Religulous by Bill Maher is a brilliant, laugh out loud, hard hitting swipe at religiosity around the world. If it's not showing where you live search one of the torrent sites (Pirate Bay for example) and watch it.
His conclusion, that we, as a species, have to grow up or die is so very important to get across to people. And he's right again that time is short if we are to survive this dangerous mix of bronze age myth and modern warfare / weaponry that surround us now.
This film needs to be shown annually in every school on the planet, with "The God Delusion" handed out as the end credits roll.
We laughed our tits off, we gasped at some of the rank stupidity of the theists, we cheered at the end... and we just have to go to that religious disney land in Florida SOON!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Sour Creek Dome
If you take a look at the unfiltered plot of the continued uplift of the Sour Creek Dome here... (third graph down) you can see for the very last section a new line emerging. The most recent "cloud" of data points are marked in red. See the highest one? If you look to it's left you can see a trail of points going back into the main data set.
The Sour Creek Dome is quite a large area... and by the amount of data points appearing with each update it's obvious they are sampling at more than one location. But from the graph it looks like that one datum point on the dome has very recently broken out of the trend, risen above the background noise, and is uplifting much quicker than the rest of the dome.
I think someone should perhaps home in on this single datum point and "cast a net" around it so we can see what's happening with greater resolution. More pixels if you like. It looks to me like most of the dome is slowing perhaps with just a single point continuing the trend of the past few years. Either way, more resolution please? Has anyone go a link that plots these datum points on the dome with separate graphs for each one?
Friday, January 02, 2009
The Yellowstone Supervolcano
Just a quick heads up for something I've been watching for a couple of days. Yellowstone National Park in the US (home of "Old Faithful") is actually the caldera of a massive volcano. Mount St. Helens (1980) was a damp squib in comparison. St. Helens prduced 0.3 cubic km of rock and ash, the Huckleberry Ridge eruption of Yellowstone (2 million years ago) produced 2500 cubic km of rock and ash!
Here's a quick summary of events a map showing where the quakes are happening... live output from local seismographs...
If you look at Yellowstone Lake recorder from a few days ago and that of the same recorder currently you can see the difference. These pages of data from the recorders can be refreshed to update them in real time.
I don't know if you saw the BBC's dramatised documentary "Supervolcano" but here's a page about the effects and previous eruptions of Yellowstone.
Here's a plot of the uplift... (Third graph down)
Someone on one of the groups said it was all fluff and hype and that it was mainly wind and dump trucks causing the hectic plot at Yellowstone Lake and that we should...
"Keep an eye on Old Faithful's recorder to see output without the wind making everyone excitable"
Well, if you do that here.. Looks pretty dramatic to me and not much like wind or passing trucks!
Keep your heads down!
Here's a quick summary of events a map showing where the quakes are happening... live output from local seismographs...
If you look at Yellowstone Lake recorder from a few days ago and that of the same recorder currently you can see the difference. These pages of data from the recorders can be refreshed to update them in real time.
I don't know if you saw the BBC's dramatised documentary "Supervolcano" but here's a page about the effects and previous eruptions of Yellowstone.
Looks like the swarm is marching northwards towards the Sour Creek dome...
This is a place of recent, continued uplift... (Scroll down to second image)
Here's a plot of the uplift... (Third graph down)
Someone on one of the groups said it was all fluff and hype and that it was mainly wind and dump trucks causing the hectic plot at Yellowstone Lake and that we should...
"Keep an eye on Old Faithful's recorder to see output without the wind making everyone excitable"
Well, if you do that here.. Looks pretty dramatic to me and not much like wind or passing trucks!
Keep your heads down!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
To Israel
You have to stop the mad fundamentalist settlers stealing land, the wall building stealing land, dividing farms, the checkpoints stopping commerce, splitting communities, the tanks against stone throwing kids, the starvation, the withholding of fuel, medicine, water, electricity... No
wonder your hollow words are not heard.
You haven't got the mindset to do this, otherwise Gaza and the West bank wouldn't be as they are, but if you, and your family, all your people, were forcibly removed from their homelands by a violent invader, all because of words in a work of fiction... wouldn't you fight back? Imagine... just for a few minutes, honestly... put yourself in their place, your homeland stolen,
your family starving and ill, unsanitary conditions, shot at, check points, anger... go on, try it!
And if your body, your life, was the last thing you had to fight with, then wouldn't you use that to protect all that you hold dear? Your kids, your partner, the last remnants of your homeland?
I can't believe all this came from a UK prime minister... Churchill. Sickening. That a so called "holy" book was taken as literal truth so that a mainly European people could invade a part of the middle east that had been permanently occupied since we got out of Africa and displace the people into foul slums, chipped away at, made smaller and smaller until they're bursting at the seams, and then starved and shot at.
Disgusting... absolutely disgusting. And you wonder why they fight back with
outdated rockets and suicide bombers?
