Discoveries and inventions

[Ron Citerone]

Does spell check and calculators make us worse spellers and less capable of mental math? What diid scientists think of slide rules when they first came out? How bout those board foot measuring sticks?

Just musing…..

[Bob Turkovich]

Some of the amazing inventions in the medical field would include the ability to insert a stent into an obstructed artery without having to open the patient's chest. A similar method is used to insert a replacement heart valve.


jtk

My wife went through a catheter procedure in the spring where they went into the heart via a vein in the wrist. She was awake throughout the procedure and was able to see what the medical staff was seeing. They confirmed she needed a new aortic valve but the rest of the heart looked fine.

They replaced her aortic valve 6 weeks ago by going through the groin. Had her follow-up exam on Tuesday. Told her she could do whatever she wanted and to come back in a year.

[Bob Turkovich]

Ok... which slide rule manufacturer "rules"? Post, Pickett or K&E?

[Curt Harms]

Does spell check and calculators make us worse spellers and less capable of mental math? What diid scientists think of slide rules when they first came out? How bout those board foot measuring sticks?

Just musing…..

I do wonder if having 'everything' on a phone lessens the incentive to learn to spell and do mental math.

[Bill Howatt]

I do wonder if having 'everything' on a phone lessens the incentive to learn to spell and do mental math.

I would say so, as seen by the user, there is no need for it. The loss of need is why the exponential and fancier scales on my slide rule were no longer obvious - and dare I say that after the years for the same reason, how to do the underlying math with or without an aid is severely diminished too.
When I use a calculator, phone-based calculator or even a spreadsheet, I still do a mental "idiot check" of the answer since keying errors are a problem and in the spreadsheet case, maybe the formula isn't quite right.
Spell-check could be a good teaching tool if the user noted the correct spelling but that may be unlikely.

[Rick Potter]

I freely admit I am not computer savvy at all, but I do use google daily to look up interesting new things. I even retain some. Yesterday I looked up interest rates on new and used cars. Wow, are they up since April when I bought one.

No learning yesterday, but I simply asked Google what time it was in Tunisia, so I could call my wife and daughter, who are there for a week.

[Warren Lake]

the SR-71 blackbird was designed with a slide rule.

[Andrew Joiner]

My wife went through a catheter procedure in the spring were they went into the heart via a vein in the wrist. She was awake throughout the procedure and was able to see what the medical staff was seeing. They confirmed she needed a new aortic valve but the rest of the heart looked fine.

They replaced her aortic valve 6 weeks ago by going through the groin. Had her follow-up exam on Tuesday. Told her she could do whatever she wanted and to come back in a year.

That's such a cool story about your wife Bob, thank you. The advancements in medical stuff are amazing.

I have a windsurfing friend that's 60 years old and very athletic. I was told she had a joint replacement so I didn't see her on the water for a while. In the spring of 2023 when the season began I saw her getting ready to windsurf. I asked about her joint surgery and she said she took 9 months off cuz she had both knees and both hips replaced! She had it done as fast as she could so she could get back to being active again.
Then we went out in strong wind and she windsurfed as good as she did in her prime. I've been lucky and not needed any joint replacements, but her story is so inspiring.

[Lee DeRaud]

Context matters:
Sliced bread.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

…
They replaced her aortic valve 6 weeks ago by going through the groin. Had her follow-up exam on Tuesday. Told her she could do whatever she wanted and to come back in a year.

My TAVR (Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Replacement) was 5 weeks ago. I have a follow up in two weeks.

Is your wife going to a Cardiac Health Exercise clinic? I'm scheduled to start next week.

jtk

[Bob Turkovich]

My TAVR (Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Replacement) was 5 weeks ago. I have a follow up in two weeks.

Is your wife going to a Cardiac Health Exercise clinic? I'm scheduled to start next week.

jtk

She was kept in the hospital overnight. She had a follow-up with the surgeon one week later in which she was given the Ok to start doing some exercise (including golf) but don't overdue it until she gets into the Cardio Rehab program. She had her orientation (exercise + lifestyle counselng) earlier this week with the program and will start a week from Monday.

She believes she doesn't get as tired by the end of the day since the valve replacement. We celebrated her 70th birthday two weeks ago.

[Jim Koepke]

She was kept in the hospital overnight. She had a follow-up with the surgeon one week later in which she was given the Ok to start doing some exercise (including golf) but don't overdue it until she gets into the Cardio Rehab program. She had her orientation (exercise + lifestyle counselng) earlier this week with the program and will start a week from Monday.

She believes she doesn't get as tired by the end of the day since the valve replacement. We celebrated her 70th birthday two weeks ago.

I was also kept overnight. Didn't sleep much that night. My first night home was the best night's sleep I've had in years or since. I also no longer get as tired by the end of the day.

Isn't modern medicine great! Much more than a half century ago we would have likely been out of luck.

My 73 birthday was in September.

jtk

[Jerome Stanek]

I was also kept overnight. Didn't sleep much that night. My first night home was the best night's sleep I've had in years or since. I also no longer get as tired by the end of the day.

Isn't modern medicine great! Much more than a half century ago we would have likely been out of luck.

My 73 birthday was in September.

jtk

Glad to hear that. My sister in law had it done back in 2015 and she felt like a new person. She died in 2019 from cancer but up until then she said she felt great. The reason she had the TAVR was she had open heart surgery and they couldn't replace her valve as she had porcelain veins and they ended up just closing her up. So she had a rough time altogether.

[Alan Lightstone]

Yes, TAVR's are pretty amazing. Originally only used on patients who weren't expected to survive open aortic valve replacements (AVRs).

Mortality rates for critical aortic stenosis, untreated are huge, in short periods of time. One of the operations I most enjoyed doing was AVRs, because of all the patients in cardiac surgery, their lives seemed to change the most afterwards.

Certainly challenging to do the anesthesia for TAVRs. Kept my transesophageal echocardiography skills state-of-the art. And mind-blowing that we can do this with patients sedated and not always require general anesthesia (which is not simple, or risk-free in patients with critical aortic stenosis.)

Congrats on your successful procedure.

[Alan Lightstone]

On a medical note. People often say that pulse oximeters are an amazing invention that saved many lives. And they have. (It is mind-blowing to me to see these fingertip probes sold on Amazon, CVS, etc., when the originals were large metal boxes that cost $20K.) As an anesthesia resident, the first thing I would do on my call nights was sneak into one of the ORs that had them, and "borrow" the end-tidal CO2 monitor and pulse oximeter, and bring them into my OR for the night.

But end-tidal CO2 monitors have saved many, many more lives in the operating room and intensive care units than pulse oximeters ever did. And we had to fight like crazy, to get them mandated as a standard. (Yay, Harvard Medical School Dept of Anesthesia!!!)..