JUN 5, 2020: Inner Enlightenment: The SCOPES of MODERN MEDICINE [6]

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Endoscopic procedures
Esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (EGD)
Fiberoptic laryngoscopy
Mediastinoscopy
Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)
Veterinary bronchoscopy

Authors' Note: 

Uro: medical jargon for 'urologist'

scope: (jargon, as here) in modern usage, a camera with flexible fiberoptic cable to visualize internal viscera; abbreviated from endoscope

   This verse deals with endoscopic procedures that use  flexible fiberoptic devices to inspect and sometimes to biopsy or to treat the lining of various hollow body organs (viscera). Recently, as  such instruments have become more technically sophisticated and widely used, these procedures have expanded their role and their accuracy in specialty medical practice. Advanced training is required for practitioners to acquire expertise. In addition to the procedures mentioned in this collection of verses, similar considerations underlie operative laparoscopy, culdoscopy, etc. 

Authors' Note:  

Central Booking: a hospital department that schedules equipment and personnel for time-dependent procedures

scope: short form for endoscopy, a procedure in which a tube containing a camera system is introduced for visualization of a body cavity via a natural body opening, or via a small incision

Disorders of the upper gastrointestinal tract (especially lower esophagus, stomach, and uppermost bit of small bowel - duodenum) are common and usually symptomatic. EGD, allows visualization of the tract's inner lining or mucosa, and biopsy of suspicious areas. Similar instrumentation is used in a spectrum of medical situations. Various specialties may employ the term ‘endoscopy’ or ‘scope’ to indicate their favorite procedure.  

Authors' Note:

  

ENT: medical specialty involving health and disorders of the ear, nose and throat; also referred to as otolaryngology

Failure of the body's GE junction can sometimes result in symptoms of inflammation in the throat (hoarseness, cough), rather than the more typical symptom of heartburn related to the esophagus.

Diagnosis is simple in modern times, as most specialists can perform flexible fiberoptic laryngoscopy as part of the outpatient examination. In more obvious cases, 'free' (unprovoked) reflux of stomach contents can actually be viewed during the examination.

Authors' Note: Prior to the surgical treatment of bronchogenic lung cancer, your doctor will check for possible asymptomatic spread of disease with mediastinoscopy,  including biopsy of lymphatic tissue adjacent to the lungs

Authors' Note: Cholangiopancreatography  is a technique for evaluation of the biliary and pancreatic systems of ducts by a skilled endoscopic operator, who advances the instrument, where possible through the intestine's duodenum into the common bile duct. in some cases treatment, e.g. extraction of gallstones, may also be performed with the diagnostic device. The technique is of particular value when radiographic imaging (e.g. CT scanning), is unable to distinguish between inflammation (often due to impacted gallstones) and neoplasia (cancer).  

       

Authors' Note: SheilaB, a physician and prodigious creator of limericks at the OEDILF web-site, defined the bronco ("unbroken horse"), and would have been perplexed by my confusion with the homonomous Greek root broncho- ("windpipe"). Certainly, we would all need to call on our veterinarian colleagues to learn more about the investigation of respiratory maladies in horses. Bronchoscopy is a fairly commonly performed procedure in diagnosis of human lung disorders.

The unrelated term honcho ("group leader", or "boss") is of Japanese derivation.

Editors' note:  A cystoscope is a type of endoscope that is inserted into the urethra for the purpose of examining it and the bladder. it is also used for obtaining tissue samples for biopsies; in some highly specialized circumstances, it is also used for treatment.

Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 200 of these!) on medical/dental topics, updated to December 2024. 

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until December 2024. 

As of December 2024, there are 1800 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. Most of their key elements are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections, such as this one. The "Daily" format also has the advantage of including some song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

) MAY 25 (2020) singable satire: 'PROSTATE CANCER"

 ORIGINAL SONG: "Love and Marriage", 1955, Cahn and van Heusen, performed by Frank Sinatra, also Peggy Lee and Dinah Shore.

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, January 2016.

Humor is likely still the best medicine, even for retired physicians.

PARODY-SONGLINK: To access ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "PROSTATE CANCER" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

PROSTATE CANCER 

(to the tune of “Love and Marriage”)

 Strange behavior, prostate cancer

Danger lurking down there in your pants, sir?
Age-effect? guys wondered;
So, “Yes”, you’ll have it at one hunderd.

(bridge) 

Most such tumors are just harmless 

‘Cancer in situ’ [1] 

You’ll kick can from other cause, yet 

Con...cept might befright you.

If you’ve got 10 years to squander

These are treatment outcomes you should ponder:

No spread when detected -

Five-year survival’s not affected!

(But) Certain cancers are bad actors

Younger age and bad genes are risk factors

Yet we’ve got the greatest,

For early pick-up: PSA-test [2]

(bridge) 

Try set frequency and onset;

Screen to detect’em.

Current guide adds DRE [3] - that’s

   .... Finger-up-rectum.

DRE and PSA-test

If they’re worrisome you’ll face the next step

To resolve the issue

Your doc will want to get some tissue.

Cut and cure my prostate cancer?

Ask your Uro, he’ll provide the answer.

Positive biopsy –

Might turn your life-plan turvy-topsy.    

Plan for treatment and prognosis

 That depends on what your Gleason-score [4] shows

“Six” - equivocation

You might pick watchful expectation.

(bridge)

Sigh! Why try avoid? Decide [5], if

You’ve drawn a “Seven”.

There’s no call for you to bawl

Or ....  pack bags for Heaven.

If it’s surg(e)ry, I’d subject me

To a retropubic prostatect(o)my;

Radical excision

Routine or high-tech [6] - your decision.

Kids, I’m betting on the cure–oh!

So I’m heading home to see my Uro

As I told your mother, 

“Four decades passed, they went by fast,

Four decades passed, let’s spend ano-o-other.” 

