Yesterday, I went to the family doctor for a checkup and some scripts. On the way out I asked the doctor if the swine flu vaccine will be combined with the seasonal flu vaccine, when it comes out later this year. He said he didn’t think so, but he was reminded that my brother and I haven’t had the swine flu vaccine and we had to go back into his office and get the jab.

So an innocent question backfires in such a way that I have to have an injection – typical.

That night I was telling a friend of mine about the unfortunate incident and I got into a discussion about whether vaccinations do more harm than good.

Obviously I believe in vaccinations, but there is a lot of so-called evidence suggesting that vaccination, in particular the combined measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine, could result in disabilities such as autism and even attention deficit disorder.

All this started in 1998 from a now discredited study of 12 children originally published in the British medical journal The Lancet that found that the MMR vaccine could be responsible for giving autism to children. It was later discovered that the author of the study was receiving funding from lawyers involved in a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the MMR vaccine.

Many British parents panicked and started failing to immunise their children causing a measles epidemic years later.

So far science has been unable to prove a link. My personal opinion is that there is no link. Even if there is something to the link it must be very tenuous for a not to be picked up. An un vaccinated child is still many times more likely to suffer death or disease than the one in 1 million chance of being disabled by the vaccine.

Many vaccination opponents will point to their children and say they have never been sick even though they haven’t been vaccinated. The only reason why these children do not get sick is because they are protected by all the children around them who are vaccinated – this is called herd immunity. The only reason vaccination opponents have a viable choice not to vaccinate their children is because the majority of the population is vaccinated.

Vaccination definitely makes the world a better place. Before vaccination parents could expect to lose more than 50% of their children to disease. People also forget the polio epidemic that would render people totally paralysed, almost like a type of muscular dystrophy you could catch. Luckily this disease is almost eliminated due to mass vaccination programmes. If enough people fail to immunise their children some of these epidemics could return.

Don’t let a bunch of discredited science stop you from doing what is best for your child.

All over the TV yesterday was the announcement of Mary McKillop’s second miracle – an important step on the long road to sainthood.

One thing you will know just about many miracles is they tend to exhibit people recovering from cancer.

The interesting thing about cancer, which makes it different from many other diseases, is that spontaneous remission can occur at any time. A person could be a week away from death and they can suddenly start getting better for no readily explainable reason.

Contrast this with my own disease – Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). No one with my disease has ever undergone a miracle and started walking again. Why do only people with cancer deserve to be saved by miracles? Maybe DMD is an evil disease like AIDS which only evil people suffer from. Why would God be so mean-spirited to cure some diseases and not others?

There are many documented cases of spontaneous remission in cancer and not all of them were religious. Some believe it could be a feature of the immune system suddenly finding the key to destroying cancer cells. Or maybe it is caused by changes in hormonal balance. Scientists may not fully understand the reason why some people undergo spontaneous remission, but this is not a reason to jump to conclusions and proclaim that it must be a miracle. Just because something is not understood does not mean that it must be God that is responsible.

We should not chalk up spontaneous remission under the rare unexplainable miracle banner. Instead we should study these cases in an effort to understand how they happen. The rate of spontaneous remission is probably many times larger than many people realise. There would be those who discover a lump in their breast and then a few months later at it spontaneously vanishes without them ever visiting a doctor.

If the medical profession worked out the reasons behind spontaneous remission we could provide these miracles to anybody with cancer.

I haven’t been able to blog for the past week because I’ve been busy setting up my new computer. The excitement of getting a beast of a computer is sort of ruined by the pain of installing all the software, getting all the drivers working and setting the preferences so the computer is just right.

Here is my new computer:

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Intel Core i7-870 CPU
Antec 900 Advanced Gaming Case
4 GB of RAM (needs more, 16 GB maybe)
NVIDIA GTX 295 graphics card
Seagate 1.3 terabyte HDD

A very nice machine.

One good thing about setting up my new computer is it forced me to go through the my documents folder to find what I wanted to keep and wanted to throw away. I have got into the habit of writing comments I leave on other blogs in Word before I submit them. In this way I don’t lose the comment when I accidentally hold down backspace or the cat decides to jump onto the keyboard, but it also allows me to keep a record of comments. Look at these few gems I dug up. I don’t know the blogs I left them on and I don’t know when I left them.

