Thursday, October 2, 2008

I love a mystery!

Today we had a couple of pathology lectures from a guy who looks like Kevin Rudd with a beard. Eerie.

As I have mentioned before, I like the way pathologists speak. This guy is extra great because not only does he used all the crazy pathology words, but he drops little teasers into his lectures. For example, he'll say things like this:
"Renal cell carcinoma also occurs in the rare, but fascinating, von Hippel-Lindau syndrome."
Does he tell us anything else about it? No. He blithely sails on to the next topic. We were left knowing absolutely nothing about this condition except that it:
  1. is rare,
  2. is fascinating,
  3. has a strange name.
It reminds me of the fantasy and sci-fi writing of Jack Vance. His books frequently introduce strange, almost frivolous-sounding terms, such as toince, deodand, or gaun, and don't bother to provide any detail beyond describing the character's own reactions. So you learn that deodands are dangerous and cunning, but little else.

So when I find out about some heretofore unknown condition, with a name that evokes images of giant airships, and I learn only that it is rare and fascinating, my imagination runs wild!

Which is a shame because it turns out that von Hippel-Lindau disease is quite awful.

3 comments:

Beverly said...

My son has Von Hippel Lindau disease. He was diagnosed in 2005 at the age of 16. We keep a journel of his expereinces with the disease, along with many other journal entries. There's also a link on the blog that sends you to a "message board" of sorts about VHL.

You should visit!

PTR said...

Thanks Beverly, I will.

PTR said...

... and I'm just back from reading Beverly's blog. Do yourself a favour and read it.