Yes, the holocaust was foul, a nauseating chapter in human history. But two wrongs don't make a right. And Israel can't do what it's doing now BECAUSE it still suffers the pain of the Nazi death camps. I'm NOT an anti Semite... i'm an atheist / humanist and what you are doing is plain wrong! I don't hate you because you're a Jew, i hate what you are doing! There's a difference, and if you won't see that difference then it's a choice YOU have made, you choose to hide behind your people's history when you should have LEARNED from your people's history.
Of all the world's people, that it should be the descendants of the survivors of the Holocaust that should Ghetto-ise and murder thousands upon thousands of fellow humans is an outrage. This current pogrom against the Palestinians is no exception. Of all the worlds people i would have thought the Jews would be able to recognise the pain of others and LEARN from the atrocities
of the past.
It's just made you bitter, violent, blinkered... your forefather's suffering and your religion has rendered you blind to the suffering you're causing. As bad as Hitler? Well, ask the starving kid crying for his dead Mother in Gaza this morning as the smoke clears from your fighter jets most recent missile attack runs on residential areas and your ground troops prepare to go in with
tanks and assault rifles against "soft" targets.
Hitler's Blitzkrieg, "Lightning war" in English. It took the form of air assault to soften up the target and then mechanised troops pushing in and through... this is exactly what your armed forces are doing now. The only difference is that the Nazis had armies, air forces, navies to fight
against. Not women, children and desperate civilians formed into rag tag resistance outfits out of date, sparse weaponry. A few rockets and Kalashnikovs against your armed forces.... disgusting.
TALK! This is not a fight, it's a fucking turkey shoot. You should be ashamed of yourselves, as individuals and as a people. If those of your previous generations that didn't make it out of the camps could see what you are doing to these people they would hang their heads in disbelief and
shame.
I do to...for my own species stupidity, and the futileness of "my invisible friend is better than your invisible friend". Stupid, stupid humanity.... when will we ever fucking learn!
wonder your hollow words are not heard.
You haven't got the mindset to do this, otherwise Gaza and the West bank wouldn't be as they are, but if you, and your family, all your people, were forcibly removed from their homelands by a violent invader, all because of words in a work of fiction... wouldn't you fight back? Imagine... just for a few minutes, honestly... put yourself in their place, your homeland stolen,
your family starving and ill, unsanitary conditions, shot at, check points, anger... go on, try it!
And if your body, your life, was the last thing you had to fight with, then wouldn't you use that to protect all that you hold dear? Your kids, your partner, the last remnants of your homeland?
I can't believe all this came from a UK prime minister... Churchill. Sickening. That a so called "holy" book was taken as literal truth so that a mainly European people could invade a part of the middle east that had been permanently occupied since we got out of Africa and displace the people into foul slums, chipped away at, made smaller and smaller until they're bursting at the seams, and then starved and shot at.
Disgusting... absolutely disgusting. And you wonder why they fight back with
outdated rockets and suicide bombers?
Yes, the holocaust was foul, a nauseating chapter in human history. But two wrongs don't make a right. And Israel can't do what it's doing now BECAUSE it still suffers the pain of the Nazi death camps. I'm NOT an anti Semite... i'm an atheist / humanist and what you are doing is plain wrong! I don't hate you because you're a Jew, i hate what you are doing! There's a difference, and if you won't see that difference then it's a choice YOU have made, you choose to hide behind your people's history when you should have LEARNED from your people's history.
Of all the world's people, that it should be the descendants of the survivors of the Holocaust that should Ghetto-ise and murder thousands upon thousands of fellow humans is an outrage. This current pogrom against the Palestinians is no exception. Of all the worlds people i would have thought the Jews would be able to recognise the pain of others and LEARN from the atrocities
of the past.
It's just made you bitter, violent, blinkered... your forefather's suffering and your religion has rendered you blind to the suffering you're causing. As bad as Hitler? Well, ask the starving kid crying for his dead Mother in Gaza this morning as the smoke clears from your fighter jets most recent missile attack runs on residential areas and your ground troops prepare to go in with
tanks and assault rifles against "soft" targets.
Hitler's Blitzkrieg, "Lightning war" in English. It took the form of air assault to soften up the target and then mechanised troops pushing in and through... this is exactly what your armed forces are doing now. The only difference is that the Nazis had armies, air forces, navies to fight
against. Not women, children and desperate civilians formed into rag tag resistance outfits out of date, sparse weaponry. A few rockets and Kalashnikovs against your armed forces.... disgusting.
TALK! This is not a fight, it's a fucking turkey shoot. You should be ashamed of yourselves, as individuals and as a people. If those of your previous generations that didn't make it out of the camps could see what you are doing to these people they would hang their heads in disbelief and
shame.
I do to...for my own species stupidity, and the futileness of "my invisible friend is better than your invisible friend". Stupid, stupid humanity.... when will we ever fucking learn!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Radio 4 "Thought for the Day"
Please visit Pledgebank : "Thought for the Day"
"Thought for the Day" is a slot during BBC Radio 4's "Today Programme" in which airtime is handed over to religious commentators to try to interpret world events in the context of their texts and bestow their wisdom upon us all.