In this one I was obviously having a discussion about the health system with a bunch of libertarians. They believe in a user pays system and that the government should but out on any kind of regulation at all.

Ra, SB, Yobbo,

I have spoken to many people who have lived in the US. Their number-one complaint is the nonexistent public health system. You really want to live in a country where you have a car accident then have many operations to get put back together then receive a $50,000 bill?

You’re a moronic, uncaring fool if you want the same for us.

Yeah I know you’d rather the money spent on public health care went back into your pocket. I don’t know how greedy people like you sleep at night.

I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for our public health system. If you don’t like the way things work in Australia go live somewhere else. We happen to be a caring nation. Deal with it.

Can we still be considered caring with Kevin Rudd’s refugee policy?

This next one is from when I made the mistake of leaving a comment on an ultra-right-wing site. As I found out they don’t like having their views challenged.

“…site for leftoid scumbags or pretentious wannabe intellectuals to strut their pathetic wares.”

The problem for someone like me who visits a site like this is that none of you want to engage in a legitimate discussion. What happens to so many people who have firm views is they engage in personal attacks, instead of defending their views using reason. How can you hope to convince anybody of your beliefs if you are unable to defend them without verbal violence.

Of course all of you are entitled to your opinions and I would fight for your right to have them even though I disagree with them. I believe that opinions should have a firm foundation if they are to mean anything. This means a lot of discussion a lot of thought and argument.

I would really love you guys to make me think. Tell me what is actually wrong with what I have said and why.

See you, I probably won’t be back.

I seem to be really good at getting into fights on my blog. I dared to write a post about the protests in Tibet just before the Chinese Olympics in 2008 and a Chinese person by the name of Yun really didn’t like what I had to say. This started a very heated discussion in this post that just degenerated into pointless insults. I agreed to disagree, but this wasn’t enough for Yun and he started to spam my site with copyrighted material supporting his views. I was forced to ban him.

Yun, you are setting a marvelous example to the rest of the world of the quality of people in China. In case you can’t realize, I’m being sarcastic.

This is my favourite quote of yours, I feel it demonstrates your true character: “I will lay back and enjoy more of the terrorists masterpieces in the years to come. And I will have no sympathy for you westerners at all. YOU GUYS WELL DESERVE IT!” In Mao’s day, they would line someone like you (a nationalist) up next to a mass grave and stick a bullet in the back of your head (see, I can be nasty too).

I hope to hear more from you in the future.

I am a bit ashamed about my reaction. Suggesting that someone deserves a bullet in the back of the head is not a worthy thing for anyone to say. I find it very scary that there are people around with views such as his.

You have no doubt heard about the war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. According to recent reports the Tamil Tigers are all but defeated. Of course this war is taking a terrible toll on the ordinary Tamil population.

Recently, Tamils around the world have been calling for a ceasefire in northern Sri Lanka. Whenever I see these protests on the news there are people holding up a particular flag. Of course all protest groups have flags. A flag represents who you are. But have a close look at the flag of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

There is a fierce tiger in the middle surrounded by a halo of what look like bullets above crossed rifles with bayonets attached. And if this wasn’t enough the background of the flag is red. Which just happens to be the colour of well…. you know.

What is an ordinary person, who knows nothing about the conflict, supposed to think when they see protesters waving a flag such as this? Do they immediately write to their local member and say: please tell the Prime Minister to support a ceasefire? Or instead do they think it is the cynical last gasp of a terrorist organisation? It is beyond ironic that people who wave of flag like this would ask for a ceasefire.

There are many Tamils who are suffering tremendously because of this war. If you want help from the international community you need to persuade them to your cause. A flag of such violent symbolism is not going to convince people that your cause is just.

I was watching 9 a.m. with David and Kim this morning. One of their segments was about whether or not to tell your child when they are diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. This set me thinking about when I was told that I had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

I wish to talk about parents telling their kids that they have been diagnosed with serious conditions, such as cancer, muscular dystrophy, autism and others.

It is an enormous shock to parents when their child receives a serious diagnosis. Many immediately think about how hard it will be to tell their children. Some parents wish to shield their child from the shock of the diagnosis and refuse to let them know. I believe it is the worst thing you can do to your child is not to tell them. Can you imagine how bad it would be to the undergoing treatment and not knowing what you are being treated for? Or be suffering painful symptoms and not knowing why?

