Newswise —

A first-of-its-kind consensus statement on diabetes surgery is published online today in the Annals of Surgery. The report illustrates the findings of the first international consensus conference — Diabetes Surgery Summit (DSS) — where an international group of more than 50 scientific and medical experts agreed on a set of evidence-based guidelines and definitions that are meant to guide the use and study of gastrointestinal surgery to treat type 2 diabetes. The document is considered to be the foundation of diabetes surgery as a medical discipline of its own.

The Diabetes Surgery Summit was held at the Catholic University of Rome, Italy. Several notable organizations attended, including the American Diabetes Association. A draft of the DSS consensus statement was critically reviewed during the 1st World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes.

The article on Neswise summarizes the findings. The key finding centers on the use of bariatric surgery for more patients than just the severally or morbidly obese. That’s defined as BMI of 35 or greater.

… experimental studies demonstrated that gastric bypass surgery can improve type 2 diabetes through direct anti-diabetic mechanisms and not solely as a result of weight loss, a finding that has been corroborated by other researchers with both experimental and human investigations.

This is an exciting find.  Previously surgery was thought to help only via the weight loss resulting from it.

A specific recommendation of the Diabetes Surgery Summit called for the establishment of a multidisciplinary, international taskforce that includes endocrinologists, surgeons, clinical and basic investigators and bioethicists, among others.

This task force will work with other agencies to expand and increase evidenced based knowledge of diabetes surgery.

The article has plenty more details. Several organizations have already endorsed the consensus. For me, this is a huge development. I’m at risk of type 2 diabetes as are members of my immediate family.

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• American Diabetes Month 2009 (realmendriveminivans.com)

Dungeons & Dragons comes to Facebook and the world loops back on its self.  Coming full circle from the original social game.  Wizards of the Coast brings us Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures.

Tiny Adventures isn’t about little cartoon D&D characters. Adventures are short, include only your character, and are scripted. Players choose a race and character class combination, choose a name, and then their off on the first adventure.

Equipment is the key to preparing for each adventure.  Characters can equip, purchase, sell, and loot gear.  Not all gear is usable by every class, much like in the pen and paper version of D&D. Druids can’t use swords being a prime example.

Adventures consist of a series of encounters.  Each encounter requires a ‘roll’, comparing against some stat.

Derit Row made an Armor Class check with a difficulty of 26 . . . and rolled 22.

Each roll affects the outcome of the encounter. A low roll spells trouble, while making the roll nets rewards.  Encounter rewards include gold, experience, and equipment. Most encounters result in some loss of hit points.  Potions can mitigate damage or even boost stats enough to make encounters safer.

Adventures are solo, and players have no interaction with the plot other than choosing to take a potion or equip/unequip items. This is not like the select an option and that chooses your path adventures.

There is one element of cooperative play. Players can buff and heal friends’ characters. Buffs last for a few encounters. Healing can only be done between encounters.

I love the story feel of it. Reminds me of a DM relating an encounter to the players. Miss having choices though on what actions to take. Miss adventuring along side other players.

Expect more articles on this game in the future.

Game Credits:

Friend me on FB.

Join the Dungeons & Dragons adventures.

Let's Fight This Together by nmfinfan of Flickr

The photographer and Boobithon.com contributor explains this picture:

I have known so many people in my life who have been affected by cancer.

When I was a senior in high school, a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer. They amputated his leg, but he died a year after we graduated. My sister-in-law, Jana, lost her father to a long, terrible battle with this disease. This past August, an old friend of mine lost his seven year old daughter to cancer.

My dad had a cousin and his wife, JoAnn, was like a mother to me when I was a kid. She died of breast cancer approximately 20 years ago.

I loved my grandma Una with all my heart. I spent almost everyday with her when I was a child. In August of 1993, she died of breast cancer. It still makes me cry to this day.

My aunt Eva had breast cancer when I was a kid and she had to have a mastectomy. She was a breast cancer survivor though. She lived for another 20+ years before she died of other causes about five years ago.