The fact that this interruption occurs during the BBC's flagship radio news programme, which is otherwise supposed to apply exacting standards of evidence, makes it totally and utterly incongruous. Not only is "Thought for the Day" on during this programme, but it is given absolute peak time at approximately 7.47am, just as many people are waiting for the 8am headlines and getting ready to leave for work.
In addition, the fact that humanist, non-religious contributors, are excluded from the slot gives the impression the BBC believes morality is the exclusive remit of religious people, which is offensive, unrepresentative and untrue.
As such, "Thought for the Day" is an insult to intelligent listeners. It is high time there was a concerted campaign insisting that it either:
1) accept non-religious contributors (for example A.C. Grayling)
or
2) be removed from The Today Programme's schedule all together
During the week commencing 1st January 2009 I will email the Today Programme to object to Thought for the Day in writing - but only if 100 other people do the same.
Although the Today Programme often passes the TFTD buck to the BBC "Religion & Ethics" unit (a conflation indicative of how they view matters) we will address our mails to where the problem appears: today@bbc.co.uk
"Thought for the Day" is a slot during BBC Radio 4's "Today Programme" in which airtime is handed over to religious commentators to try to interpret world events in the context of their texts and bestow their wisdom upon us all.
The fact that this interruption occurs during the BBC's flagship radio news programme, which is otherwise supposed to apply exacting standards of evidence, makes it totally and utterly incongruous. Not only is "Thought for the Day" on during this programme, but it is given absolute peak time at approximately 7.47am, just as many people are waiting for the 8am headlines and getting ready to leave for work.
In addition, the fact that humanist, non-religious contributors, are excluded from the slot gives the impression the BBC believes morality is the exclusive remit of religious people, which is offensive, unrepresentative and untrue.
As such, "Thought for the Day" is an insult to intelligent listeners. It is high time there was a concerted campaign insisting that it either:
1) accept non-religious contributors (for example A.C. Grayling)
or
2) be removed from The Today Programme's schedule all together
During the week commencing 1st January 2009 I will email the Today Programme to object to Thought for the Day in writing - but only if 100 other people do the same.
Although the Today Programme often passes the TFTD buck to the BBC "Religion & Ethics" unit (a conflation indicative of how they view matters) we will address our mails to where the problem appears: today@bbc.co.uk
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Help for a Friend....
Can YOU help?
This forwarded for a friend..
I am suffering from acute hepatitis and liver failure.
I have been in hospital for over a month now and my doctors are
calling me an anomaly.
About two and a half months ago I started feeling a little 'off
colour'. I put it down to stress (of moving house recently and
starting a new job) and the fact that my partner (with whom I live)
had been feeling a bit poorly over a weekend (minor stomach ailments,
a little bit of diarrhoea) because that's how I had started to feel.
Within a week though I knew that it was a little more than that but I
had just started my new job and wasn't going to take a day off sick if
I could help it.
By the end of the first week, I was losing my appetite and feeling
nauseous and an intense itching had started.
Towards the end of my second week, I had not been eating more than a
few bites of food at a time and had had diarrhoea, vomiting and had
(unnoticed by me) begun to change colour to yellow.
On the Thursday of the second week, my partner bumped into me at a
train station on the way home from work and gave me a kiss. As we
pulled apart, he started looking at me strangely saying that I looked
like I had yellow eyes. Having no mirror, I waited 20 minutes and
checked it out in the mirror at home. Sure enough, I had a very
definite tinge of yellow to my skin and the whites of my eyes were
somewhat worse.
That evening, I was vomiting everything that I was eating/drinking
including water.
The next evening, I went to an NHS walk in centre and they told me
that I was jaundiced and to go home and sleep it off and I would
return to normal colour within 4-6 weeks.
On Monday, after having an entire weekend of no food/water and
vomiting bile, I decided that I had to take a day off work and went to
my doctor to arrange a blood test. (thankfully ignoring the first
doctor's advice of 'going home and sleeping it off')
He examined me and found my liver to be tender to the touch and he put
slight pressure on it and triggered off a gag reflex. I told him to
stop otherwise I would be sick and he proceeded to put a little extra
pressure on it and I threw up on the floor(!)
He told me to leave the surgery immediately and go and admit myself to
the nearest hospital and get myself put on a drip. He prescribed some
piriton (anti itching) and some anti sickness tablets. (My doctors
informed me that had I not admitted myself to hospital, then I would
have died from dehydration/starvation within a week. I am looking at
'multiple organ failure' because my liver, kidneys and gall bladder
are under a huge amount of strain.)
Within hours of being put on the drip I was feeling better and all of
the doctors that I had met until that point told me that had I 'gone
home and slept it off' I would have been dead by the end of the week.
(My symptoms apparently wouldn't have changed much – I would have just
got more tired and more grumpy/irritable which I probably would have
put to the hot weather and then I would have gone to sleep and not
woken up.)
After the first week in hospital in isolation, my appetite was
increasing dramatically and I was feeling a lot better. ( I was on a
standard saline and glucose drip and all of my vitals were around the
normal mark.)
My daily blood test results were fluctuating but the only thing that
had really changed was the INR (the blood clotting) and that was very
slowly returning to normal.