Children are a lot tougher than their parents believe. Luckily my parents always kept my brother and I informed on everything that was going on medically. It was a very long time till we were diagnosed. My brother and I knew that something was wrong with us. We weren’t as strong as our friends. In under six basketball we couldn’t throw the ball through the hoop – or even halfway to the hoop. Every other boy and girl I knew my age could at least hit the ring. We weren’t diagnosed for another year.

When we finally were diagnosed our parents told us straight away. My brother and I were immensely relieved we finally knew what was wrong with us. When someone accused me of being weak or lazy I just told them – I have muscular dystrophy. I told all my classmates and they were all very understanding even at the age of eight. I told them it was a genetic disease that you can’t catch.

I believe it is always beneficial to tell your children, of all ages, what is going on. You may think it will be difficult, but children are tougher and smarter than many adults believe. Paediatric doctors and nurses are able to help parents explain a diagnosis at a level the child understands. One thing I’ve noticed (at least with muscular dystrophy) is the younger the child often the better they cope. I believe this might have something to do with young brains being more flexible and able to adapt to new circumstances. In many cases it will be easier to tell your children than it will be to tell the grandparents.

In order to combat the obesity epidemic my brother, Nick, has developed his own weight loss program. This system involves calorie restriction and forced exercise.

Forced exercise is the revolutionary part of the system. Nick Fryer is confined to an electric wheelchair. Luckily Nicks chair is fast and travels at the blistering speed of 14 km an hour – this is faster than any fatty fat fat (FFF) can run. My brother simply grabs his turbocharged superconducting cattle prod and chases them beyond exhaustion. He does this every day until the FFF transforms into a human being and can outrun his wheelchair.

This system does create deep mental scars. This sounds like a bad thing, but is actually good – the victim and by that I mean the patient would rather die than become a FFF a second time.

In summary here are the positives and negatives:

Positives:
· 0% chance of relapse
· You either lose weight or die
Negatives:
· Treatment may be fatal
· Completely unproven
· 100% jocular in nature
· Did I mention this was jocular?
· Classified as cruel and unusual punishment and contrary to the United Nations declaration of human rights

Disclaimer: This post in no way reflects the true beliefs of the author. If you find this offensive please look up jocular in the dictionary.

I was watching Cutting-Edge last night on SBS. It was a documentary called The Medicated Child. It was about the enormous increase in the diagnosis of psychiatric illnesses in young children. And when I say young and I mean young, ages two to four. The documentary mainly focused on children who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder, this used to be known as manic depression, sufferers go through periods of mania and depression.

The thing is all the kids I’ve known do seem to show this kind of behaviour. You give the kid red cordial they go nuts get tired, irritable and begin crying. This is normal behaviour. How the fuck can these so-called psychiatrists determine what is normal childhood behaviour and what is a psychiatric illness? Sounds like an impossible task to me. Some of these kids are put on nine different medications – most have not even been tested sufficiently on children. The studies they do have are nearly always funded by pharmaceutical companies.

I believe the current rise in the number of difficult children probably has a lot to do with what they eat. Highly processed food with lots of sugar, salt and god knows what else probably share some of the responsibility. Parents should avoid buying all those bags of chips, lollies, chocolates and sugary soft drinks – drinking water may be boring, but it is often the best source of hydration.

Another part of the blame properly lies with the fact that often both parents work. Unfortunately, our culture is developed in such a way that parents have no choice but to work lest they default on their mortgage.

I do believe that in some cases medication is the answer. I have taken medication for depression in the past and I think it really did help me. In my case I asked for the medication and was aware of all the side-effects before I began taking it. I don’t feel a child is able to make such a decision. I feel it is bad form for parents to make a decision to medicated child just because the kid is a bit of a handful or even a huge handful. Parenthood can be a very difficult challenging undertaking medication should always be an absolute last resort.

Sometimes, I think some psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies will not be happy until 99% of the population is taking some kind of psychiatric medication. Science-fiction authors such as Larry Niven and Aldous Huxley predicted exactly this. Do we really want to live in a boring brave new world where any deviation from a so-called normality is considered an illness and heavily medicated?

