You can probably think of several changes that would improve your quality of life. Maybe working fewer hours, spending more time outdoors or winning the lottery so you can buy that new car. It’s a very personal list.
For many people their dog’s quality of life is as important as any other family member’s. Many difficult veterinary decisions are made on the basis of quality of life judgements but the obvious challenge is that dogs can’t speak.
Doctors treating babies or adults with dementia face the same problem, so they ask someone who knows the patient well to complete a rigorously designed questionnaire on their behalf.
They hope their recommendations will help owners and vets assess canine quality of life with greater accuracy and confidence, making difficult decisions a little easier.
Neuroimaging study reveals potential brain mechanism underlying chronic neuropathic pain in individuals with HIV
As medical advances help individuals with HIV survive longer, there is an increasing need to treat their chronic symptoms. One of the most common is neuropathic pain, or pain caused by damage to the nervous system.
Distal sensory polyneuropathy (DSP) is the most prevalent neurological problem in HIV infection, affecting 50 percent of all HIV patients. Most persons with DSP describe sensations of numbness, tingling, burning and stinging in their hands or feet, which impair daily functioning and can lead to unemployment and depression.
Previous research on DSP has mostly focused on the peripheral nervous system, but nerve injury cannot fully explain the wide variability in DSP symptoms. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and University of California San Francisco instead looked at the brain to see how it may be contributing to patients’ pain.
In a new study, published online October 29, 2021 in Brain Communications, the team observed unique patterns of brain activity in HIV-DSP patients when they experienced a painful stimulus. Compared to other patients with HIV, those with DSP showed increased activity in the anterior insula, a brain area involved in predicting and emotionally processing pain.
“The anterior insula is trying to predict the future for you,” said senior author Alan Simmons, PhD, professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine and research scientist at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. “It’s forming expectations about what is about to happen to you and how you’re going to feel. These expectations of pain play an important role in determining how much pain you then actually experience.”
Pictured: HIV patients with and without chronic neuropathic pain received short or long heat stimuli on their hands (control site) or feet (neuropathic site).
I recently watched all of Star Trek: Picard, and while I was definitely on board with the vast majority of it, and extremely pleased with certain elements of it, some things kind of bothered me.
And so, as with much of the pop culture I love, I want to spend some time with the more critical perspective, in hopes that it’ll be taken as an opportunity to make it even better.
[Promotional image for Star Trek: Picard, featuring all of the series main cast.]
I’ve spent so much of my time since my arterial rupture, neck deep in the medical system; barely treading water, but it’s gotten me so far. Things are getting close to as under control as they’ll probably ever be, given that my conditions are degenerative and progressive.
It’s time to really pull things around and live as hard as I can again. I think I’ve always done as much as I can to be authentically me, but this year I’m determined to get back some of what I’ve lost (whatever small amount I can). It’s time to restore balance.
I’ve already come so far in the past 3-4 months and after spending hours again this week wrapped up in medical stuff sapping my energy, I’m once again reflecting on when I can finally direct all my energy to my passions again. I may never have that luxury again, and I have to be okay with that, but what I’ve been pushing for this entire time, Quality of Life, is all about having the energy, time and freedom to have a life outside of the medical complex.
In a little less than 24 hours we will have a new president in the United States and all I have to say to that is: God Bless America (insert a lot of praying emojis).
This post though is not about politics or world events, its simply about you. You waking up, starting your day and following your daily schedule. You who may face some days where you simply wish you did not have to listen to the…
I recently watched all of Star Trek: Picard, and while I was definitely on board with the vast majority of it, and extremely pleased with certain elements of it, some things kind of bothered me.
And so, as with much of the pop culture I love, I want to spend some time with the more critical perspective, in hopes that it’ll be taken as an opportunity to make it even better.
[Promotional image for Star Trek: Picard, featuring all of the series main cast.]
Video description: a tiktok video discussing AO3’s new comment blocking feature.
The video begins by showing a tweet from the Ao3_status twitter account. The tweet reads, “Comment blocking is now live! ” and is responding to the tweet linking the AO3 News post announcing that comment blocking is coming.
The narrator then goes to the comments section on one of her works and points out that there is a new button available. On comments from other users, you can now see a button labelled “Block.”
She taps on the Block button and it takes her to a confirmation page. The confirmation page outlines what blocking will do: stop a user from commenting on your works and stop a user from replying to your comments elsewhere on AO3. It also outlines what blocking will not do: hide that user’s works or bookmarks from you, delete or hide their existing comments on your works, hide their comments elsewhere on the site.
She confirms that she wants to block the user and then returns to her comments section. The button that formerly said “Block” now says “Unblock.” She says you can remove the block on a user by pressing that button again or by tapping on your username at the top of the page and selecting My Preferences from the dropdown menu that appears.
On the My Preferences page, there is now a button labelled “Block users.” After tapping that button, she goes to a new page. On that new page, you can see the user she just blocked and a button next to their username that says “Unblock.”
She taps that button and it takes her to a confirmation page which outlines what will happen if she agrees. Unblocking a user will allow them to comment on your work or to reply to your comments elsewhere on the site. She confirms.
The screen goes back to the Blocked Users page found in My Preferences, and the narrator explains that you don’t need to find a comment from another user in order to block them. If you’d like, you can type their name into the text box provided and block them directly from that page.
Not shown: you can also block a user from that user’s profile page.
If you’d like to know more about more blocking and muting features that are planned, read the News post linked above.
FYI to all it looks like this to the people you have blocked:
[image description: screenshot of the buttons and kudos left at the bottom of an AO3 work. Where the comment box would usually be, there is a blue infobox that reads, “Sorry, you have been blocked by one or more of this work’s creators.”]
thank you so much for checking this out and sharing with us!