By the end of the second week, I was transferred to the Royal Free
where I was being quite sick. I was on N-Acetyl Cysteine and the
doctors had forgotten to mention that one of the side effects would be
severe nausea.
They have done 2 X-rays, 2 Ultrasounds, 4 CT scans and one Liver
biopsy and they still are no closer to a solution. They want me to
stay as a long term In Patient with no plans for treatment.
I am feeling physically better now and have done since about the end
of the second week in hospital, I am eating lots of different foods
(have been for a couple of 3 course meals in the last week, eaten
entire roast dinners (and desserts) duck, chicken, pork, eggs, dairy,
fish, fruit, drinking around 4 litres of pure water a day plus some
milkshakes and other fruit juices) I have been sick once recently and
that was due to overeating(!) I had had a three course meal and then
decided to continue to eat a huge pot of very acidic fruit.
Unfortunately saw the fruit again which was, to be fair, my own silly
fault. (but oh, it tasted good!!)
My liver no longer feels tender to touch and I cant feel it with my
fingers any more even though my doctors are telling me that its
getting more inflamed. They are saying that some of my blood tests are
very slowly turning for the worse and they want me to stay in hospital
'in case something happens/changes for the worse'
I am still in regular contact with a doctor from the first hospital
that I was at who has taken a personal interest in my case because its
so unique.
I spend all day every day in hospital watching DVDs and reading books.
I eat all of the meals that I am given (and sometimes more) I took
myself off of the drip called N-Acetyl Cysteine because the doctors
said that it wasn't actually doing anything except making me feel
sick)
I am drinking, my bowels are moving freely of their own accord. I no
longer feel any nausea/sickness; don't have diarrhoea, don't feel
lethargic (I feel very energetic some days and most days am to be
found roaming the hospital wearing a night dress and holding a laptop
under my arm in search of entertainment!)
My initial symptoms
* Sickness/vomiting – not even being able to retain sips of water
* Lethargy
* Diarrhoea (very pale stools, cream in colour)
* Intense itching
* Severe lack of appetite
* Very dark urine (looks like coca cola)
* Jaundiced (yellow – bilirubin count average 600)
* Inflamed liver (to 1/3 its size again) tender to touch
What they have done
After a month in hospital – they have tried me on a 6 day course of
steroids and a drip called N-Acetyl Cysteine which lasted for about 5
days neither of which has had an effect.
I was kept in contact isolation for a week because they thought that I
was infectious and then realised that I wasn't. Then I stopped being
sick and have only been sick more recently as a direct side effect of
N-Acetyl Cysteine and over eating.
They did a liver biopsy (Through the jugular) and informed me that
half of my liver cells were dead and the other half were newly
regenerated and at some point in the last 2 months my whole liver had
inexplicable died and began regenerating.
Take my blood sugar levels every 3 hours and only pull arterial blood
for analysis. (ouch!)
(Official names for steroids used: Prednisolone (8 X 40mg tablets)
(Names of all medication consumed in hospital –
Vitamin K (1 X10 mg) for two days
Cholestymmine (1 X g) for three days
Mebclopmnide (3 X 10 mg) for three days
Clinitra (3 X energy supplement drink) for one week
Prednisolone (40 mg) for 3 days
Omepazle (20mg) for 3 days
Calcicle D Fote (3 days)
Aqueous Menthol Cream (as required)
Piriton (As required – no more than every 6 hours)
What has been ruled out
* Malaria
* Hepatitis A,B,C,D,E
* Exotic diseases
* Sexually transmitted disease
* Auto immunity of the liver
My current symptoms
* Jaundiced (bilirubin count around 650-700)
* Dark urine and pale stools. (fluctuate in colour quite
dramatically depending on what I've eaten, but will usually change
overnight)
* Itching
Other information
* I have not been in a position where I have had my drink spiked.
* I do not take any recreational drugs and have never done any.
* I do not/have never smoked.
* I do not take the contraceptive pill.
* I do not drink excessively and my monthly consumption of alcohol
would have to be less than 6 units (2/3 small bottles of cider)
* I am not depressed/suicidal and did not try to commit suicide by
taking paracetamol/aspirin.
* I do not generally take other forms of medication
herbal/prescribed or other. (I can remember the last medication that I
took, - a piriton for the itching before I came to hospital, a nasal
spray to counteract what I thought was the beginning of a cold and an
anti inflammatory (Ibuprofen) to counteract the swelling as a result
of the itching. (All of which were taken AFTER the initial symptoms
had occurred.)
* I do not eat shellfish usually, though I do buy small prawns and
have prawn cocktail jacket potatoes.
* I have not been exposed to anyone with liver disease and there
is no history of it in anywhere in the family.
* Though I travelled to Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) in January, I did
not pick up any exotic diseases and this is not a result of anything
that I have picked up as nothing has shown up in my blood.
n.b Just as an after note – it has been noted by several different
people on different occasions(including nurses and two doctors) that I
appear to get less yellow towards the end of the day: my theory is
that I am drinking and eating so I am pushing things through my system
and the yellow fluctuates.
If you know or have any idea what this is, please please could you let
me know because no one here has a clue!
