A helping hand

Who would have thunk that I would keep myself so busy in medical school so as to only blog about health related topics once a year...this blog is really getting dry.

I am currently doing a medical internship in hand surgery, and although I have learnt the anatomy of the upper limbs over and over again, I have never really gained a true appreciation of God's work till now. It really is an amazing tool, with such a multitude of functions. I am amazed by it even as my two hands flitter across my keyboard to type this. A complex array of levers and pulleys that allow us to grip, pinch, flick, twist, tap, punch, caress any number of objects of all shapes and sizes.

I am amazed by the architecture that each hand and each digit has a dual blood supply, that each major nerve innervates an almost equivalent surface area of skin, and how the muscles and their tendons work in tandem to accomplish the most amazing ranges of motion.

Ok, will rant more about hands later. Need to figure out how to return the glucometers we borrowed for the last health screening to Roche. Ciao!

Why is a "stroke" called a "stroke"?

Best explanations I found on the world wide web, so I totally cannot take credit for this. Just thought it would be interesting to compile the etymology of some commonly used medical terms in various languages.

People tend to create an explanation for something they do not understand, and a stroke (medical term cerebrovascular accident) was not understood. Someone could appear to be in fine health, and could suddenly have a blood clot or plaque flowing through the blood come to rest in an artery in the brain, cutting off blood flow and causing sudden severe problems or death. The explanation, for centuries, was that someone had been struck down by God. The onset of autopsies to examine the body of someone who died showed the actual cause of the "stroke". The name stroke has remained.

在西医中，就是急性脑血管疾病，亦称脑血管意外、脑卒中，包括脑栓塞和脑出血，因这类疾病起病急骤，来势凶猛，病情变化迅速，像自然界的风一样“善行数变”、“变化莫测”，古代医家类比而名为“中风”。

Halestorms 101

Since I am finally about to embark on a career in healthcare, I felt an urge to put down my thoughts on medical issues that I come across on a daily basis. Usually when attending a symposium, lecture, or meeting, I come across interesting ideas pertaining to prevention and cure. Sometimes the ideas in my head do not reach a resolution, and putting it down in writing helps with that process. Halestorms is an attempt to brainstorm about health and health related issues, more for my own sake than for reading pleasure. That being said, anyone with a couple pennies worth of cerebration to add to my posts, please kindly feel free to do so.