Readers are advised to inform themselves to the extent possible, and

then discuss the many issues involved with their health provider. Excellent online material is available at the American Cancer Society website. 

[1] cancer 'in place', which has not invaded locally or spread beyond the prostate gland.

[2] Prostate-Specific Antigen; a protein which leaks into the blood at a rate proportional to the activity of prostate cells; frequently used to help detect and monitor cancer. 
  

[3] Digital Rectal Examination by your urologist, or other doctor - not pleasant, but important.

[4] a measure of the abnormality in cell-type on either biopsy or surgical specimens, on a 10-point scale, based on the 2 most abnormal patterns found within the gland. 

[5] at this stage, treatment is usually recommended to eliminate all prostate tissue. Surgery is the more common choice, but various forms of radiation (external beam or implantation of radioactive beads) have also been used.

[6] recently, high-tech variants (laparoscopic and robotic surgery) have been developed, but their additional benefit is incompletely proven.  

Political palindromes, O - P

 

Oddly, you have reached a set of palindromes designated by the letter 'P', (left lower corner), and you can't go forwards, i.e. there are no more.

For BACKWARD, return to the previous set (K to M), 

OR, return to the original post on this topic.

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 February 2023, there are 1100 entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)

A few further examples, unused in the panels displayed so far ...

No, worse! Panders to idiots, rednapes. Row on!  

'Nit up' -- sides reversed is -- 'Putin'. 

Nip in if I pull up. Pull up if I nip in.

Golf, par, sin-net, pant. Nap, tennis, rap, flog.

"I" on a rap - paranoia.

S,W,E,N (x?) of Fox News.

Star? Come Don. No Democrats.

Elba? Rudy, "Baby, durable!"

) MAY 15 (2020) singable satire: 'LOST COUNTRY' W-I-P

 

"A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe", Pierre Berton, eminent Canadian journalist, editor, historian and author.

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: "Lost River" by Michael Martin Murphey, most famously performed in conjunction with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band HERE.

Key lyrics from the original, retained in the parody version, include lines in the chorus about a "Quebec girl" and "fleur de lis". Murphey is in fact married to a Québécoise, and, as the song's protagonist presumably wishes to take her on a trip of rediscovery to the nostalgia-generating "lost river" of his youth. For those interested, the original song is shown in ukulele-friendly form at the bottom of the post.

SONG-LYRICS:  December 2013, on this blog, entitled "Canoeing Lesson (Canoe, Canoe, Canoe, Canoe, Canoe)",  based on the original song  "I Do, etc." by ABBA, 1975. This earlier concoction also builds on the relevance of Berton's concept.

WORDPLAY LINK:  A wordplay blogpost on "EDIFYING NONSENSE" has 7 limerick verses devoted to various aspects of canoeing.

PARODY COMPOSED:  Giorgio Coniglio, December, 2018, based on the precedents of song-lyrics and limerick verses, with a few new twists. 

LOST COUNTRY
(to the tune of "Lost River" by M. M. Murphey) 

M.M.Murphey
songwriter and performer

* for those who might have missed the pun, the French word for 'lake' is lac.

* Pierre Trudeau, father of Justin and himself Prime Minister (1968-1984) of Canada, was for a time prior to undertaking his marriage and family-life reputed to be a lady's man. His exploits as an adventurer included canoeing trips to Canada's Arctic and elsewhere. His pointed remarks at opponents included the rather well-known use of the expression 'fuddle-duddle', presumably a debatably innocuous variant of the more established 'fiddle-faddle'. The suggestion in the verse is allegorical, as there are no canoeing strokes named for the Prime Minister. 

* for those who might have missed the pun, the French word for 'lake' is lac.

ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS
Click on any chord chart to enlarge and enter thumbnail mode (the slides for both the parody and the original versions can then be enlarged and viewed in any order). 

  

MAY 15, 2020: BI-LYRICAL VERSE, part #1

 

This blogpost will give you more understanding and a lot of helpful examples related to a type of creative limerick variation indulged in by the authors. To see the whole spectrum of our efforts, you might want to take the time to review "A Corner of the Poet's World: LIMERICK VARIATIONS".

   This post is an original collection of poems about 'BI-LYRICAL VERSE', as posted here on May 15, 2020. Where relevant the previously published light verses are also shown.

CURRENT CONTENTS:  (original collection -- May 15, 2020) 

Dual rhyme-schemes

EMS (emergency medical services)

Gone and went

Goof

Daughter and son

Authors' Note: 

  Despite the message of the verse, the author has taken pains to construct a slate of dual rhyme scheme, or bi-lyrical limericks, including the above instance; the rhyme scheme can be characterized as: 

line 1:  C...A

line 2:  C...A

line 3:  D...B

line 4:  D...B

line 5:  C...A.  

 I'm addicted to crafting verse terse,

 Though constricted by constructs perverse.

 To use dual-scheme rhymes

 Can confuse me at times;

 But, inflicted on readers? That's worse!

In the above verse, the additional C- and D-pattern rhymes are distinguished using green font. The scansion (pattern of beats), usually involves stressing the third syllable in each line (as indicated by underlining). In this instance, this pattern is broken in the third line of the verse.

Authors' Note: The above verse was spoof-modified form an unattributed but famous limerick, shown below ...

Authors' Note: Goof is used here in a sense overlapping with goofball for a person whose behavior, silly and inept (or 'goofy'), is seen by others as scoff-worthy.

To date, the archives on the OEDILF site lists over 60 limerick entries that are spoofs on the classic Nantucket limericks. And, you might enjoy seeing some of Giorgio's contribution to that oeuvre, as collected in a post entitled 'Variant Verse: Spoofs on the Iconic Nantucket Limerick' HERE.