november 28th

To whose womb was my soul’s lair

To whose hands are my eternal grip

To whose wishes I hang hopes on being the best of me

You might not be the best mother earth has

And I am twice as far in being an ideal daughter

But to us, let’s toast

For we are the best of us

To whom I adore for looking so beautiful

To whom I timely groan for being too generous

To whom I argue with, cry for

To whom I moan, and love

Love too much but not enough

To whom all my prayers go

To whom all my best wishes address

Happy 40th birthday.

Though, to me, you do not age, ma.

2010 playlist

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”

— Carl Sagan

Random

It's pretty creepy when someone anonymous asks you how you're doing and claim that he knows you, don't you think?

I'm good, way good.

It's funny how life has its own unique plots, setting up for a simple quest and evoking a chain reaction of another simple sequences with a quaking final show that is, for some certain figures, leg breaking.

As if you're drinking a normal tempered chocolate milk during a so-so weather, and you find some surprise pieces of marshmallow. Simple, but sweet.

It was a plenary session when all the latest year estudiante of this privileged institution, in which to develop regionally best scholars, scientists, and society figure of intellectual sages, were invited and for the first time, present their appraisals of avowed topic, human embryonic stem cells research controversy. Two groups with best reports, not including mine, were set to conduct a presentation and discussion follows. During the discussion session, I asked a question. As simple as that. And as lucky as I am, among other amazing questions by other greater people, mine was chosen as the best one. It’s me and boasting again if I speak about what I felt when the president of the program shook my hand, plus how she gave me an imposingly pretty boisterous compliment I had to ask for a serious help keeping my feet on the ground.

As simple as that, few weeks later I received a phone call from one of the professor in the very same institution of mine, why, none other than Prof. Dr. Nancy Margarita Rehatta, dr., SpAn KIC herself, the very same president of the program I have mentioned.

I was simply invited to the plenary session of International class along the rest six colleagues, Olivia and Alan for the best presentation, and Nova, Daniel, Septian for the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th best question accordingly.

We simply attended and followed the session thoroughly, asking several proper questions to the presenting groups as supposed, this time with one chance for each and the topic addition of IVF and cryopreservation. As simple as that, I asked some simple questions again.

Prof. Puruhito, dr., Sp. B. was one of the most famous doctors in this hierarchy of medical school, university, and integrated hospital. Being one of the past number one figures of the university as the rector, even meeting him in person never crossed my mind, supposing how rigid his bodies of schedules are. He happened to attend the exact plenary session, giving a salute and humble comment after presentations and a short, enchanting, bright, enthusing lecture about stem cell and its contributions toward heart surgery, which I must say, was the very best lecture I’ve ever had in my whole life.

As simple as that, the plenary session ends. As simple as that, we all walked out of the room, me, with my head still on the clouds proposing what could be done with the stem cells development for the mankind benefits and all the ramblings about each slides presented by Prof. Puruhito in each of my cerebral lobes.

As simple as that, while coming out of the class with the rest of the session attendants, I caught the sight of Prof. Puruhito, and as simple as that, he pointed at me and simply said…

“You… You’re good!”

It's funny how life has its own unique plots, setting up for a simple quest and evoking a chain reaction of another simple sequences with a quaking final show that is, for some certain figures, leg breaking.

As if one simple question could lead you to a humble spotlight of a great professor and made him said that you were good. Simple, but happens to make such a day.

In vitro fertilization: A further outlook

Technology, in this context, in medicine, has the very promising leap in human development. Nowadays, the constantly improving medical biotechnology offers, not only curative medication in order to preserve life as it used to function as, anymore, but also life itself.

One of them, nonetheless, is the in vitro fertilization technology. IVF has been successfully inducted since 1978, making possible to a British fallopian tube blockage sufferer, Lesley, to give a healthy daughter, Louise, to her husband, John Brown. This therapy then become commonplace afterwards, and had given hope of numerous disabled couples to have heirs.

IVF makes it possible for woman with absent fallopian tubes or tubal disease that cannot be treated successfully by surgery or endometriosis that has not responded to surgical or medical treatment, male with shortage or challenges on sperms, genetic diseases that result in miscarriage or abnormal births, advance maternal age, or other unexplained infertility that has not responded to other treatments to undergo pregnancy and give birth to a healthy child or even children, as IVF itself, for example per December 2008, increases the ongoing pregnancy rate for couples by about 15% (M. Brandes et al., 2010).

IVF is done by, first, stimulating egg production with fertility medicines. Then, follicular aspiration, a minor surgery, was performed in order to take out the egg from inside the woman’s follicle. Next, insemination is performed, which is the mixing of best quality eggs with the man’s sperm, which then is stored and supervised within a conditioned chamber in order to preserve the embryogenesis. Lastly, is the transfer of embryo, when the embryos that have developed are inserted into the woman’s womb, which is conducted around 3-5 days after insemination. If the embryo is correctly implanted on the uterus, then a pregnancy will result. This success is by the chance range of 13% until 43% (S. Storck, 2010).

In general, studies on the follow ups of children developed from IVF show mild disparities than normal fertilizations. Neuromotor, cognitive, language and behavioral studies on IVF children with the age range of infancy, preschool and school ages provides negative effects of assisted conception on the neurodevelopmental section of growth, supporting no additional likelihood of suffering for retardation or any mental disorders compared to the natural born children (Middelburg et al., 2008). Another study also provides the deliberate similarity between the IVF children with the natural born in the psychomotor development (M. Bonduelle et al., 2003), although it also provides that IVF children are behind natural born in growth and postnatal health. This might be a reflection towards the neonatal period problems (S. Koivurova et al., 2003), this also supports that there is a significant tendency that IVF babies are prone to be born in premature conditions with low natal weight.

However, as alluded before, IVF has several risks to wisely be considered before the undergo. Besides the lower growth rate and postnatal health, the perinatal outcome and the developmental studies state that there has been an increase in associated complications (F. Olivennes et al., 2002). In twin IVF birth, consequently more risk is attained than that of a normal born twin in slight scale and IVF singleton, significantly (A. Pinborg, 2005). IVF is also prone to bacterial and viral contamination, which can occur within the embryo culture procedure or in unidentified egg donors which might have been contaminated by HIV or other viral diseases (S. R. Steyaert et al., 2000).

To the mother, IVF respectively brings several side effects like bloating, abdominal pain, mood swings, headaches, bruises and other effects undergoing the earlier procedure of egg stimulating medications. In atypical cases, it also may cause ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). This evokes a fluid hoard in the abdomen and chest. Symptoms include rapid weight gain (10 pounds within 3-5 days), decreased urination despite drinking plenty of fluids, nausea, vomiting, and shortness of breath. There is also a risk of egg retrieval, where ovary could be injured. From the psychological perspective, woman who is about to undergo IVF normally has a whether slight or severe depression of infertility; childlessness fright and so on. In the ongoing therapy, woman must have a strong support to help the adjustment of eventually failure of the treatment which actually occurs more often than not (C. M. Verhaak et al., 2007).

Overall, IVF needs a full combination of physical, emotional, time and financial commitment. The treatment requires a thorough follow up after the birth of the child and on to be prepared whenever post clinical effect would occur to the child. This mean a big fund should be allocated both for the treatment itself and the follow up. As an example, in the US, IVF could cost with the range of $12.000 until $17.000, or even more. This varies within the clinic in which patients plan to undergo IVF. 

*this essay was made by me, for my mid term assertion. The topic was randomly generated, and I chose not to view it from the ethical perspective. this made me some kind of interested to obstetric and gynecology field of doctor specialization. I enjoy health and medical world more and more each day.