My very best friend in the world is Kirsten. Her mother, Donna, had breast cancer and a mastectomy in 1998. She was in remission for 10 years but was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2008. She had her bladder removed earlier in 2009 and is currently feeling great.

My friend, Kristine, has gone through breast cancer with her mother, Pat. She had a lumpectomy and approximately eight months of chemo afterward. Pat is currently doing beautifully and has been cancer free for about 3 years.

My friend, Roxanne, has been battling breast cancer with her mother, Susan, since last November. I have never met her mother, but Roxanne is fabulous and one of the strongest people I have ever met. Susan is having a very difficult time and my heart just breaks for my friend and her mom.

I had a lump removed from my breast approximately 3 years ago. After the lumpectomy, they finally determined that it was a non-cancerous, Phyllodes tumor. To this day, I feel very lucky, but all of the waiting was very frightening.

My heart aches for people dealing with this horrible disease.

In Memory of:
Joann M.
(Grandma) Una F.

In honor of:
(aunt) Eva D.
Donna C.
Pat G.
Susan Y.

www.boobiethon.com

Wow. Cheers to a great shot and sharing.

NOTE: This photograph was  created by nmfinfan. It is shown here with her permission.

From Sharon:

Today I became a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers!
To do that I reached my goal and then maintained it for 6 weeks. An accomplishment in it’s self. When you become a Lifetime member, you no longer pay.
You have to stay within 2 lbs. -/+ of your goal weight to stay free.
The gentleman in the picture is my meeting leader, his name is Donn. Very supportive person.

Congratulations!

Taggart, my only brother, has been diagnosed with ALS.  His physical strength and coordination is already going downhill.  He’s already struggling to get in and out of bed and couches and chairs.   It is his and his wife’s desire to be able to afford a lifting recliner.

Your donations, even a dollar here and there, will be an immediate help in raising money for this and other items he’ll need in the future. I’m coordinating this with a fundraiser being held by his church.

Taggart is currently receiving no income from either Social Security or the VA. They’ve yet to accept his status as fully disabled. His wife is their sole support.

Thanks for your consideration.

Todd aka tojosan

An MRA is Magnetic Resonance Angiography; it’s a vein scan. So from radiologyinfo.org:

Angiography is performed using:

• x-rays with catheters
• computed tomography (CT)
• magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

In magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), a powerful magnetic field, radio waves and a computer produce the detailed images. MR angiography does not use ionizing radiation (x-rays).

MR angiography may be performed with or without contrast material. If needed, the contrast material is usually injected using a vein in the arm.

It doesn’t sound all that disruptive until you consider how they conduct it.  Basically you lay on a tray with your head in a little rectangle area.  They then place a cage over the top, so you’re completely encompassed.

An IV is inserted before the procedure begins, so contrast may be injected for certain portions of the scan.

After getting comfortable and IV insertion, the technician raises up the tray and the whole mechanism slides into the functional part of the MRI machine, ergo in the middle of the big electromagnets and ray guns.

Oh, I forgot to mention the ear plugs. Yeah, ear plugs.  You’d not think you’d need them reading the description from the site but you do.  The earplugs is to keep you from going deaf from the machine.  It wouldn’t be so loud perhaps, but your head is right in the center of it.

Why so noisy?  The imaging gear in the machine moves around your head 360 degrees.  Each movement of the mechanism is quite loud, and for certain portions, lengthy.  A particular scan can last from a couple of minutes to many.

So you’re inside and the noise starts and there you are. No moving. NO MOVING.

Most of think we could keep still for a few minutes. Um. It’s as easy as it sounds for some of us.  Me? I get the urge to twitch after a few minutes. Or perhaps that arm becomes uncomfortable.  Either way, somewhere about 15 mins in it got annoying today. Luckily it passed.

The machine and process is painless and unobservable other than the noise.  You don’t see anything move, only hear it. The IV is only a needle stick, and perhaps a cool feeling when the fluid is actually injected.

A wee bit of advice I’ll insert here – visit the bathroom before you start a MRI/MRA/CT etc.  If you cause a scan to get interrupted, it must be restarted.  This potentially causes a whole set to have to be redone. No potty breaks in the middle. Got that?

