Good evening, I didn’t think I would make a comment on this and would leave it for you to read and make a comment yourself.

http://tinyurl.com/k7htdx9

Maybe we ought to take note of this.

Well I made it to the end of term, but it was crawling to the end post. Although I must share the comments made by one of the staff, who is getting married during the holidays. I was signing out for two weeks and one day without having to go in to school, (although I am not sure I’ve ever managed to stay away for all of the holidays) when I had a cracking conversation over the signing out sheet. It went something like this

Mrs Physics, “So when is the big day?”

Groom-to-Be, “Tonight”

“Tonight? Surely not”

“Don’t you mean the lottery? Tonight I find out if I’ve won the millions.”

“Well will you still get married if you win the lottery?”

“That’s what the lady asked,” she said “Will you still love me if you win millions?”

To which the Groom-to-Be answered, “Yes, but I’ll miss you!”

That’s just what I needed to start the holidays, but I am still not in a making sense mode.
Its time to chill out, get some exercise and catch up. I hope Groom-To-Be has a great wedding and comes back after the holidays. Personally I’d rather you not win the lottery as you cheer me up on the cold dark mornings, but if you do spend it well!

…. I am not sure what to make of this.

Mr Physics has spent the night with Mostly Harmless leaving Mrs Physics to be in charge of tea. This is never a good move, even though tea is just a shop bought pizza. She had hoped, after giving instructions to Piglet- the runt of the litter, that the oven would be on and a large mug of tea ready on return from a visit to Gran in her care home.

Alas, the oven was cold and the kettle empty. So off Mrs Physics set to get dinner ready. All went well until the bleeper went off to say the pizza was ready. After a quick look, the two pizzas did indeed look fully cooked. Unfortunately, for some strange reason, Mrs Physics placed the oven gloves on her right hand and opened the door, which wasn’t hot. She then reached into the oven with her left hand and extracted the metal baking sheet. Such was the shock that instead of letting go straight away she looked at her oven gloved hand and wondered why she had done such a stupid thing.

Fingers plunged in cold water haven’t stopped the blisters forming and writing is currently impossible. No idea how the AH UASPs will get marked tomorrow. Let’s hope for healing.

Now why is this a blog post? I just wonder what it is that causes people to do such stupid things? Is it purely tiredness? More to do with state-of-mind? Anger? Has anyone researched into this?
Well maybe one of my current students will research this topic and let me know. I can wait but don’t be too long, I don’t know if I will get progressively worse at doing silly things.

I’ve just spent the day at the SQA. I left my house just after 7am and returned at 10:30pm. What a long day. I’ve spent it in the company of clever and exceptional people with a lovely range of skills. I’ve learned things too. For years I’ve tried keeping my units with the numbers on questions and always thought it was widows and orphans. Today I found out it was control+shift+space. See you are never too old to learn. Thanks for the laughs guys. It was a very long day and hard work but I feel refreshed from the laughter.

Mostly Harmless has new neighbours on the pontoons, a wide beam one side, called Dungraftin. The other side sat a beautiful kingfisher. See the photo below. It was just 5m away. We saw it catch a fish. It didn’t even appear to be looking in the right direction.

Back on Mostly Harmless for the 2016 Canal festival. It’s so wet, I’ve written the blog for the Royal Society that I promised them.

Gall bladder

thanks to akh for this image

The gall bladder is a pear-shaped organ, between seven and fifteen centimetres long, that sits just under the liver and shares the common bile duct with the liver. The gall bladder stores the bile, a yellow-green fluid  containing water, cholesterol, phospholipids and bile acids to aid digestion, as well as waste products for excretion via the bowel, such as bilirubin. Bile, which is produced by your liver, acts as a detergent, breaking up the fat from food in your gut into very small droplets, so that it can be absorbed. It also makes it possible for your body to take up the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K from the food passing through your gut.  The gallbladder is empty and flat after a meal, like a flat balloon: but before a meal it might be the size of a small pear and full of bile. In response to signals, the gallbladder squeezes stored bile into the duodenum (small intestine) through a series of ducts. In the duodenum, the bile breaks down fat.

What are gallstones?

Gallstones, lumps of solid material  are formed in the gallbladder when the different elements, which make up your bile, become imbalanced.  They usually look like gravel, but can be as small as sand or as large as pebbles, sometimes filling the gallbladder. They may take years to grow and there may be one or several.

