Archive

Popular posts from this blog

Stretch yawn faint

Occasionally I'm overwhelmed with the urge to have a really good stretch, tensing my muscles until they tremble, tipping my head back and unleashing a full on yawn. Lately this is followed by a faint spell - the world goes distant, my vision fades, and everything gets a bit woozy. After a few breaths the world re-intrudes, and normality resumes. It hasn't concerned me, but after a particularly strong episode today my curiosity was peaked, and I typed 'stretch yawn faint' into Google (hallowed be thy results, for thine is the engine, the spider and the crawler) to see what cropped up. It turns out the combo of stretching and tipping the head back starves the brain of oxygen. The stretch lengthens the blood vessels causing a blood pressure drop, whilst it also creates demand for oxygen in the tensing muscles, and finally the head tip constricts an artery in the neck which cuts off the blood to the brain. I'm not sure how common it is in absolute terms, but the f...
Read more

Blink of an eye

Image
Given it is a Bank Holiday weekend and the Leeds Festival is on I took the decision today to stay home and avoid the traffic carnage. Instead I took a look at my genealogy stuff, which as per usual soaked up my entire day in the blink of an eye. Today’s project was to strip all references to living individuals, and produce a version that could be published on the internet without putting the whole family at risk of identity theft. Along the way I tweaked the code that produces the website. Every time I take a little dig into the code I end up scratching my head and cussing. I’m not a born programmer, I’m more of cut and paste merchant, so when I have to do something new it takes a long long ole time to get it right. When I do eventually get there I can't help grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Anyhow, the end result is here . Purrr… At this time of year many folks land on this page looking for a Cheshire Cat pumpkin pattern. Checkout the Zombie Pumpkin website links below, a...
Read more

Why, oh why, am I puffed up like a balloon after my operation?

I'm swollen around the chest area as I'd expect after the double mastectomy - there are some sloshy seromas building up which I've been told not to worry about - the seromas should self-resolve, and if not they can be drained with a needle. I was particularly aware, as I woke up this morning, that my face and neck feel quite puffy. My eyes feel all crowded in by swollen eye lids. I feel like I've gained 10 pounds around my middle too. This swelling has been developing since my operation three days ago. I thought it was my imagination until I looked in the mirror and saw a big round moon face looking back at me. Why, oh why, am I puffed up like a balloon after my operation? Thank goodness for the internet. While it can on occasion lead us down dark alleyways, often it can take us straight into the light... It seems evolution provided a way for injured animals to lay up for a few days to recover from traumatic injuries. With an injury hormones are released which...
Read more