My doctors are going a little crazy with my case and am now in the
**** hospital in London. I am in a specialist liver ward and
they don't know how to treat me because they don't know that the cause
is.
Please pass this onto anyone who may be able to help me because I cant
be the only person in the world to have this happen to them!
Thank you very much!
I am suffering from acute hepatitis and liver failure.
I have been in hospital for over a month now and my doctors are
calling me an anomaly.
About two and a half months ago I started feeling a little 'off
colour'. I put it down to stress (of moving house recently and
starting a new job) and the fact that my partner (with whom I live)
had been feeling a bit poorly over a weekend (minor stomach ailments,
a little bit of diarrhoea) because that's how I had started to feel.
Within a week though I knew that it was a little more than that but I
had just started my new job and wasn't going to take a day off sick if
I could help it.
By the end of the first week, I was losing my appetite and feeling
nauseous and an intense itching had started.
Towards the end of my second week, I had not been eating more than a
few bites of food at a time and had had diarrhoea, vomiting and had
(unnoticed by me) begun to change colour to yellow.
On the Thursday of the second week, my partner bumped into me at a
train station on the way home from work and gave me a kiss. As we
pulled apart, he started looking at me strangely saying that I looked
like I had yellow eyes. Having no mirror, I waited 20 minutes and
checked it out in the mirror at home. Sure enough, I had a very
definite tinge of yellow to my skin and the whites of my eyes were
somewhat worse.
That evening, I was vomiting everything that I was eating/drinking
including water.
The next evening, I went to an NHS walk in centre and they told me
that I was jaundiced and to go home and sleep it off and I would
return to normal colour within 4-6 weeks.
On Monday, after having an entire weekend of no food/water and
vomiting bile, I decided that I had to take a day off work and went to
my doctor to arrange a blood test. (thankfully ignoring the first
doctor's advice of 'going home and sleeping it off')
He examined me and found my liver to be tender to the touch and he put
slight pressure on it and triggered off a gag reflex. I told him to
stop otherwise I would be sick and he proceeded to put a little extra
pressure on it and I threw up on the floor(!)
He told me to leave the surgery immediately and go and admit myself to
the nearest hospital and get myself put on a drip. He prescribed some
piriton (anti itching) and some anti sickness tablets. (My doctors
informed me that had I not admitted myself to hospital, then I would
have died from dehydration/starvation within a week. I am looking at
'multiple organ failure' because my liver, kidneys and gall bladder
are under a huge amount of strain.)
Within hours of being put on the drip I was feeling better and all of
the doctors that I had met until that point told me that had I 'gone
home and slept it off' I would have been dead by the end of the week.
(My symptoms apparently wouldn't have changed much – I would have just
got more tired and more grumpy/irritable which I probably would have
put to the hot weather and then I would have gone to sleep and not
woken up.)
After the first week in hospital in isolation, my appetite was
increasing dramatically and I was feeling a lot better. ( I was on a
standard saline and glucose drip and all of my vitals were around the
normal mark.)
My daily blood test results were fluctuating but the only thing that
had really changed was the INR (the blood clotting) and that was very
slowly returning to normal.
By the end of the second week, I was transferred to the Royal Free
where I was being quite sick. I was on N-Acetyl Cysteine and the
doctors had forgotten to mention that one of the side effects would be
severe nausea.
They have done 2 X-rays, 2 Ultrasounds, 4 CT scans and one Liver
biopsy and they still are no closer to a solution. They want me to
stay as a long term In Patient with no plans for treatment.
I am feeling physically better now and have done since about the end
of the second week in hospital, I am eating lots of different foods
(have been for a couple of 3 course meals in the last week, eaten
entire roast dinners (and desserts) duck, chicken, pork, eggs, dairy,
fish, fruit, drinking around 4 litres of pure water a day plus some
milkshakes and other fruit juices) I have been sick once recently and
that was due to overeating(!) I had had a three course meal and then
decided to continue to eat a huge pot of very acidic fruit.
Unfortunately saw the fruit again which was, to be fair, my own silly
fault. (but oh, it tasted good!!)
My liver no longer feels tender to touch and I cant feel it with my
fingers any more even though my doctors are telling me that its
getting more inflamed. They are saying that some of my blood tests are
very slowly turning for the worse and they want me to stay in hospital
'in case something happens/changes for the worse'
I am still in regular contact with a doctor from the first hospital
that I was at who has taken a personal interest in my case because its
so unique.
I spend all day every day in hospital watching DVDs and reading books.
I eat all of the meals that I am given (and sometimes more) I took
myself off of the drip called N-Acetyl Cysteine because the doctors
said that it wasn't actually doing anything except making me feel
sick)
I am drinking, my bowels are moving freely of their own accord. I no
longer feel any nausea/sickness; don't have diarrhoea, don't feel
lethargic (I feel very energetic some days and most days am to be
found roaming the hospital wearing a night dress and holding a laptop
under my arm in search of entertainment!)
