This is a post about a quirk in my epiglottis and why those of you with various similarly quirky features in your breathing anatomy probably shouldn't be scared off from seeing an appropriate specialist for possible problems with them or by the procedures they commonly perform.
My epiglottis is somewhat uncommonly omega shaped as I'm told by my ENT physician, Dr Samuel J Girgis, who's gotten multiple up close thin, flexible endoscope views of it.
My epiglottis' shape is a possible factor in my hospitalization for infectious inflammation of it in July 2016 and a likely source of today's very scary fleeting breathing difficulty / E.R. trip event in the wee hours. Untreated inflammation of it can obviously close down the airway with equally obviously dramatic consequences.
Those endoscopy procedures for this area of the respiratory tract with specific purpose designed flexible endoscopes sound and look gross and scary but they are in fact not inordinately uncomfortable though fully patient awake, and completely pain free, for me at least.
The ones with hard endoscopes on the other hand, not quite so much and only good for view of the nasal passages, sinuses and nasopharynx (see image at top). I've had both but MOSTLY (thankfully) the former type. My attitude toward hard scope procedures (I have managed to endure a couple of them with no pain or other negative consequences) may come from from medical equipment engineering experience born knowledge of EXTREMELY RARE mishap events fueling (irrational?) fear of hard things entering my body from any source. . Yes pilgrims I AM NOT PERFECTLY RATIONAL!
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Donald Trump's Infamous wall on our southern border is not the "wall" US citizens should be most concerned about. There is a far more troubling "wall" regarding our government once established as "of the people, by the people and for the people". That would be the wall of money the greediest of great wealth among "we the People" have constructed around themselves and access to the processes of government in the USA at the Federal, State and Local levels to varying degrees.
We've been in this situation before but back then there were less than 1/4 as many people in the USA and no electronic media of any kind nor anything like the similarly totally conglomerated print medium we have today in the USA to buy our attention with.
How did we get to being an oligarchy, as living past US Presidents have accurately(?) described 21st century US government? There are probably a bunch of theories but I trace it back to the "greed is good" days of the Ronald Reagan Presidency and the beginnings of dismantlement of the regulatory system that preserved access of ALL people to the processes of government and the integrity of the National assets we all depend upon for survival.
The strongest blow against resistance to the progress toward our current oligarchy came from the US Supreme Court in a series of 5-4 rulings dismantling the protections of our election campaign and lobbying systems by regulation of money's influence over them. They essentially put those systems up for purchase by the highest bidders by literally equating money with free speech with no limits.
As A Biomedical Engineering Technician, What Was I? That's the title I came up with for my first blog post about my 37 year career as a BMET which ended with my retirement from Hines VA Hospital in November 2009 .
My mind somehow wandered this morning to thoughts of all of the vast array of technology I worked with and on as a BMET for 37 years, most of which as an in-house tech at VA hospitals. I decided it's time to take stock, a so far not unpleasant experience.
Mine was a "trade", more of a calling one might say, that required significant mastery of the details of every different technology; electrical systems, electronics, computer systems and networking, communication systems, mechanical systems, thermodynamics, pneumatic systems, fluid dynamics and flow control systems, chemical reactions etc. each medical device employed to function. Not only that but one needed basic understandings of all of the physics, chemistry, biology and human anatomy and physiology behind and driving the function of the vast array of diverse medical equipment each of us was charged with maintaining and repairing.
My last few years at Hines VA Hospital were by far my best and most rewarding. In those closing years of my career I was gifted with not only management that appreciated my well earned expertise in vital signs monitoring and cardiology equipment, but also the availability of then new technology to enhance the performance of all of those medical devices for patient well being and to greatly extend the time between failures of the care area equipment systems. The fact that I FINALLY mastered the divide between the people oriented mindsets of nursing staff and the machine oriented mindset we biomedical engineering technicians must have was a HUGE factor in my successes in those years as well. Having excellent care area managers facilitated that change.