Gallstones are formed from the chemicals in bile and may be:

• pure cholesterol stones – these are the most common type of stone and are made up of cholesterol, a type of fat. They form when cholesterol levels in your bile are much greater than your bile acid levels, causing the cholesterol in your bile to solidify.
• pure pigment stones – these consist of calcium and bilirubin (a pigment from broken down red blood cells) which have solidified. Pigment stones may form when the amount of bilirubin in bile is excessive.
• mixed stones – these are a combination of cholesterol and pigment stones.

Gallstones are more common in women than in men because cholesterol is a component of oestrogen, and the fluctuating levels of oestrogen need to be broken down to cholesterol and excreted in bile.

Gallstones can also form when the flow of bile is reduced. This may occur due to:

• damage to the liver (cirrhosis) or damage to the biliary tract which affects the secretion and flow of bile;
• long periods of fasting during which there is less requirement for bile, leading to a decreased flow of bile.

What are the symptoms of gallstones?

Many people live with gallstones without symptoms and are unaware they have them until the stones show up in tests performed for another reason.

The most common symptom of gallstones is pain in the abdomen, known as biliary colic. This is a pain that usually lasts between one and five hours (but sometimes up to eight) and varies from mild indigestion or discomfort, to severe pain. Sometimes the pain may be mistaken for a heart attack or a peptic ulcer; due to strong contractions as the gallbladder tries to expel a stone. The pain usually begins after eating fatty foods, though it can also wake you up during the night. These attacks are usually infrequent. Other symptoms may include nausea, vomiting or excessive sweating.

Symptoms indicating complications include:

• a high temperature of 38°C or above,
• persistent pain,
• a rapid increase in the rate of your heartbeat,
• jaundice – a condition in which the whites of the eyes go yellow and, in more severe cases, the skin also turns yellow (for more information see useful words),
• itchy skin,
• diarrhoea,
• shivering attacks – a sudden chill with severe shivering and a high temperature, similar to ‘flu’, is a sign that infection is building up,
• mental confusion,
• a loss in appetite.

Treatment

If gallstones have been discovered incidentally and are not troublesome, they are usually monitored and left alone. Some people may have one mild attack of biliary colic and no further trouble, while others have continuing problems. Painkillers, may be prescribed to control the symptoms of an attack.

The gallbladder is usually removed by keyhole surgery in a process called laparoscopic cholecystectomy which is performed under a general anaesthetic, using a fibre-optic tube with a tiny camera and a light on the end, called a laparoscope. A small incision is made and the abdomen inflated with carbon dioxide gas. Inflating your abdomen gives the surgeon a better view of your organs and more room in which to work. Instruments are then inserted into the abdominal cavity through three small incisions and controlled very precisely by the doctor, who is able to view your organs via a TV screen. The gallbladder is removed through a small cut in your navel. Afterwards the patient will have four small scars.

Mrs Physics’ Run in with a Gallstone!

Mrs Physics had this very problem and underwent the procedure mentioned. There was so much Physics to learn about during the whole process, e.g. the ultrasound scan, X-rays, CT scan, MRI scan, fibre optic laproscope, thermometers, stethoscopes, EGC devices and that is just the equipment.

However, before the gall bladder was removed a gallstone had to be extracted from the bile duct. Researching this, the duct was approximately 4 or 5 mm diameter (from which you astute ones can work out her age). However, the wonderful Mr Apollos, said that the stone in Mrs Physics’ duct was 28mm diameter, just over the size of a sixer marble. You can imagine how difficult that was to extract and all Mrs Physics can remember was waking up during the middle of this extraction to be told by all those around to keep still. A few complications arose, not least a puncture wound to the pancreas, which led to a two week stay in Ward 6; during which time Mrs Physics developed an admiration for the nursing staff, who not only were mentally but physically exhausted after their shift, an immense gratitude to Mr Apollos and Dr Greg and lots of new friends. She also felt that she was quite knowledgeable about all things gall bladdery; as it appeared most people on Ward 6 had the very same problem.

I dedicate this post to all those people who nursed me and the amazing friends I made whilst on the ward, but especially Karen and Jean.

This is the only picture of Mrs Physics that she has been pleased to show to others. It is pure brilliance, snapped my the surgeon on his camera. The second shot shows what will not be missed. Can you count the large numbers of stones and notice the different sizes. To quote Shrek

“Better out than in!”

Teachers: If you are looking for copyfree pictures of the gall bladder- feel free to use as desired.