Tras haber creado mi anterior blog cecilmundo varias personas, muchos de ellos mis alumnos, me sugirieron que creara una secciòn dentro de cecilmundo para publicar mis obras de docencia de idiomas. Dado que la cantidad de documentos de explicaciones, ejercicios y exàmenes de inglès son muy numerosos porque tengo màs de 30 años del ejercicio de la docencia, preferì estrenar blog con mis alumnos a como ellos realmente merecen. En este blog planetcecil no solo iràn mis documentos didàcticos de inglès, sino tambièn la producciòn literaria de varios alumnos que se destacan en las letras. Tambièn darè oportunidad a aquellos que tienen excelentes obras pero que no han logrado publicarlas ya que en mi paìs Nicaragua todo se mueve por la marrana polìtica, y si una no pertenece a determinado partido no verà jamàs publicado su opus. Tambièn tenemos la desgracia de contar con seudoeditores quienes al no conocer verdaderamente de literatura se convierten en mercenarios de la imprenta solo para llenarse ellos mismo de dinero y fama a costillas de los escritores. Todos aquellos que deseen participar en este blog, denlo de antemano por suyo. Aunque lleve mi nombre en un arranque de egolatrìa, yo soy sencillamente vuestra servidora.Cecilia

Las alas de la educación

Las alas de la educación
La educación es un viaje sin final.

La lección de física

La lección de física
Casi aprendida

viernes, 14 de noviembre de 2008

at the edge of the glucometer




74th entry to the Colonel`s Scrapbook
Birthdates which occurred on November 14:
1765 Robert Fulton built 1st commercial steamboat (or 0819), and went on steam ahead1776 Henri Dutrochet discovered & named process of osmosis, hard working chap1779 Adam Gottlob Oehlenschlager Denmark, poet (National Poet 1849),still Hans Christian ndersen is better known for his little Mermaid1840 Claude Monet France, impressionist (Water Lilies),I would die for any of his paintings
1889 Jawaharlal Nehru 1st Indian PM (1947-64),the real father of India without having to pose naked with young girls to prove he was impotent 1896 Mamie Doud Eisenhower 1st lady, poor woman, having to tolerate Ike`s philandering and cavorting with his Irish born lady chauffer
1900 Aaron Copland Brooklyn, composer (Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring).Jewish,excellent and with the awfullest teeth I have ever seen on anyone
1927 Narciso Yepes, Lorca Spain, guitarist (Orquesta Nacionale 1947)great interpreter,good Composer too

Deaths which occurred on November 14:
565 Justinian Roman emperor, dies at 82,still m,issing his ex circus girl turned empress Theo,whom he adored so much and who really ruled for him
1935 Hussein ibn Talal I king of Jordan (1953- )a good king

1851 Moby Dick by Hermann Melville was published, a novel I have always cherished so much
1959 Kilauea's most spectacular eruption (in Hawaii)what a blast!
1921 insulin is discovered as a resource for the treatment of diabetes,yessssssss,thanks Best,McLeod, for saving my life even before I was born and became diabetic

