The terrorist inside my husband's brain • Hacker News Board

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#31

Post by RodericDay » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:15 PM UTC

im4w1l wrote: post #30

guelo wrote: post #26

A common failing I've noticed in complicated multi-symptom diagnoses like this disease is that doctors tend to treat each symptom individually instead of trying to connect the dots of all the symptoms. As a programmer used to debugging complicated systems it makes no sense, my first inclination when multiple things popup at the same time is to look for the underlying root cause.

Systems programmed by humans typically have coding standards. The human body on the other hand has been haphazardly developed over billions of years by the principle quick hack on top of quick hack on top of quick hack. It's a complete mess of spaghetti code where anything that happens is the result of dozens of sub-systems trying to invoke or override each other.

I like to keep that in mind when I consider what kind of solutions machine-learning will bring us, what kinda processes will be going on under the hood.

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#32

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:16 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #26

A common failing I've noticed in complicated multi-symptom diagnoses like this disease is that doctors tend to treat each symptom individually instead of trying to connect the dots of all the symptoms. As a programmer used to debugging complicated systems it makes no sense, my first inclination when multiple things popup at the same time is to look for the underlying root cause.

[deleted]

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#33

Post by HSO » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:19 PM UTC

This is obviously painful for the family and the fans, and I hope my words are not taken in the wrong way.

But I really wish Americans (and yes, I think it's mostly Americans who have this tendency) would choose their words more carefully.

If I am not mistaken, we are talking about a disease. What makes the analogy to "terrorism" apt here?

For a while, everything seemed to be a "war" ("war on drugs", "war on crime", "war on bla"…). Now, everything that inflicts pain and trauma, it seems, is "terrorism".

This may not be the right occasion to complain about this. But at the time of reading, it is top of the list at HN and this kind of conflation really bothers me. Words still have meaning, one would hope, the sad Zeitgeist of our time notwithstanding.

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#34

Post by gilaniali » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:19 PM UTC

It is astounding that someone with the resources to pay for the best medical care was unable to arrive at the correct diagnosis. As we move towards AI assisted diagnoses, hopefully such suffering can be mitigated.

Do neurologists follow checklists when diagnosing symptoms? Will this case change their procedures going forward?

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#35

Post by gotts » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:20 PM UTC

This reminded me of a "My Beautiful Broken Brain" documentary.

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#36

Post by dsego » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:22 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #26

A common failing I've noticed in complicated multi-symptom diagnoses like this disease is that doctors tend to treat each symptom individually instead of trying to connect the dots of all the symptoms. As a programmer used to debugging complicated systems it makes no sense, my first inclination when multiple things popup at the same time is to look for the underlying root cause.

I think the old "if all you have is a hammer.." applies here. My father is now being treated for dementia, unknown cause, but they suspect Alzheimer's. Several months ago he was hospitalised after a psychotic break. When he was being admitted, I told the psychiatrist about my late grandfather's dementia but it went unnoticed. After several months of antipsychotics (which did remove the delusions) and antidepressants his condition did not improve. In the end she finally ordered brain scans and performed a full barrage of blood tests and a neurological assessment to discover there is brain sclerosis.

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#37

Post by Cyph0n » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:23 PM UTC

im4w1l wrote: post #30

guelo wrote: post #26

A common failing I've noticed in complicated multi-symptom diagnoses like this disease is that doctors tend to treat each symptom individually instead of trying to connect the dots of all the symptoms. As a programmer used to debugging complicated systems it makes no sense, my first inclination when multiple things popup at the same time is to look for the underlying root cause.

Systems programmed by humans typically have coding standards. The human body on the other hand has been haphazardly developed over billions of years by the principle quick hack on top of quick hack on top of quick hack. It's a complete mess of spaghetti code where anything that happens is the result of dozens of sub-systems trying to invoke or override each other.

And the origin of the original quick hack is still unknown because there was no version control at the time of the Cambrian explosion.

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#38

Post by medion » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:26 PM UTC

This piece was particularly haunting for me, having watched my father go through almost the exact same thing, including the PD diagnosis, lots of confusion about what was wrong with him, etc.

LBD is a horrific - the hallucinations are utterly terrifying to watch someone go through. My father did not commit suicide, however I have often thought that I wish he had, his decline has been so rapid and horrible - witnessing his fear has been torturous - today he cannot move or talk, and is barely conscious, it is simply a matter of time until something like pneumonia will take his life. His symptoms started at age 58.

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#39

Post by wreft » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:29 PM UTC

HSO wrote: post #33

This is obviously painful for the family and the fans, and I hope my words are not taken in the wrong way. But I really wish Americans (and yes, I think it's mostly Americans who have this tendency) would choose their words more carefully. If I am not mistaken, we are talking about a disease . What makes the analogy to "terrorism" apt here? For a while, everything seemed to be a "war" ("war on drugs", "war on crime",…

"the sad Zeitgeist of our time notwithstanding"

This sounds like one of those sentences that sound deep but don't mean anything. Can you explain?

Re: The terrorist inside my husband's brain

#40

Post by _petronius » Sat, Oct 01, 2016, 10:30 PM UTC

HSO wrote: post #33

This is obviously painful for the family and the fans, and I hope my words are not taken in the wrong way. But I really wish Americans (and yes, I think it's mostly Americans who have this tendency) would choose their words more carefully. If I am not mistaken, we are talking about a disease . What makes the analogy to "terrorism" apt here? For a while, everything seemed to be a "war" ("war on drugs", "war on crime",…

There's a really amazing book by Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor (and a followup she wrote in the late 80s called "AIDs and its metaphors") which talks about this need to speak about disease as a conflict or fight, or as a foreign invasion or corruption. It's a fascinating book also because it compares the 20th century ways of talking (or not talking) about cancer with how tuberculosis was discussed in the 19th century and before, and both the differences and similarities, especially with regard to a different understanding of how disease operates.

People conceptualize their own illness in very different ways. An author I very much respect, Jenny Diski, died recently, and in her final series of essays about her life and her cancer (and impending death), she said at one point, “under no circumstances is anyone to say that I lost a battle with cancer, or that I bore it bravely. I am not fighting, losing, winning, or bearing.”