Hugs and Kisses

Instead of my usual Gothamist Health posts, where I talk about HPV positive promiscuous women having fatties and then those fatties going on to have asthmatic babies, let me share with you a story to warm the cockles of your PC bleeding hearts. The Daily News tells the tale of a Long Island woman who was given a second chance to breathe and, therefore, live. This past weekend, doctors were able to find a suitable donor to kick-off and kick-over a pair of lungs to Jennifer Lanzaro, a cystic fibrosis sufferer whose own bagpipes were on their last gasps. Because of her relatively rare blood type, Lanzaro got seriously lucky this past weekend thanks to a Brooklynite with compatible blood and a little worse luck who died - freeing up their lungs for transplantation. The surgery, which began Friday night and finished early Saturday morning, went well and Ms Lanzaro should be coming off the respirator today. Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disorder (the patient's sister died from it) where ion channels throughout the body malfunction leading to thicker bodily secretions. In the lungs, this leads to decreased mucus clearance which causes airway blockages and create a suitable petri dish for recurrent infections. Outside of conservative medical therapy, that only staves off the inevitable for some time, lung transplantation can be curative.

We Meet Again

I know that it seems like I almost write about nothing but 24 but I just can't seem to get through this damn season. It seems that crazy internal fire that made me watch 12 episodes in a row has been put out and getting through a season takes the better part of an actual season. But tonight, as I sit here recovering from the second of my two-part dentist appointment to mend a broken tooth, I plan on getting through the penultimate disc. If I post again tonight it will be because the Netflix'd DVD fucked up and I'm weeping like a baby. See you then.

By the way, I have no idea what the caption in the photo means.