DIABETES WORLD DAY
I am a diabetic.Type 2 fortunately. It would have been easy for me to be born with type I diabetes,which ruins your life from childhood because your pancreas simply doen`t work at all. It runs in the family, my maternal grandmother had it. Sooner or later, my genes were going to act up and it sure helped that I was a candy addict in my teens, a wageless assistant chef for my mom, and I have always had a sweet tooth. Diabetes Day. A world day. To celebrate some very smart guys found the relationship between insulin and the well being of those with diabetes. The news about this discovery was given on a day like today back in 1921. The day itself was introduced in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to the alarming rise in diabetes around the world. It all began in the decade of the 20s in the xxth century.
It wasn`t easy at first.At Toronto General Hospital, 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes. Diabetes had been recognized as a distinct medical condition for more than 3,000 years, but its exact cause was a mystery until the 20th century. By the early 1920s, many researchers strongly suspected that diabetes was caused by a malfunction in the digestive system related to the pancreas gland, a small organ that sits on top of the liver. At that time, the only way to treat the fatal disease was through a diet low in carbohydrates and sugar, and high in fat and protein. Instead of dying shortly after diagnosis, this diet allowed diabetics to live--for about a year, at the most.
A breakthrough came at the University of Toronto in the summer of 1921, when Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated insulin from canine test subjects, produced diabetic symptoms in the animals, and then began a program of insulin injections that returned the dogs to normalcy. On November 14, the discovery was announced to the world.
Two months later, with the support of J.J.R. MacLeod of the University of Toronto, the two scientists began preparations for an insulin treatment of a human subject. Enlisting the aid of biochemist J.B. Collip, they were able to extract a reasonably pure formula of insulin from the pancreas of cattle from slaughterhouses and used it to treat Leonard Thompson. The diabetic teenager improved dramatically, and the University of Toronto immediately gave pharmaceutical companies license to produce insulin, free of royalties. By 1923, insulin had become widely available, saving countless lives around the world, and Banting and Macleod were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Countless figures of history were diabetics, beginning with the beautiful yet treacherous Greek general Alcibiades, who always knew that his glucose was high after he pissed,for the ants would gather around the wet spot he had left on the ground. Along would come others, like the Empress Theodora of Byzantium,beloved consort of Justinian who died a day like today. Wu Chao,empress of China,almost lost a leg to diabetes and King Louis XIVth,the glorious Sun King, would hide behind curtains when he was eating sweets that his doctor Fagon had prohibited him to devour. Even in his privileged mind, British writer HG Wells couldn`t imagine a cure to his disease, even though he was the dad of modern science fiction. But diabetes didn`t stop Ernest Hemingway from consuming huge quantities of booze, and he often levelled off his high glucose by playing with his cats. I tend to think that the possession of cats does help diabetics, because cats take stress away and many times diabetics get lots of stress and their glucose goes up.
Even though I knew sooner or later I would become a diabetic because it follows hereditary patterns, I wasn`t quite ready when the diagnosis came on January 31st,2003 for me. The world fell at my feet. I had a count of 235,when the normal level is between 75 and 110 when you haven`t eaten in the morning and between 75 and 120 one hour after you have eaten. I would need a glucometer to measure my level every morning and that meant pricking myself. Welcome pain, daily routine. Goodbye desserts. Why didn`t anybody tell me about neuropathies?Those are pains,shooting pains in your legs, your toes go numb. When the sugar –loaded bloodstream passes by the myelin surface of your nerves, it acts like sandpaper and wears off the insulating myelin away, so it is like having peeled up cables that bristle at contact. This causes something like electroshocks and these in turn produce pain ,itching, tingling,stinging or burning sensations. Sometimes these pains are so great your muscles grow weak and flabby and you may have that extremity impaired for walking. Diabetes sweeps away whatever lifestyle you had before,and turns your world upside down. I was hitched onto insulin shots to begin with and get balanced. Months later Milagros, the best doctor in the world and now one of my best friends, unhooked me from insulin and gave me pills:glibenclamide and metformin. I still take them every day of my life.
I would be a liar, dearest reader, if I said I don’t eat sugar anymore. I have no more painful neuropathies, but I get up to pee up to 3 times per night, stay away from Cocacola, and watch as others gobble the desserts I make. Nothing more painful for a cook to be unable to eat her own desserts. What diabetes does to your libido is a sad story and the bad news is that gentlemen who were satyrs may end up being perfectly impotent. Depression is another common side effect,but in my case I have been prone to optimism instead. That got me out of a wheelchair and would not allow me to ever feel sorry for myself, even when a flabby, horny and bitchy ministress of social security called me a “lovely garbage sack of bones to be forever useless.” I refused to feel self compassion when my husband went out with his friends all day on August 1st and July 19th-holidays in my country-to booze and whore his way dry while I was in bed at home, accompanied by my cats and my daughter.
I don’t suffer from the typical diabetic`s bad temper. Many people use this malady as a simple excuse for being rude to others. No way.
Today, I have celebrated my World Diabetes Day by staying safely out of danger,optimistic and healthy. Why not?In another century I wouldn`t have lasted even for this day.

1 comentario:

Unknown dijo...

thanks for your insights,I am a diabetic too and we are discriminated against in many places. Even men-diabetic men who suffer from impotence.call us cold fish.Congrats and continue with your excellent job here.