I was thinking about the title of my blog the other day and thought that I should be sharing more things I'm learning. I have done that sometimes in a serious way like when I have learned life lessons from my parents and in a not so serious way as when I studied the size of potato chips in relationship to the size bag they were in. But I thought I'd make my discoveries a regular feature here in a more purposeful way. Maybe you'll find something that's new to you, also.
Which brings me to todays' subjects.
The shape of incisions:
As you may remember, I mentioned here that Ward had surgery on the inside of his wrist recently. There was an interesting discovery when he got his splint off and got a view of his incision. It was a zig-zag. Before the surgery, the doctor came in with a Sharpie and initialed Ward's arm and made what I thought was just a squiggly line where he said he was going to cut. I thought he was kind of sloppy and just showing the general area where he would cut. Well, as it turned out the incision was right along the Sharpie marks. Supposedly when they make the cut that way, they don't have to pull the skin as much which results in easier access and less scarring. This was a totally new concept for me even though it has been around for a while. (No pictures for this one because not everyone likes looking at recent incisions.)
Have you seen an incision like this?
Pi Day:
Yesterday was 3-14, Pi Day. Bless made a comment on her blog, My Two Cents, that she didn't grow up celebrating Pi Day because they wrote their dates differently with the day first and the month second. That got me thinking that I certainly didn't grow up hearing about Pi Day either and it seemed to be a fairly recent thing. Once again, a little Googling confirmed what I thought.
It was created by physicist, Larry Shaw, in 1988, on a staff retreat for the Exploratorium (science and art museum in San Francisco.) It took off and each year involved a little more fun. They had a parade started at 1:59 (Pi_3.14159...) eating pizza pies and dessert pies, etc. It was declared a national holiday in 2009 and is celebrated around the world.
However yesterday, since we're trying to eat a little better, we didn't have any kind of pie. Not a chicken pot pie, not a pizza pie, nor an apple pie. It think this needs corrected certainly before next pie day.
Did you celebrate Pi Day with a pie?
Live and Learn, I really appreciated you sharing what you learned about Pi Day - my daughter has visited the Exploratorium! I need to tell her that Pi Day celebrations all started there! I was thinking of having a turkey pot pie for dinner, yesterday, but didn't. Instead, I ate a bagel - well, at least, it was round! Somewhat!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of a zig zag incision! I have one rather curved incision and two straight ones!
I guess the shape of the incision depends on what kind of and where they are doing the surgery. From what little I understand, the zig zag works well where there would have been a straight line only before.
DeleteThe Emporium sounds like a fun place to visit. If I ever make it out to San Francisco, it's on my list to see.
No pie here--no time to make one. We had pie last week for my husband's birthday (he likes that better than cake)--does that count? :)
ReplyDeleteI think you write a lot about what you learn. Oftentimes what you say has less to do with facts and more to do with things you've learned about how to live life (like your last post). Keep doing what you've been doing--I think we all like it!
Thanks, Kris.
DeleteI thought maybe if I framed it with a Live and Learn way, maybe I'd find motivation to write more regularly.
I've decided to join the A-Z challenge again this April to jump start my posting. If I were smart, I'd start writing posts now for it. But I'm not always smart. We'll see how it goes. While I like the challenge, I am definitely tired of the whole thing at the end.
I really enjoy the A-Z challenge but I am reading them, not writing them. Maybe if you just write the hard ones now--like the X or the Z? Or write the ones ahead that are on a day of the week you know you will be struggling to post anything? Or ... just be human and skip it for the day!
DeleteRight now, my mind says if I do any posts I should post them now since I haven't been doing many lately. However, I know that that is my perfectionism talking. Maybe I will skip a letter, but I don't like doing that because when I accept a challenge, I like to finish it. Perfectionism again talking. Have you caught on to another thing that sometimes gets in the way of my day to day living. :)
DeleteI have some perfectionistic tendencies, as well, so no judgment here!
DeleteI enjoy your blog and you're writing and I wouldn't mind if all you talked about what about how you scrub your shower, hahaha.
ReplyDeleteLet's see. I don't think I knew about the zig zag scars but I guess that makes sense. When my ex-husband had appendicitis when we were still married and had to have emergency surgery, I was shocked that they didn't completely stitch the wound back up. They said that it was better to let it heal "from the inside out" so he basically had a gaping wound when they sent him home (eventually, after he contacted a bad infection at the first hospital and almost died and then had to be treated by an infectious disease team of doctors at the second hospital where I insisted he should be transferred!). It was pretty gross so I was happy that we had a visiting nurse who would come and take care of his wound. She eventually showed him how to clean and dress it himself (can you imagine?!) and it was a good thing because about a week later a huge hurricane approached Florida so since we had 2 little kids, an infant and a husband with a gaping wound on his stomach, I decided to evacuate to Chattanooga. Well, I didn't mean to go that far north but we couldn't find any hotels between here and there. I guess that eventually his wound did "heal from the inside out" but the did have a pretty ugly scar.
About Pi Day, I think I knew it was a pretty recent invention. As a matter of fact, I just commented on Bless's post that I learned about it back when I was homeschooling YS (so anytime before 2009) because we'd been reading "Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi, a math adventure" and it happened to be 3/14 and it came up online as I was looking up something. I thought that was super cool, like "May the Fourth be with you" :) YS was too young so it really didn't make much of an impact, but that book (and the others in the series) is really cool, especially for people like me who don't like math one bit.
This year I celebrated by eating a small piece of the chocolate pecan pie that I had brought back from Georgia, but only because I needed an excuse to eat a piece of it, lol. Last night my excuse was that there was only a tiny piece left and I was tired to fight the temptation to eat it so I did. Now it's gone and my brain is fighting the temptation to go eat that creamy blue cheese that I bought for Greg and that he still hadn't touched. Is there a Creamy Blue Cheese Day coming up soon? Inquiring mind wants to know...
Aaargh, and I can't believe I made that mistake but I meant "Your writing" not "you're"! So sorry. I think it's because I'm too weak. I have a blue cheese deficiency that is proven to affect spelling and grammar :)
DeleteWell that that first sentence is completely mangled. I give up. Sorry again. I meant to say "I'll read anything you write even if it's about how you scrub your shower." Now I'm going to stop replying to my own replies and leave you all alone. I apologize if the rest of my comment is incoherent!
DeleteNo of your comments are incoherent. I make mistakes like that all the time because I don't take time to proof read. And you know what? I think everyone understands them just the same. And comment however many times you want. That's one of the reasons's we like you. You are always willing to share whatever you are thinking.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of leaving drains in wounds, but not gaping ones. It sounds like it was a very stressful time with wounds, kids, babies, and hurricanes. At least during last years hurricane, you didn't have any small children or babies to worry about.
See the mistake I made in my comment?
DeleteI wasn't going to mention it, LOL. Thank you for once again trying to be positive. See, you ARE a natural, whether you think so or not :)
DeleteI did not even know about Pi day, but why not? Nor did I know about zig zag incisions but makes sense when I think about it. Happy St. P day to you!
ReplyDeleteAnd Happy Saint Patrick's Day to you, too, Strayer!
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