Tim Blair has cancer, as fellow human being I sympathise with him and hope he gets better fast.

Many other bloggers both left and right feel the same way, but some feel it necessary to stoke his ego as well.

Suddenly everyone is his best friend. He is now not only the most popular blogger in Australia, but, “is hands down one of the best bloggers on the planet. His writing is concise, witty, and cuts like a knife. I always get a good chuckle — at the expense of lefties — when I read his stuff. I hope he gets well.”

And, “He is THE voice of reason in a crazy coldening world.” I thought the world was getting hotter…

And there’s more, “For those of you who don’t read him, he is brilliantly witty, and his comment section is hilarious. I’ve never registered to post over there, but I read it when I need a dose of glee.” So you never bothered to write anything about Tim Blair before, but now something has changed?

This downpour of sympathy is making me feel physically ill. Here is a few rules for those that wish to look genuinely sympathetic. Making up lies like you’re his best friend or saying he is the nicest, most talented person you have ever met just makes you look shallow. Try to think of things that are actually true. Such as, he actually responds to e-mails sent to him by readers of his blog. Or the fact that he has one of the highest comment counts then any other blog. Or that he has one of the oldest blogs around.

Remember cancer is one of the most common diseases. I have heard one in three people will suffer it in their lifetimes. Both my parents have had run-ins with this disease. Treatments are now overwhelmingly successful. He will get better and he will get back to blogging, so don’t break your back attempting to be the most sympathetic person in the southern hemisphere.

On Monday the 12th of November, I was booked in for a sleep study, at the Austin Hospital. A sleep study basically involves them sticking electrodes all over your body mainly on your face, the electrical signals received during your sleep are recorded onto a computer and then analyzed by a physiotherapist.

I was to under go this torturous ordeal to monitor the quality of my sleep. I use a ventilator to help me breathe during the night, and the sleep study is to determine how well my ventilator is performing and whether any changes need to be made.

I was very reluctant to have the sleep study, for a number of reasons. The main one being someone adjusting my ventilator settings with out my approval. This has happened to me once before when a nurse got to arrogant and too clever for my own good. The nurse adjusted a setting called tidal volume which regulates the size of each breath. When this is set too high air gets forced into your stomach, and you blow up like a balloon, vomit and get violent diarrhea and horrible stomach pain.

As it turns out my worries were totally justified, as I was starting the study I noticed the technician looking at my ventilator settings and I thought I saw her altering the settings, I asked her if she changed them and she goes “oh no”. The fucking lying Bitch altered my tidal volume and by the morning I was blown up like a fucking balloon.

You must realize how serious this could pretentiously be, I have Muscular Dystrophy and a lot of people with my condition have serious heart problems and numerous other issues. The trauma of this could result I in the death of someone. Many of the people under going sleep studies are extremely unwell and to treat ventilator settings so casually is extremely negligent.

This gets back to the basic problems of our medical profession, the medical profession is arrogant and does not communicate well with patients and other hospitals. A life saving treatment offered in one hospital goes completely unnoticed by other hospitals resulting in needless deaths each year. The odds of your surviving a hospital visit can be directly determined by which hospital you are taken too. Theses are things that the medical profession sweep under the carpet.

This may sound overly dramatic but I am sure you know at least one person who has been victim of a hospital fuck up. Thousands of people each year are needlessly effected by medical mistakes and I think it is time that someone had a serious look at our medical profession in it’s entirety.

Nick Fryer

Apparently, this guy was told he had bowel cancer and was given three months to live. The next day, he told his family, and soon after tried to commit suicide. Luckily, his wife found him and saved his life. A week later he found out that his bowel wall sample was mixed up with somebody else’s, and that he was fine.

This poor guy is scarred for life, but really think about it. We are all dying. Every day we wake up and we are a day closer to our funeral. Death is an everyday thing. You may think that I should shut the fuck up, but consider this. I’ve been told I was going to die more than once, I’ve been given a couple of weeks. Do I kill myself? Do I give up? No! I get a second opinion. This guy needs to harden the fuck up.

Some people would consider such an event, a positive thing, because it allows them to find out what means most to them in life. Nothing makes your life brighter than finding out you were going to live after thinking you are going to die. This guy should grab this gift with both hands, but instead, he lets it ruin his life.