Trivia Today - Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Greetings Infomaniacs,

Last week I ended up in the hospital for three days with some sort of infection that caused me to run continuous high fevers for over 48 hours. I was in a feverish haze and it was AWFUL.

The doctors had a hard time pinpointing the source of the infection, and so I had what seemed like every test known to man done on me.

I had blood work, more blood work, urine tests, a cat scan, an ultrasound, another ultrasound, and an x-ray all completed on me in a short amount of time.

The verdict was a slight infection in the urinary tract, but that's all they could find. They stuck an IV in me and pumped me full of antibiotics and fluids, and made sure I stayed fever-free for over 24 hours before I got to go home on Saturday night.

I'm finally starting to feel better today, but I could still put my head on the keyboard here and take a little nap...;wisjdvvckl;...daouvxwerkl.

Enjoy!
Melissa

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Questions? Comments? Email Melissa


WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "The worst thing about medicine is that one kind makes another necessary."

HINT: (1856-1915), American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher, mostly known as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement.


RANDOM TIDBITS
Dr. Rene Theophile Laenne invented the first stethoscope in 1816. He felt embarrassed if he had to listen to the heart beat of a young female patient by placing his ear directly on her chest, so he rolled up 24 sheets of paper to make a tube and placed one end on her chest and the other end in his ear. By 1855 a stethoscope similar to the one used during most of the 20th century became available.

The blood pressure cuff was invented by an Austrian physician named Samuel Siegfried Karl Ritter von Basch and first saw use in doctor's surgeries in the 1880's. An improved version of the cuff was unveiled by Italian physician Scipione Riva-Rocci in 1896.

Computed Tomography (CT) imaging is also known as "CAT scanning" (Computed Axial Tomography). CT was invented in 1972 by British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield of EMI Laboratories, England and by South Africa-born physicist Allan Cormack of Tufts University, Massachusetts. Hounsfield and Cormack were later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their contributions to medicine and science.

While studying the effects of passing an electrical current through gases at low pressure, German physicist Wilhelm Rontgen accidentally discovered X-rays. When Rontgen held a piece of lead in front of the electron-discharge tube, it blocked the rays, but he was shocked to see his own flesh glowing around his bones on the fluorescent screen behind his hand.

In 1948 George de Mestral, a Swiss mountaineer, and his dog went for a hike in the woods. When they returned both were covered with burrs. Using a microscope he examined the burrs stuck to his pants and discovered that the burrs had small hooks that clung to small loops of fabric in his clothing. This lead him to the idea of making one material with small hooks and the other material with tiny loops. He called his invention Velcro, a combination of the words velour and crochet.

English physician, Sir Thomas Allbutt (1836-1925) invented the first practical medical thermometer used for taking the temperature of a person in 1867. It was portable, 6 inches in length and able to record a patient's temperature in 5? min.


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What ends in a W, has no beginning, and is always in the present?

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WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "The worst thing about medicine is that one kind makes another necessary."

ANSWER: Elbert Hubbard.

***
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