What are the risks of smoking after an aorta and valve heart operation?
Having had a valve and part of her aorta replaced already, it's safe to say that your mother has valvular heart disease. She also has weak arterial tissue in her aorta, which may predispose her to other arterial abnormalities (in the rest of her aorta, in her brain, etc...). Because she has a mechanical valve, she's required to be on anticoagulation therapy to prevent blood clots, which can lead to stroke or heart attack; it's very important that she take care to always be properly anticoagulated. All that said, smoking cigarettes is known to cause coronary heart disease, stroke, narrowing of the blood vessels, and abdominal aortic aneurysms. These are all conditions she is already predisposed to because she has arterial tissue disease and valvular heart disease and a mechanical prosthetic valve. Obviously, smoking, which is a hazard for anyone, is a monumentally bad idea for your mom. Encourage her to seek help with her addiction to cigarettes. She must stop smoking. In the meantime, impress upon her the importance of proper anticoagulation therapy management. It is important for anyone with a mechanical valve; it is even more important for someone who is magnifying their risk by smoking. She might want to consider home testing for her INR as that has been demonstrated to be the most effective tool for proper management. It might also help her to feel more invested in her medical management overall.
Feces: Why does my poop always clog toilets, and what can I do about it?
It was a baseball trip in 10th grade. Our bathroom was being used, so I went to the coach's bathroom and used his. It came out like a solid piece of chunked rebar. I courtesy flushed to be safe. It went down then got stuck in the S tube or something. I then grabbed one piece of TP to wipe, but it came back clean which made sense as the poop was not soft but hard and dense. I put my pants back on and now had to find a solution to my problem.I plunged for over 10 minutes when I heard my coach yell and storm in to demand what I was doing in his bathroom. At this time, several other players had come and were gathered around the bathroom. One of my teammates was convinced I was bad at plunging and wanted to try his hand at it. He plunged a little bit and said it needed to be flushed again. With a look back of satisfaction, he flushed. Then with a look back of terror, he backed away from the water overflowing over the whole bathroom.At this point my teammate started swearing and trudging around in the water plunging like a maniac. Finally my coach had enough. He put on his shoes, took the plunger out of my teammate's hands, and start plunging himself. He was splashing water everywhere with the amount of pressure he plunged with.In the end we called the front desk and our coach switched rooms with another down the hall.Some techniques I employ these days include eating less fiber and flushing during the bowel movement. To this day, I still occasionally flush a poop with enough density to not make it past the S tube. The solution to this problem has forever eluded me. My workaround is to go more often before the fecal matter reaches critical density.
What causes abnormally big stools?
There are a couple of ways it can be answered.If it is big in terms of width and also difficult to pass, yes probably constipation.If it is just really long and still difficult to pass, still probably constipation.If it is either of those and easy to pass, it may just be a large amount of food eaten, possibly with a little constipation too.Eating plenty of fibre will add bulk to stools, but a lack of fluids will make it difficult to pass which is possibly the problem.You should drink around 2 litres of water a day, in small amounts throughout the day and get plenty of fibre too. This would add the bulk which makes it easier to pass and the water will make it easier to pass too.Certain medications can cause constipation too, like certain painkillers which have codeine in them.If it becomes a problem, seek medical advice.Hope this helps
Why can't the US have draconian drug laws like Singapore?
Some reasons:Libertarians - The US has a very strong libertarian bent.Suspicion of the Government - A significant number of Americans are suspicious of their own government. This is manifested by prepers who prepare for the collapse of the world etc. They have their own network and websites.Convoluted Political Process - This prevents passing of nationally important laws e.g. health care, gun control, environmental protection etc.Lobby Groups - There are powerful lobby groups.Porous Borders - US territory is large and impossible to police.It can be argued that such laws like drug control, gun control, universal healthcare would be in the interest of Americans. However, it’s hard to see this happening.Just my 2 cents :-)
Have you ever pooped so much you caused the toilet to clog?
Yes, many times. Even more now that low flow toilets are the law. I find that when I know my ‘movement’ is going to be large, I start the toilet flush as I ‘let go.’ It can help prevent a clog.Yes, I know. TMI. But, for many of us, this is our life.I developed a distended bowel from a TOS (Thoracic Outlet Syndrome)/back injury. This slowed the large intestine muscle system so it would get bloated. Clogged a lot of toilets.Learning to unclog a toilet is important. We have a accordion style plunger. Rather than long forceful pushes on the handle, I get the bowl almost full of water and push the plunger down until all of the air has bubbled out. Then, I make fast short strokes to get the water to pulse. This will clear the toilet clog. It may require a flush to refill the toilet with water to repeat this action.I stopped using the old school style plunger. I cannot make the quick short strokes with it.This kind.Not this kind.
Why do porcupines float?
Since porcupines can float... ... ... Do they actually like water? Can they swim? Has anyone ever actually thrown a porcupine in the water to see it float?
Was the city of ancient Rome as big as they made it in the movies?
No, not even close. Ancient Rome was roughly 7 square miles, tiny compared to any modern metropolis. Likewise, all the buildings, like the Colosseum in Gladiator pictured above were not nearly as large as shown on the silver screen. The huge throngs of people are quite accurate however; Rome usually had roughly 1 million inhabitants, making it as dense as a large Asian city like Hong Kong, but without the benefit of skyscrapers to store people in. Instead, large families often had to share cramped apartments the size of a small bedroom in the modern world. This created the perfect conditions for rampant disease and a murder rate that at even lower end estimates is higher than that in just about any third world slum.Directors have to romanticize and exaggerate ancient cities for a reason. People in the 21st century have a hard time grasping how far their civilization has come in the last 2,000+ years. Stuff has to be exaggerated to really get audiences to feel the awe an ancient person might have felt. This can be seen in pretty much any movie about the past like 2004’s Troy. Besides the part where all these 1000 BC Greeks are pale and blonde hair with blue eyes like Brad Pitt, the scale is so much more massive than it would have been. In that era, a 15 foot pile of bricks would count as a huge stone wall. But this reality would be disappointing to modern audiences which live in a world of advanced engineering and great populations.This is even more egregious when it applies to anything in Ancient Egypt. Humans have the same clever brains whether they lived in 3000 BC or in 2017 but those ancient humans just didn’t have as large a talent pool to pick from or as much accumulated knowledge to build grand cities. Large cities at the time had perhaps 20,000 inhabitants, something which in the modern world wouldn’t even come close to qualifying them for a spot on a world map. And they would be small in size befitting their small populations. Again, reality would have disappointed, so instead, movies opt to create exaggerated grandeur.