Good morning! I hope you are spotting birds as we have been. Including a yellow warbler a few times on our walk (no, not our picture), which Kris was the first to spot recently.
Photo by Mark Olsen on Unsplash
So, we need to be more careful about anesthesia as we age: I know people who have had this problem. Do you?
For Cibelli, it was the first time he had encountered what is now termed postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) – cognitive problems associated with surgery that persist well after the effects of anaesthetics have worn off. “I published some articles on the subject,” he says. “And people began finding my email address, saying their father or mother had changed a lot after a surgery in the past. So I began to realise that this wasn’t such an isolated case.”
We have known for a long time that operations can have hidden consequences for the brain. As far back as 1887, the British Medical Journal published a paper describing cases of delirium after surgery with anaesthesia. A century later, scientists in the 1980s began to look at cases of older patients who had shown a decline in memory and concentration after cardiac surgery, but it has only been more recently that this has become apparent as a risk factor for all over-65s who undergo surgery, especially when under deep sedation.
In the last 20 years, studies have shown that POCD symptoms can affect everything from memory to attention, judgment and perception, and those with pre-existing health conditions are especially vulnerable. One survey of patients who received surgery to repair hip fractures found that those who developed POCD had a poorer ability to function socially and carry out normal activities such as writing, managing money or remembering lists, with a tangible impact on their daily life.
At the moment, estimates suggest that the overall incidence of POCD in older patients can be as high as 50-80% at discharge, 20-50% at six weeks and 10-30% at six months post-surgery. Given that the NHS carries out about 5.1m operations every year, a disproportionate number of which are in the over-65s, Cibelli says that there are a considerable number of patients being left with lasting impairment.
The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.
It’s been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families.
Babel is a metaphor for what some forms of social media have done to nearly all of the groups and institutions most important to the country’s future—and to us as a people. How did this happen? And what does it portend for American life?
GILBERT, Ariz. (AP) — As Forrest Gump in the Oscar-winning 1994 film of the same name, lead actor Tom Hanks abruptly trots to a halt after more than three years of nonstop running and tells his followers: “I’m pretty tired — I think I’ll go home now.”
Jacky Hunt-Broersma can relate. On Thursday, the amputee athlete achieved her goal of running 102 marathons in as many days, setting an unofficial women’s world record.
And she can’t stop/won’t stop, saying she’ll run two more for good measure and wrap up her challenge on Saturday with 104. “I might as well end April with a marathon,” she told The Associated Press.
Britain-based Guinness World Records did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. It can take up to a year for the organization to ratify a world record.
Guinness lists the men’s record for consecutive daily marathons as 59, set in 2019 by Enzo Caporaso of Italy.
“I’m just happy that I made it — I can’t believe it,” she said. “The best thing was the incredible support I’ve received from people around the world who’ve reached out, telling me how this has inspired them to push themselves.”
Hunt-Broersma, 46, began her quest on Jan. 17, covering the classic 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometer) marathon distance on a loop course laid out near her home in Gilbert, Arizona, or on a treadmill indoors. Since then, it’s been “rinse and repeat” every day for the South Africa native, who lost her left leg below the knee to a rare cancer and runs on a carbon-fiber prosthesis.
What to do? A lot more scary that chipmunks and raccoons.
LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (KRON) — A Lake Tahoe homeowner had quite a spring surprise when she discovered five bears had hibernated under her house for the winter.
At one point during the winter, the homeowner and other residents who live in the house thought they heard an odd low rumbling that sounded a lot like snoring. But they never investigated.
“The neighbors said they were imagining it because they didn’t hear anything,” wrote the BEAR League, a nonprofit organization in the Lake Tahoe area that aims to keep “bears safe and wild in their natural habitat.”
Earlier this week, a bear woke up from her long slumber and started making unmistakable bear noises in a crawl space under the house.
The startled homeowner called the BEAR League to evict the big furry animal.
“The bear family awoke and prepared to exit and the people in the house could no longer deny there was probably a bear under the house. We arrived immediately. We un-invited Mama Bear, not yet aware there were four more bears under the house,” the BEAR League wrote.
Not long after mama bear emerged from under the house, four 1-year-old cubs followed her out.
“It was quite the scene to then watch the four yearling cubs emerge from the opening and join together on the other side of the fence to venture forth into 2022,” the BEAR League wrote.
Bear experts said the mother must have ushered her family into an unsecured crawl space opening because she thought it would be a cozy, safe winter den for her big family. The black bear family was likely under the house for about four months, the BEAR League estimates.
Penguin Post Office, dream job?
(WSAV) – A secluded post office in Antarctica is hiring.
This could be a great opportunity for those who enjoy monitoring wildlife, handling artifacts, sorting mail and are eager to embrace the penguin lifestyle.
Port Lockroy, also known as the “Penguin Post Office,” is now recruiting for a new team to be based in Antarctica for the 2022-23 season. The roles available are base leader, shop manager and general assistant.
Although some consider penguins majestic, working at the Penguin Post Office could be far from opulent. Temperatures on the island where the post office is located can dip as low as 23 degrees Fahrenheit and can feel even frostier with the wind chill.
Like penguins, staff members will sleep in groups, sharing a single bedroom. Also like penguins, there will be no flushing toilet, but instead, a camping toilet that must be emptied daily.
There’s also no running water, and showers are only available every few days when visiting ships arrive to offer staffers a shower. In some cases, staff may go up to two weeks without showering.
Concerning communication, there’s no internet access or cellphone reception, and satellite phone calls are costly. Staffers will have very minimal communication with home. In the event of an emergency, medical evacuations could take up to seven days.
(NEXSTAR) — A stinky but handsome and widely popular landscape tree has become an aggressive invader.
Callery pear trees create dense thickets that overwhelm native plants and bear four-inch spikes that can flatten tractor tires. The stench wafting from their blossoms has been compared to rotting fish, chlorine or a cheese sandwich left in a car for a week.
Missouri’s Department of Conservation is holding a buyback program for the tree, NewsNation local affiliate KOLR reports. To qualify, a property owner must provide a photo of a cut down pear tree in order to earn a free, less offensive replacement tree.
Other states have taken action against the tree, too. Pennsylvania’s Department of Agriculture has decided to place a phased ban on the Callery Pear, giving nursery owners time to draw down their inventories. About 12 Midwestern and Western states have reported invasions of the plant, though most are in the South and Northeast.
Mike Bird’s clip about Green Rooms in churches, which means about church extravagances and celebrity-isms.
According to three sources who spent time in Australian and American Hillsong green rooms, pastors often had riders explicitly outlining what should be provided for them backstage. After a sermon of a conference speech, pastors could be seen backstage congregating with celebrities over tequila. It wasn’t unusual to see envelopes of cash or prepaid expense cards handed about. Volunteers became accustomed to requests such as finding a better car for chauffeuring preachers and guests around town, or last-minute requests to carpet the stage because the pastor’s wife had bought new heels.
My 100-year-old Mom just had her first anesthesia in 98 years. It wasn't pretty. Her physical recovery has been easier than her cognitive recovery, but still she is unusually lucid for her age.