I know, reposts are lazy, but in light of the recent injunction against NIH funding stem cell research, and the fact that, as a quadriplegic, I supposedly have a vested interest in the research, I thought I’d repost this entry I wrote last year.

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I know a couple of people who have spinal cord injuries who wholeheartedly believe in the potential of stem cells to magically cure them someday. One of these people has been injured since 1996 and has pretty much resigned himself to doing nothing other than watching TV and playing video games until the cure arrives.

Another is the son of a doctor whom I see. He was injured a week before I was when a wave crashed into him, driving his head into the sand, while at the beach. His injury is about an inch above mine and impairs him to a greater degree. He is active, but he and his father both believe there will be a cure someday.

Almost everyone who is newly injured insists that there will be someday. I don’t question the new guys, but I do question the lazy ones, specifically the former one I mentioned above. He happens to be kind of a jerk, so I don’t feel so bad when I ask him what he has read about stem cells. Many of those waiting haven’t read very much. They seem to take the promises at face value and block out anything to the contrary.

I should begin by saying that I do believe that stem cells could have a vital role in the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. But I can’t bring myself to believe they can repair a severed spinal cord.

The spinal cord is very complex, like a twisted bundle of fiber-optic cables. If you sever through that bundle, you’re going to have a mess of disconnections. If you’ve compressed several inches of your spine, that would be the equivalent of removing an inch or two out of that bundle. I just don’t believe that stem cells could reconnect things without running the risk of misconnecting and possibly leaving someone with greater disability or terrible nerve pain. Now that’s just my opinion.

What is actually proven in the laboratory with mice and dogs is that stem cells seem to provide a miraculous recovery in the days and weeks that follow an injury. After 13 months post injury, they’ve been proven to no longer have any success. Add to that the fact that the spinal cords of mice and dogs control walking in a much different way than the human spinal cord does. For them, walking is a more automatic function within the spine than it is with humans.

So what do I hold out hope for? Nothing much in the way of cures. I certainly wouldn’t be the first person to line up for them, due to potential side effects. For other spinal cord patients, I hope that there becomes more success in treatment within the minutes and hours following a spinal cord injury. When the spine is traumatized, swelling kills off many of the nerve cells. There is also a phenomenon in which the immune system actually begins attacking the spinal cord. In the future I hope that trauma can be limited to the initial damage and not spread.

Here is a sad fact for those holding out hope. Spinal cord injuries are very rare, about one in 300,000 people will suffer one in their lifetime. There are currently many more very good outcomes, meaning mortality, than there ever have been. People can suffer an injury, be stabilized successfully, receive necessary physical therapy, get a proper wheelchair and reenter society more so than ever before. This all means that there is very little financial incentive for developing a cure for such a rare disease. There is also much more money to be made in the lifelong treatment of people with severe spinal cord injuries than there is in curing them. This is the case with many other ailments where there is more money to be made in the ongoing treatments or medications than there is in a cure.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. That’s just the way business is. It’s the reason that much of the funding for such things comes from grants and charity rather than an R&D budget.

I remember when I first read about the mice and the 13 months. I had been injured about 11 months at that point. It shocked me to my core and literally knocked the wind out of me. I think that was the first time that I began to lose hope that I would ever walk again. It hurt so much at the time, but at least I was willing to take in the information rather than staying willfully ignorant and sitting around waiting. It also may have kick started me to begin looking at things a bit differently. If this was how things were going to be, I’d damn well better find a way to make it work. And so that’s what I do and that’s what I continue to do.

Look, I wouldn’t consider myself close to even being a devout Christian, but Anne Rice is an idiot, leaving Christianity for its supposedly being: “anti-gay,” “anti-feminist,” “anti-science” and “anti-Democrat.”

Basically, she’s over-generalizing and intolerant towards millions of Christians who don’t feel that way, like my mom, for instance.  You know who also over-geralizes and is intolerant toward millions?  The “anti-gay,” “anti-feminist,” “anti-science” and “anti-Democrat” folks you claim to be against…

Also, Hitler.

Nonlinearmind family reunion.

Attack of the L.A. Smog Archives | This Day In Tech | Wired.com

Great song by Jonathan Mann.  Nearly as full of references as the Bare Naked Ladies’ “One Week”.

The Smog Gets Thicker (via therockcookiebottom)

Oh look, a software update to my home phone.

I spent much of my adult life thinking, with all certitude, that I was well over 6 feet tall. How did I know this? Simple. I was at least a couple inches taller than my dad, and growing up he had always told me he was 6 foot even.

So there I am, age 28, visiting the doctor for a checkup. After stepping on the scale, and getting a weight that was well on par with my household scale, I stood up straight and was measured for the first time in years. The verdict 5’ 11 ½”. My knees became woozy as I stepped down from the scale, 2 to 3 inches shorter than I was moments earlier.

After going through the necessary stages of grieving, I came to embrace my diminutive stature. Being 5’11” became a conversation piece whenever height came up, simply because I looked taller. 

So I was at a party, and some woman asked how tall I was. So I told her, and was overheard by another woman. “That can’t be, because you’re taller than my boyfriend,” she declared, boyfriend beside her, “and he is 6” 1’.” 

A hush fell over the small circle of partygoers.  You could hear a pin drop if it wasn’t for OutKast blaring in the other room. I tried to approach it tactfully, attempting not to emasculate him in her eyes and embarrass him in front of everyone.

“I don’t know how tall your boyfriend is,” I began, “I just know that I’m 5’11 ½”. I measured twice. Even standing up straight as possible.”

Everyone was silent. It was as if some great betrayal had occurred. In Victorian times he may have sought satisfaction from me via a duel.

Then everyone laughed. Everyone except him. We then spent the next 30 minutes, everyone kicking off their shoes, marking their height with pencil on the dingy apartment wall and measuring heights out with a tape measure.

Of course, the evening couldn’t end without me completely ruining something. The guy’s girlfriend and I were talking later, laughing about it. And I said, joking mind you, “it makes me wonder what else he’s keeping from you.” 

That one didn’t go over as well.

The end.

Hi.  I’m my dad’s dog.  Sadie. 

Everyone, my dog, @nonlineardog is trying to get a song written about her.  Please vote here: bit.ly/9clkzY

And in this audio clip, Mel Gibson redeems himself.

No, he doesn’t.

A really great song by a guy who writes and posts a song a day, everyday.  I think I like this song, because it is about getting rid of an “old heart”, one that you didn’t use properly, for a new one.  Sometimes, I feel like, as horrible a situation my injury 6 years ago put me in, it gave me a better heart than the one I’d had before.  Hope you enjoy.

Song A Day #564: Hello My Old Heart (via therockcookiebottom)

…in my wheelchair wearing dark sunglasses. “Are you blind?” she asked innocently. “Nope. Everything you see here - shades, wheelchair - is fake except the sandwich,” I should have said. “Nope.”

There’s a whole lotta “huh??” in these headlines.

This series of videos is hilariously brilliant.  This is my favorite - Tesla vs. Edison.