Another tip – wear comfortable clothing.  I don’t just mean blue jeans or whatever, but consider wearing something you’d feel comfortable laying down for an hour in.  Something you don’t mind getting wrinkled.  Besides the looks factor, it’s honestly about comfort.

Don’t bring crap – don’t bring your media player, your bling, your metal mouth piece, your nose piercing, whatever. Don’t bring it. Big magnet + stray metal things/electronics = bad news.

Today’s MRA was conducted at Barnes St. Peters in St. Peters, MO.  The technicians were friendly, prompt and proficient. The right staff makes this experience much more pleasant.

As an added bonus I found out Barnes uses my company’s contrast media and injectors. Woot!

Results are due back in about 2 working days. (read Monday for me since it’s Thursday)

I’ll let everyone know the good news as soon as I know.

Thank you each and everyone for your support, prayers, and kind wishes. I’m confidant everything will be fine regardless of what they find. I’m personally hoping for diamonds or gold.

Yours, 

Todd, @tojosan, tojosan//gmail.com

Today I’ve put up the second in the Work in Progress series over on Dadomatic.com.

It’s good stuff, please indulge.

Yours,

Tojosan

@tojosan on Twitter.

I’ve started a new series over on Dadomatic.com. It’s about getting healthy.

I’ll be sharing insights, tips and tricks that might wife and I have learned in our ongoing effort to be healthier.

The articles won’t be written by experts unless there’s a guest writer. Nor will the articles be written for those that are already health nuts. The target audience is ordinary moms and dads. Folks like me that have always struggled, and still have to work hard to make an impact.

I hope you’ll join me there. My first article is already up. It’s titled Work in Progress. The plan is to put together an article each week with advice I’ve lived myself. Expect to read about recipes gone wrong, bad efforts at exercise and why sometimes it just doesn’t matter.

Your interest peaked yet? Well, I’d like to challenge you to visit and laugh along, share your stories, and keep your eyes peeled for a contest or two. Nanna J and I have found some good resources we’d like to share. (A little secret though; none of them are secrets, magic cures, or special pills. Just saying.)

Drop me a line here if you’re interested in sharing a story, pictures, or prize.

Yours,
Todd

Weight loss is a precarious and personal thing.  My wife and I have struggled with it for years. Until recently we’d not had much success in longer term and consistent weight management. A couple of things changed this year.

My wife chose to give Weight Watchers a try.  I was skeptical at first. This was the group where a bunch of folks sit around every week and console each other right?  This was the group that wanted you to buy all of their food products right?  The group where folks are always trying funky things to lose weight. You can see I had some rather biased opinions.

I agreed to put aside my concerns and disbelief for my wife’s sake.  She was ready to make a new commitment for us both to get healthier. I have my own reasons that I need to lose weight, she has hers.  So we embarked on this part of our journey.

Nanna J has lost 50 lbs since that first meeting.  It’s a dramatic change.  She’s been really making it happen.  And she’s bringing me along.

Since we started, I’m down from 284 to 248.  It’s not been easy though.  Constant choices need to be made.  It requires making decisions not so much minute to minute, but planning in advance what we’re going to choose.  It’s also been a decision to more consistently weigh and exercise.

The truth is that we’ve done one other thing – learned to accept that we’re human.  We’ve decided to accept our own failings.  That includes knowing we’ll sometimes have Dairy Queen when there’s no healthy reason to choose that for dessert.  It’s knowing that we’ll skip exercising days that we should.  Being able to allow for those days has been a huge help.

Many people give up when they have a bad day, but you can’t do that.  The best help though is a cheer leader.  There are never enough in a person’s life when that person is struggling with weight management. My choice here has been to cheer my wife on as much as possible, and to follow her path as best I can. I believe it’s helped.

So today I’m sharing this with you because I’m extremely proud of my wife.  She’s always been beautiful to me anyway, but it’s great to see her taking me at my word and finding a way to see herself as beautiful and fulfill her own vision of herself.

Please join me in cheering her on. You can leave a note here, or just click through to her picture above.  She’ll know you care.

Thank you.