious over the whole world.”

46 Now the king’s servants who had thrown them in continued to stoke the furnace with naphtha, pitch, tow, and brush. 47The flames rose forty-nine cubits above the furnace, 48and spread out, burning the Chaldeans that it caught around the furnace. 49But the angel of the Lord went down into the furnace with Azariah and his companions, drove the fiery flames out of the furnace, 50and made the inside of the furnace as though a dew-laden breeze were blowing through it. The fire in no way touched them or caused them pain or harm. 51Then these three in the furnace with one voice sang, glorifying and blessing God:

52 “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our ancestors,

praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;

And blessed is your holy and glorious name,

praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.

53 Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,

praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.

54 Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,

praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

55 Blessed are you who look into the depths

from your throne upon the cherubim,

praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

56 Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven,

praiseworthy and glorious forever.

57 Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,