Poems for Hallowe'en: GRUESOME VERSE

CURRENT CONTENTS:
By halves (autophagia)

Cimetiere

Concealed carry

Dispatch

Grisly / grizzly

Hidey-hole

Horripilation

Scary upshot

Untimely demise

Zombie uprising

Authors' Note: The term autophagia or autophagy  may refer to a rare psychiatric disorder, but is more commonly used to describe an intracellular process in the realm of cell biology, as described by the author HERE.

Authors' Note: Goose bumps or goose pimples are a common transient physiological change produced by stimulation of the skin's small and widely distributed arrector pili, tiny muscles at the base of each hair follicle. Their appearance may be provoked by physical conditions (such as a cold environment) or emotional factors, including embarassment, a sexual turn-on, or fear. The latter, accompanied by profound anxiety (the heebie-jeebies), and "hair standing on end" (piloerection or horripilation) is a reaction scaled down from that found in the animal kingdom, e.g. porcupines throwing their quills to put off predators. 

  Heebie-jeebies is gramatically another of those appealing (re) duplications, like helter-skelter and hocus-pocus, and represents a topic appropriate for discussion on Hallowe'en.

Authors' Note: Each year at Hallowe'en, all (living) persons, in addition to honoring tradition, must decide if they are ready to combat the zombie revolution.

OVERLAPPING THEMES:

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

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Breaking News: FUNNY BONES, fragment #1 (upper limb fractures)

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Background reading: "The Orthopedic Surgeon".

Fractured wrist (distal radius)

Scaphoid fracture

Anatomic snuffbox

Hook of the hamate

Olecranon ('funny bone')

Bone alignment

Heterotopic Ossification

(for continuation, see the link below)

BACKGROUND READING To start, let's reconsider a verse that first appeared on our blogpost "Doctors and their Practices". You can get more information on this topic here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_fixation

Authors' Note: 

orthopod: a casual name for the orthopedic surgeon (surgical bone specialist).  For many sites in the upper and lower limbs where trauma has resulted in fracture with angulation or rotation of the fragments, surgical treatment ('ORIF', or Open Reduction, Internal Fixation) has become the standard of treatment. 

Authors' Note: Modern orthopedic treatment of displaced limb fractures often attains the aims of stability and appropriate alignment through the surgical technique of internal fixation. Injured limbs have then undergone the dual trauma of both the original injury and the surgical correction. But, with all the parts back in place and correctly aligned, the patient can work with a physiotherapist to regain range-of-motion, muscle agility and strength. 

Authors' Note: Injuries to the metacarpal bones, such as knuckle fractures, are most common in injuries occurring with the closed fist, e.g. a punch thrown in a fistfight. In fact, an isolated fracture of the head of the fifth ('pinky'-side) metacarpal is known as a boxer's fracture. 

  On the other hand, fractures of the wrist (including the distal ends of the radial and ulnar bones of the forearm and eight intrinsic small carpal bones) are most commonly caused by a fall on the outstretched hand. Of all of these, fractures of the distal radius, sustained when attempting to break a fall, are by far the most common.

Authors' Note:

AVN: medical initialism for avascular necrosis, lethal damage to bone tissue resulting from traumatic interruption of its blood supply; the scaphoid bone of the wrist is particularly susceptible. The human skeleton has two boat-shaped small bones, one each in the ankle (tarsal) and wrist (carpal) areas. The Latin-derived term navicular ('boat-like'), is applied to either bone, whereas its Greek-derived analogue scaphoid, particularly favored in recent decades, is applied only to the wrist bone. How did Eric know that it was his scaphoid that he had fractured? See the verse anatomical snuffbox.

Authors' Note: The hamate bone, one of eight small bones of the human wrist, has a prominent hook, or hamulus, that provides some protection to the ulnar nerve as it proceeds down the arm to supply the fourth and fifth fingers. A 'hairline fracture' of this bony process (outcropping), not an uncommon injury in golfers, baseball players and hockey slap-shooters, may result in continuing pain. Frequently, the injury is not detected on initial x-rays, but may show up on computed tomography (CT), a bone scan, or on follow-up wrist X-rays.

                                                                                verse finally accepted April 2023, #112902 

Authors' Note:

funner: a neologism for 'fun-seeker', as used here; also, a disputed equivalent to the comparative expression 'more fun’

  The olecranon is the boney process (extension) of the forearm's ulna that extends into the elbow joint. Fractures of the olecranon are moderately common, due to direct trauma (fall on the elbow), but even more so due to indirect trauma (transmission of intense force with a fall on the outstretched hand). Owing to the proximity of the ulnar nerve, a broken funny bone may be associated with numbness and tingling extending into the fingers.

