One of the longest days for perhaps half a year has just elapsed today for me, with a 8am start going through mostly non-stop to 5:30. That translates to 6:30am-7:00pm door to door time. Don't know how much of everything I absorbed. One thing I would like to mention that I did recall though, was talking about patient transfers today. Finally (in our last week) we learnt some practical information about patients, on moving them, and moving them around (as well as getting to play with some one-handed wheelchairs and various walking aids). One of the things mentioned though, was hoists. And the thing I wanted to mention - following on from a previous stem - was that when I got home, I watched a little of the limited TV I watch during a week, and what did they talk about? Hoists.
This time, though, I think that drawing out of this coincidence is bordering on the paranoid (The TV can read my thoughts!), and that now I have gradually moved from bizarrely fated occurances (Scott Wilson) down to this now. I'm sure I've heard of hoists a few times throughout this rotation, and they are certainly not so rare now as to probably not get a mention on TV once in a while.
In the past, there was a certain disease that caused mental difficulties, a sore mouth, and red inflamed roughened skin. Various experiments lead to the discovery of certain food stuffs that could cure it - like milk - and hence it was thought of thereafter as a vitamin deficiency disease, rather than an infectious one. It was found in 1867 that the molecule nicotine, consisting of 2 rings of atoms, could be split up by an acid to form another compound, nicotinic acid (with different properties). Later, it was found that nicotinamide (nicotinic acid plus an amine group) was the specific compound that was the active vitamin essential in curing this disease (and later, too, it was found that nicotinic acid itself could be ingested as the body has the capability to convert it readily to nicotinamide). The problem was, of course, that doctors didn't want the public to get the impression that vitamins could be obtained by smoking (they CAN'T), nor that food stuffs that contained nicotinic acid would be addictive or poisonous, so instead, a shortened abbreviated form of the substance was sought after. From the stems of the words nicotinic, acid, and the ending of vitamin, came the word niacin, which the one we use today.
1 comment:
perhaps you only paid any attention to the second event - the "coincidence" - because the first occurred.
plenty of things happen a few times a day (for example, vesna on bb was making milk last night on tv; this morning i had milk in my oats), but they dont necessarily feel like a coincidence!
i think the essential feature of a "coincidence" experience is the rarity of the two events. so if you come across a entirely black cat (charcoal, really) one day, and find out your shares crashed through the floor, you might call that a "coincidence" (or not - you could call that an omen, an act of god, any number of things).
finally, the appreciation of "rarity" depends on your mental health, as you alluded to. if i was psychotic, the fact that vesna was making milk on bb may indeed seem significant. perhaps that's why i had milk on my oats this morning.
spooky!
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