My initial symptoms
* Sickness/vomiting – not even being able to retain sips of water
* Lethargy
* Diarrhoea (very pale stools, cream in colour)
* Intense itching
* Severe lack of appetite
* Very dark urine (looks like coca cola)
* Jaundiced (yellow – bilirubin count average 600)
* Inflamed liver (to 1/3 its size again) tender to touch
What they have done
After a month in hospital – they have tried me on a 6 day course of
steroids and a drip called N-Acetyl Cysteine which lasted for about 5
days neither of which has had an effect.
I was kept in contact isolation for a week because they thought that I
was infectious and then realised that I wasn't. Then I stopped being
sick and have only been sick more recently as a direct side effect of
N-Acetyl Cysteine and over eating.
They did a liver biopsy (Through the jugular) and informed me that
half of my liver cells were dead and the other half were newly
regenerated and at some point in the last 2 months my whole liver had
inexplicable died and began regenerating.
Take my blood sugar levels every 3 hours and only pull arterial blood
for analysis. (ouch!)
(Official names for steroids used: Prednisolone (8 X 40mg tablets)
(Names of all medication consumed in hospital –
Vitamin K (1 X10 mg) for two days
Cholestymmine (1 X g) for three days
Mebclopmnide (3 X 10 mg) for three days
Clinitra (3 X energy supplement drink) for one week
Prednisolone (40 mg) for 3 days
Omepazle (20mg) for 3 days
Calcicle D Fote (3 days)
Aqueous Menthol Cream (as required)
Piriton (As required – no more than every 6 hours)
What has been ruled out
* Malaria
* Hepatitis A,B,C,D,E
* Exotic diseases
* Sexually transmitted disease
* Auto immunity of the liver
My current symptoms
* Jaundiced (bilirubin count around 650-700)
* Dark urine and pale stools. (fluctuate in colour quite
dramatically depending on what I've eaten, but will usually change
overnight)
* Itching
Other information
* I have not been in a position where I have had my drink spiked.
* I do not take any recreational drugs and have never done any.
* I do not/have never smoked.
* I do not take the contraceptive pill.
* I do not drink excessively and my monthly consumption of alcohol
would have to be less than 6 units (2/3 small bottles of cider)
* I am not depressed/suicidal and did not try to commit suicide by
taking paracetamol/aspirin.
* I do not generally take other forms of medication
herbal/prescribed or other. (I can remember the last medication that I
took, - a piriton for the itching before I came to hospital, a nasal
spray to counteract what I thought was the beginning of a cold and an
anti inflammatory (Ibuprofen) to counteract the swelling as a result
of the itching. (All of which were taken AFTER the initial symptoms
had occurred.)
* I do not eat shellfish usually, though I do buy small prawns and
have prawn cocktail jacket potatoes.
* I have not been exposed to anyone with liver disease and there
is no history of it in anywhere in the family.
* Though I travelled to Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) in January, I did
not pick up any exotic diseases and this is not a result of anything
that I have picked up as nothing has shown up in my blood.
n.b Just as an after note – it has been noted by several different
people on different occasions(including nurses and two doctors) that I
appear to get less yellow towards the end of the day: my theory is
that I am drinking and eating so I am pushing things through my system
and the yellow fluctuates.
If you know or have any idea what this is, please please could you let
me know because no one here has a clue!
My doctors are going a little crazy with my case and am now in the
**** hospital in London. I am in a specialist liver ward and
they don't know how to treat me because they don't know that the cause
is.
Please pass this onto anyone who may be able to help me because I cant
be the only person in the world to have this happen to them!
Thank you very much!
Aengus42@googlemail.com
Sunday, July 27, 2008
A Brit Abroad! or Van, but not the man...
I kinda liked the architecture on the east side, Hastings was it? But my SO said it wasn't a good area to lurk about in, looked fine to me, a bit more like home. I said it may all depend on what you actually wanted to do next. I'd planned a few hours study of the Cytochrome / Mesolimbic paradox, and had worked this all out just by looking in a "herbal" cafe, noticing the distinctive litter around the pavements and the surfeit of smiling, busy, working girls.
Hastings seemed to offer a frisson of risk, a selection of pastimes, all within, or maybe a little outside, and i'm sure, right in the middle of, a few grey areas of a whole new country's laws to learn where the buck stops and with whom? That, i was told, was a b& plan. There was a cold beer in the fridge at home, that would have to suffice. "Only one, lets get some more, there's a supermarket over there, What! No beer in supermarkets! Government owned shops only! Sheesh!"
I thought it was just Hastings and the lower east side that had it's drugs and girls controlled by profiteering hoodlums protecting their monopoly with thugs on bikes, but it seems the Canadian government has the booze racket sewn up as their own special cut of the action. In fact, I think i just dissed the Lower East Side, the few mins I was there, it seemed like a free and open, enterprise zone, style place, well, in comparison to the "Booze @ .gov shop 'n' save" (Yeah right!) state licensed price fixed, supply screwed down and outlets all pwned scam the government boys were running. Seems that in Vancouver, a lump of crack and a quick knee trembler are not only cheaper, but easier to come by, in nicer surroundings, and with better, more pleasant service, than buying a bottle of wine is most days. Very odd...
