Sunday, December 16, 2007

Medical Technology

The October 11, 2007 issue of Machine Design magazine has an update on Proton Therapy and its uses against tumors. The biggest problem in past has been the particle accelerators have been so large and expensive to build. Lawrence Livermore Labs believe Peregrine, the name for their design of a more compact, cost-effective device, will provide better cancer treatment by directing radiation treatments directly into the targeted tissue. With the aging of everyone in my family, numerous people have come down with cancer--bone, skin, esophageal, liver, prostrate, colon, breast and more.

I documented some of my struggles with colon problems in some articles about personal, family and work effects that might offer people insight into some of the stresses people undergo when dealing with illness. I just recently had a different diagnosis about my colon problems so the term "ulcerative colitis" should be qualified to mean bleeding and infection in the colon rather than the immune system disease.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ulcerative colitis is an autoimmune disease. Symptoms include bloody and/or mucousy (sp?) stools and inflammation of the colon.

Sheri Fresonke Harper said...

Yes, according to the Merck Medical dictionary and recent practice, but it also has a less precise usage, that my doctor used and according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Most of the articles I wrote on this topic dealt with the inflammatory affects of endometriosis and the difficulty of internal diagnosis.
:) Sheri

Chitika