  Such injuries have bedevilled joggers and elite athletes, but recently have become more common with the popularity of personal electric transport devices. Surgical treatment is generally required for these fractures that often have displaced bone fragments. 

Authors' Note: Modern orthopedic treatment of displaced limb fractures often attains the aims of stability and appropriate alignment through the surgical technique of internal fixation. Injured limbs have then undergone the dual trauma of both the original injury and the surgical correction. But, with all the parts back in place and correctly aligned, the patient can work with a physiotherapist to regain range-of-motion, muscle agility and strength. 

Authors' Note: 

 (HET-uhr-oh-top-ic, as here, or het-uhr-oh-TOP-ic)

      Usually asymptomatic, new bone formation in extra-skeletal sites seems to occur after physical or surgical trauma, particularly in the lower limbs following joint replacement. Occasionally, within several weeks after the inciting episode, tenderness and swelling near major joints may occur, needing to be differentiated from venous blockage, and requiring bone scanning for detection, as initial radiographs may be negative; this variant syndrome is known as myositis ossificans. Rarely, in progressive cases, surgery is eventually required to allow mobility at affected joints.

Part #2 of this collection of illustrated poems will feature fractures of the trunk and lower limb (leg). The editors apologize for the long wait, but the good news in 2022 is that this collection is now available! Click HERE. 

Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 160 of these!) on medical/dental topics that can now be found on various posts. 

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume daily titillations on our blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of September 2022, there are 1000 entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.)

Rumination, reminiscence and ruination: STD-POETRY, in progress

CURRENT CONTENTS:
STDs (sexually transmitted diseases)

Weighing anchor

Latent syphilis 

Tabes dorsalis (tertiary syphilis)

GPI (general paresis of the insane)

Gon-dom / condoms

More to follow

Authors' Note: 

weigh anchor: opposite of 'drop anchor', a naval expression for the last step taken in preparation before the ship leaves port 

The symptoms of primary syphilis most often involve genital skin lesions, or chancres, that appear an average of three weeks after contracting the disease, caused by Gram-negative bacteria in the spiroch(a)ete family. Some patients, however, will remain without symptoms until the later stages of the disease develop insidiously. 

Authors' Note:  VDRL (initialism for venereal disease research laboratory): a screening blood test for syphilis developed in 1906 and updated in 1946

   Syphilis is sometimes referred to medically as lues, accounting for the choice of name for our protagonist.

   This verse, dealing with the asymptomatic latent stage, follows the author’s verse ‘chancre’, a manifestation of the early (‘primary’) stage. Treatment with penicillin at either of these stages is dramatically effective at preventing the dire consequences of progression to symptomatic late (‘tertiary’) disease.

Authors' Note: 

CNS: central nervous system, i.e. the brain and spinal cord; a commonly used medical initialism

spirochete(n.): a generalization for a bacterium of the type that causes syphilis (Treponema pallidum), based on its microscopic appearance

spirochete(v.): novel use confined to this verse, implying damage by syphilitic spirochetes

  The above verse, dealing with the late or ('tertiary') manifestations of syphilis (a.k.a. lues), emphasizes the common disorders of the CNS, including tabes dorsalis, a disease of the spinal cord producing sensory limitations in the legs, compensated by a characteristic (tabetic) stomping gait. Accompanying brain disorders may include general paresis (weakness), mania, delirium and dementia; and manifestations in other organ systems are not uncommon.

Authors' Note:  General paresis of the insane, known by the initialism GPI, was recognized as a distinct disease in 1822, and considered by the Victorians to be a form of madness in persons, primarily men, of dissolute character. It took another century until it was confirmed that it was caused by spirochetes, causative organism for syphilis, damaging the brain in the late (tertiary) stage, and that its progression could be halted by antibiotics such as anti-malarial arsenicals and, after 1940, penicillin. Once a relatively common problem on a global scale, GPI now seems to be confined to developing countries.

   This verse also relates to a series on organic causes of neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as hypothyroid depression, and frontal meningioma.

Authors' Note: These lyrics are intended to be sung in rap format.

Life-threatening medical aspects of the often-discounted STD (sexually transmitted disease) gonorrhea are well described in the Author's Note to SheilaB’s verse ‘Chaldaea’. 

  Gonorrheal infection of the external genitalia, caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae, may also result in pelvic inflammatory disease in females, epididymitis in males, and chronic infertility. Transmission of the disease is prevented by condoms.

Authors' Note:   In June 2022, the World Health Organization announced that

it would find a new name for 'monkeypox', to de-emphasize its overstated enzootic connection.   

Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 160 of these!) on medical/dental topics that can now be found on various posts. 

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of September 2023, there are 1200 entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)