I longed to return to Hastings 'cos everywhere else was so new! It had started to make me feel, erm... rootless, is that a feeling anyone else has had in these new countries? Just a feeling of the whole place being temporary, in a "it'll all be gone next week, replaced with more faceless, modern crap" kinda way. Nothing of any presence, nothing with a bit of a past, everything "shop bought", nothing made by humans.
Gastown was too touristy & kitsch. N.Van was nice though, odd mix of trees, wooden lap built houses, no bricks anywhere... they looked cheap and.. well, again, temporary. Like this...
"We're living in this little wooden house while we build the proper one over there." "Sorry?" ... Erm.. No... not really, it's been tacked together quite well, not many leaks, and it's not for long anyway and the kids can use it as a wendy house afterwards." (OK, exaggerated for effect, but that was the feeling the place gives you.)
And who on earth thought of having a string quartet under every SkyTrain to play a random, surreal, but very pleasant chord as it pulls in / away from / to a station. Nice touch, hell of a job though.
"The British Butcher Shoppe". Got taken in there as a place of wonder, she went, "Well?" I went, "What?" She said "Look!" I said "I bloody am looking, what?" Then I noticed the prices, worked it out into Pounds Sterling and said "I'll be buggered! Atora Suet for damn near five quid! And this is your local shop? Your right, this bloke is obviously having a laugh, i'll have a word, even for a corner shop it's bloody robbery! "No!" She squealed... So i got dragged out of there too, another puzzled bloke behind the counter, and his missus, both looking stunned as I get dragged out saying "Five quid for bleedin' suet! Your having a giraffe mate!"
Well, seems i was taken in there to see all the Brit nosh she could buy to remind her of home, I had only been in Canada for a few hours, looked normal to me, same stuff, different shelves. Once it clicked i realised just how out of place those shelves must have seemed to her, look outside you get Canada, look at shelf you get Co-op, 4 minutes walk from my front door in the UK. And, of course, how much it cost to import Cadbury,s Cream Eggs and stuff, not that we eat them at home, but I s'pose you got to show willing abroad!
Went to see the "Heritage Building" someplece and stopped a couple of old bill cycling past, "Where's the bloody heritage building? I follow the signs, get to here, signs say go past this shed, then on the other side nothing! Then, if you keep walking, signs in the opposite direction... Help!
"That shed, ... (long pause...) Sir, IS the heritage building! It's been there since 1912!
Bugger, upset more Canadians without trying.. To everyone in Vancouver, N.Van... sorry, put it down to me being a foreigner.
The BSE joke at the bus stop on the way to Kitts beach (sp?), Local, very nice lady says "Oh My! Your Australian!" I say, "Nope, English (they seem a little disappointed) But then one perks up, "So, how do you get on with Mad Cow Disease?" "I make "Apocalypse Now" style Huey blades in slo mo noises along with suitable face and say "Doesn't effect me! I'm a helicopter!" and smile waiting for the laugh and a breaking of the ice so we can chat on the way to the beach, but instead the whole damn city goes silent, tumble weed blowing down the street, bus comes, they sit waaaay down the back and eye me suspiciously until i get off, not another word was spoken on quite a busy bus. Till it drives off, as the doors swoosh closed, lots of "Well, He was an odd one Ethel!"
Then there was bloke who asked me for a fag (cigarette) on top of Grouse (thought he was selling something, had a clipboard. He spoke something very Canadian, i didn't get it, but headed off his sales pitch at the pass, I said "There's no point sunshine, I'm British!" Girls collapsed laughing... Chap looks puzzled, shrugs, looks at me like I'm suggesting dropping the border with the US (ie; withering hatred) and walks off. Seems his sales clipboard was just a newspaper, he'd been talking to the girls, asked them for a smoke, they pointed at me... anyway, sorry dude, my fault.
As was getting served REAL fast down by the sea in a burger place, big queues.. I pop outside to smoke, get bored, go back in, get kissed. She says (being a Brit too), "Bugger me sideways Les, your breath tastes of all those old fags you just had in the car park. You got to give them up one of these days, you can't keep it up as much as you do without going down with something really nasty!" Sudden tumble weed moment, exit of many customers, we get served (at arms, and fingertip, length) by the manager i think. So, sorry to Maccy D's too.
Still, would love to go back for a proper explore, now I have the hang of things a bit. Any spare settees, sofas, spare rooms, wendy houses etc. would like an oik and his wench to stay for a few weeks. Promise to be on best behaviour, want to learn to paraglide off of Grouse so you won't hardly see us ;o)
Hastings seemed to offer a frisson of risk, a selection of pastimes, all within, or maybe a little outside, and i'm sure, right in the middle of, a few grey areas of a whole new country's laws to learn where the buck stops and with whom? That, i was told, was a b& plan. There was a cold beer in the fridge at home, that would have to suffice. "Only one, lets get some more, there's a supermarket over there, What! No beer in supermarkets! Government owned shops only! Sheesh!"
