Do you push-up ?

As the age changes, so does the fad to exercise. Yesterday it might have been yoga, today it's power yoga. Fads come and go, but basics stay. And the one which has endured over the centuries is one's ability to do push-ups, variably called as dips.



I just found a push-up calculator, which determines your body fitness according to the number of push-ups you can do. Oh, and women can also measure their push-up strengths there.

The Machine: Repair, Maintenance and Enhancement

Have you tried to sew a button on your shirt?? Or at the least have seen somebody doing it. I myself have been sewn over at more than a couple of places of my body, much thanks to the mess I keep landing up in. And it is not an easy job. One of the times that somebody stitched me, he did such a botched job I still have a noticeable scar after 4 years.

Initially today's post was for automobile engines, but as chance would have it I got to see work on a part of the greatest machine existing : the human body ( was there any doubt?? )

Statement: I have stopped rash driving.

Ok. It needs modification. On most occasion I do not drive rashly. Sometimes I drive fast, but that is on free roads. Which is what I did today morning, that too without a helmet on. Sun in the face, wind in the hair (albeit it was more in the ear)... you know the feeling. Add to it that I am learning to swim these days and I don't wear those recommended goggles which are supposed to protect your eyes from the chlorine in the water. Complex combination of factors led to some irritation in both eyes and I had to visit the doctor in the eye hospital.

While waiting in the waiting room (where else??), I saw a video about corneal transplant. Cornea is the transparent layer over your eye pupil and iris and the white of the eye. Lots of people are blind in the eye because this transparency is lost and the thing becomes opaque. Many others suffer from impaired vision. The origin are many, genetic birth defect is just one of them. So what's the cure?? Corneal transplant. That is to say, somebody actually gives you his/her cornea and the doctor puts it right in, in your eye (obviously the donor is dead, why else would somebody become blind for you??). And then you see the world in light. So far so good.

What I saw in the video was much more amazing than this simple fact. The eye is actually popped out from the eye socket of the donor, dabbed with antibiotic and stored in a fridge. And the fridge that was there in the video was the regular Kelvinator or Whirlpool 165/195 L type thing. Eeewww! Better hospitals must be having better storage. I mean how can you store something so precious in such a thing?? That's what I thought initially but then I realized that the thing is currently dead, so it hardly matters. Matters of personal taste, eh??

Next the operation was terrific/horrific (depending on how squeamish you are). The cornea is actually sliced out and the new cornea from the donor is put back in. Obviously there is no magic glue which will hold the thing in place. And here in comes in some real skill. The doctor actually used a needle and thread to sew the cornea in place. Ooooo... The sewing needle is held by some forceps and the other end of the thread by another instrument. And the hands merrily sewed away all along the edges. Realization dawned. Those are really steady hands to deal with such sensitive area. One mistake and you are behind square one. Anyways...

Remember the video from Eye Bank Association of India in which Aishwarya Rai promoted eye donation. Smitten as I was at that time, I immediately wanted to go and pledge mine. But then I was legally junior. But chance has presented itself again. Let me see if I have it in me to donate even eyes. Will come back with updates on this.

Some videos I found:
Cornea Transplant Surgery - Price Vision Group

Transplante córnea

And the obvious wikipedia link
Cornea

There are lots others on the net.

Drowned

Life seeping out of you rapidly, while you watch helpless to do anything about it. Gulping down water at a rate faster than I could actually think about anything, I simply had to give up. All the thrashing and wild movement of the hands and the legs were of no avail. I had been told that the water was just 7 feet deep, so essentially I could bounce from the floor and surface. But the desperation and the loss of breath scavenged the last remaining thoughts out of my mind.

Finally what seemed like ages, the coach pulled me up. Rather he grabbed my shorts and kinda pushed me towards the pipes at the edges of the swimming pool and I held on for dear life. As I write this, I can only think of the people traveling in Titanic. First hitting the freezing water must have sent them into shock. Whatever senses remained would have been sucked out by drowning. I am thankful that I am still alive to see the light of the day and continue my swimming lessons on another day.

Have been trying to learn to swim since 7 days now. And I am nowhere near it. With no physical flexibility exercises since childhood, difficulties have been compounded by the occasional weight training sessions that I did. My whole body is stiff and am unable to let go, something that everybody tells me is the key to swimming. All advice on swimming ends up with float like a corpse. Only then will you learn. Yeah! the advice is good and all. And am trying. But right now after the ordeal in the morning, I have tons of water inside me, all trying to gush out from my nose, ear, eyes and other countless pores and holes that my body has. But it refuses to pour out of the proper ones like the mouth and the urinary tract. Awk!

Tomorrow is a new day and a new war in the battleground. Wish me luck!