Studies

On Monday, my brother Howard sent me a cartoon which I though was so cute I just had to post it - the source URL is http://irinasworld.com/Cartoon12.gif but I am including it here to save you the trouble. I guess you have to have been there to really appreciate the humor in it.

An observation: The media has been filled of late with stories about all of the young actors, actors and celebrities (just what that is I don't know) but they all seem hell-bent to either kill themselves or wind up in jail. Young women like Lindsey Lohan (an excellent actress by all accounts) who has too much money, too much libido and not enough supervision seems bend on self destruction, and seems to enjoy letting the Paparazzi photograph her lack of underwear - what a waste. Then there are the Paris Hilton types - who seem to relish the idea that their boyfriends (or one night stands) are publishing they sexcapades on the Internet. Maybe the public eats this stuff up because these people have more money than they know what to do with. and can spend money on things the rest of us can only dream of, and do things which would get any of the rest of us tossed in the slammer quicker than you can say - busted. Maybe we live vicariously through them.

I went for my third visit to the clinical study center and all looks good. They will give me a new supply of pills tomorrow but today they did another EKG and took lots of blood. Apparently the blood is shipped to the sponsor and that is how they know who is getting what dosage, if any, and what effect, if any, the medicine is having.

Something new, they hooked me up to a portable automatic blood pressure monitor that I have to wear for 24 hours. The cuff stays on my arm and the machine, about the size of a largish digital camera is in a little bag, which is on a strap that hangs from my neck sort of like a purse. I have to wear it even when I am sleeping and bring it back tomorrow morning when they download all the tests to a PC. The machine takes one BP reading every ten minutes. It is not uncomfortable, or heavy, but it does restrict the movement on my left arm.

Interesting, I was talking with the doctor running the study and he said that maybe when I am finished with this study he will enroll me in one of his Diabetes studies. Apparently I am a good test subject