I thought it was just Hastings and the lower east side that had it's drugs and girls controlled by profiteering hoodlums protecting their monopoly with thugs on bikes, but it seems the Canadian government has the booze racket sewn up as their own special cut of the action. In fact, I think i just dissed the Lower East Side, the few mins I was there, it seemed like a free and open, enterprise zone, style place, well, in comparison to the "Booze @ .gov shop 'n' save" (Yeah right!) state licensed price fixed, supply screwed down and outlets all pwned scam the government boys were running. Seems that in Vancouver, a lump of crack and a quick knee trembler are not only cheaper, but easier to come by, in nicer surroundings, and with better, more pleasant service, than buying a bottle of wine is most days. Very odd...
I longed to return to Hastings 'cos everywhere else was so new! It had started to make me feel, erm... rootless, is that a feeling anyone else has had in these new countries? Just a feeling of the whole place being temporary, in a "it'll all be gone next week, replaced with more faceless, modern crap" kinda way. Nothing of any presence, nothing with a bit of a past, everything "shop bought", nothing made by humans.
Gastown was too touristy & kitsch. N.Van was nice though, odd mix of trees, wooden lap built houses, no bricks anywhere... they looked cheap and.. well, again, temporary. Like this...
"We're living in this little wooden house while we build the proper one over there." "Sorry?" ... Erm.. No... not really, it's been tacked together quite well, not many leaks, and it's not for long anyway and the kids can use it as a wendy house afterwards." (OK, exaggerated for effect, but that was the feeling the place gives you.)
And who on earth thought of having a string quartet under every SkyTrain to play a random, surreal, but very pleasant chord as it pulls in / away from / to a station. Nice touch, hell of a job though.
"The British Butcher Shoppe". Got taken in there as a place of wonder, she went, "Well?" I went, "What?" She said "Look!" I said "I bloody am looking, what?" Then I noticed the prices, worked it out into Pounds Sterling and said "I'll be buggered! Atora Suet for damn near five quid! And this is your local shop? Your right, this bloke is obviously having a laugh, i'll have a word, even for a corner shop it's bloody robbery! "No!" She squealed... So i got dragged out of there too, another puzzled bloke behind the counter, and his missus, both looking stunned as I get dragged out saying "Five quid for bleedin' suet! Your having a giraffe mate!"
Well, seems i was taken in there to see all the Brit nosh she could buy to remind her of home, I had only been in Canada for a few hours, looked normal to me, same stuff, different shelves. Once it clicked i realised just how out of place those shelves must have seemed to her, look outside you get Canada, look at shelf you get Co-op, 4 minutes walk from my front door in the UK. And, of course, how much it cost to import Cadbury,s Cream Eggs and stuff, not that we eat them at home, but I s'pose you got to show willing abroad!
Went to see the "Heritage Building" someplece and stopped a couple of old bill cycling past, "Where's the bloody heritage building? I follow the signs, get to here, signs say go past this shed, then on the other side nothing! Then, if you keep walking, signs in the opposite direction... Help!
"That shed, ... (long pause...) Sir, IS the heritage building! It's been there since 1912!
Bugger, upset more Canadians without trying.. To everyone in Vancouver, N.Van... sorry, put it down to me being a foreigner.
The BSE joke at the bus stop on the way to Kitts beach (sp?), Local, very nice lady says "Oh My! Your Australian!" I say, "Nope, English (they seem a little disappointed) But then one perks up, "So, how do you get on with Mad Cow Disease?" "I make "Apocalypse Now" style Huey blades in slo mo noises along with suitable face and say "Doesn't effect me! I'm a helicopter!" and smile waiting for the laugh and a breaking of the ice so we can chat on the way to the beach, but instead the whole damn city goes silent, tumble weed blowing down the street, bus comes, they sit waaaay down the back and eye me suspiciously until i get off, not another word was spoken on quite a busy bus. Till it drives off, as the doors swoosh closed, lots of "Well, He was an odd one Ethel!"
Then there was bloke who asked me for a fag (cigarette) on top of Grouse (thought he was selling something, had a clipboard. He spoke something very Canadian, i didn't get it, but headed off his sales pitch at the pass, I said "There's no point sunshine, I'm British!" Girls collapsed laughing... Chap looks puzzled, shrugs, looks at me like I'm suggesting dropping the border with the US (ie; withering hatred) and walks off. Seems his sales clipboard was just a newspaper, he'd been talking to the girls, asked them for a smoke, they pointed at me... anyway, sorry dude, my fault.
As was getting served REAL fast down by the sea in a burger place, big queues.. I pop outside to smoke, get bored, go back in, get kissed. She says (being a Brit too), "Bugger me sideways Les, your breath tastes of all those old fags you just had in the car park. You got to give them up one of these days, you can't keep it up as much as you do without going down with something really nasty!" Sudden tumble weed moment, exit of many customers, we get served (at arms, and fingertip, length) by the manager i think. So, sorry to Maccy D's too.
Still, would love to go back for a proper explore, now I have the hang of things a bit. Any spare settees, sofas, spare rooms, wendy houses etc. would like an oik and his wench to stay for a few weeks. Promise to be on best behaviour, want to learn to paraglide off of Grouse so you won't hardly see us ;o)
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