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Archive for the ‘Newsy Guts’ Category

Wonder in Our Hearts

Posted: Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Despite a handful of Charlie Brown moments, we had a delightful time at Wondercon in San Francisco, thanks to a little help from my friends. Special thanks to Aimee, Russ, Nancy, Katie, Tiffany and Robyn for jumping in to help me with booth and baby at the show. We got to meet tons of great people, including organ-loving chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto/Boccalone fame, he presented us with I <3 Offal stickers and told us all about the organ meat you can’t eat (apparently you cannot legally consume lungs and mammary glands because they cannot be properly inspected by the FDA). Author Michael Chabon stopped by the guts booth with his family, zombie expert and “World War Z” author Max Brooks gave our guts a shout-out from his panel, and Princess Leia liked our lungs. As usual, we heard inspiring tales from people — one woman who bought a plush ovary was going to get her tubes un-tied following the passing of one of her children (we wish you all the luck in the world, nice lady!). Another lady bought a Liver Not a Fighter shirt for her four year old son who’d had a liver transplant when he was just two years old (and he’s still going strong!). Wrenching and incredible. We have to apologize once more to Judith and Ashley, to whom we promised Wondercon passes after they won our Facebook contest encouraging people to share weird body part stories. We usually get 10 passes, but they cut that number down to 4 this year, so those passes evaporated on the spot and we still feel horrible about it! So sorry ladies, will you ever forgive us?

Our Daily Meds

Posted: Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Check out the daily doses of meds by a bunch of different post-op transplant recipients, who must take pills by the bucketload to keep their bodies from rejecting the donor organs. This here is Jaden with the medications he must take daily for the rest of this life (he had a liver transplant six months ago). Other absolutely fascinating photos posted on The Waiting List’s Facebook page.

Mind Your Heart

Posted: Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

If you’ve ever felt like following your heart instead of your head, there’s a good reason why — our hearts might be a lot smarter than we give them credit. Listen to this fascinating BBC story about how some cells in the heart may have memory and store emotions. Shortly after she received a heart transplant, one woman suddenly started to feel like February 17th was a very important date. She later discovered that was her donor’s birthday — an important day, indeed. Learn more about why the heart is smart.

More Than M*A*S*H

Posted: Monday, October 18th, 2010

Being an army medic must be like working in an emergency room on steroids. The chaotic lives of medics working in Iraq are brought into sharp relief by the photographs of James Natchwey, who began chronicling injuries from the war after he was injured there in 2003. This truly remarkable series of black and white pictures, called The Sacrifice, is on view at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles as part of an exhibit of incredible documentary photography called Engaged Observers. Natchwey’s photographs are striking in that they are gorgeous and utterly disturbing all at once. Shown together, they paint a devastating portrait of modern war injuries and the men and women who help heal them.

License to Ill

Posted: Thursday, October 14th, 2010

We had no idea that Beastie Boys’ member Adam Yauch aka MCA had parotid gland cancer, but we sure are glad to hear the news that his salivary glands are winning the battle against the disease. The cancer had spread to his lymph nodes, a scary progression for any cancer, but is in remission. {Consequence of Sound via Spinner.com}

Bloody Hell

Posted: Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Much like our own Black Heart, but probably much gorier — Saw in 3D. Eccch. {via Street Anatomy}

Jelly Brains

Posted: Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Just when you thought you couldn’t take another earnest medical drama, along comes Adult Swim’s new series “Children’s Hospital,” a fabulously demented and sick (in a good way) parody of the doctor drama genre. Don’t let the blood-stained scrubs on that clown and Henry Winkler cameo fool you — it’s not kid-friendly.

Print Me a Liver

Posted: Monday, August 9th, 2010

So they can print blood vessels now — but how about hearts? It could be coming sooner than you think. Wired magazine has a great photo essay covering company Organo’s fascinating bioprinting business. The printed veins will soon undergo testing in animals, and later, clinical trials in humans. Amazing stuff! Photo by Dave Bullock/Wired.com.

Comic Con Scene

Posted: Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Some photographic highlights from Comic Con: As you may or may not know, San Diego Comic Con International is something like a geek Halloween, where everyone dresses up as their favorite characters. We loved this cute manga-esque nurse with pink hair (we forget the name of the actual character — anyone?); a dude dressed up as a Transformer by scrawling “Optimus Prime” on a box and tossing it onto his body; and this scary doctor figure who threatened to tear our hearts out (also not sure who this character is…).
Also on hand at the Con were lots and lots of cute things, like these new plushes from So So Happy; my baby daughter sleeping atop the I Heart Guts t-shirt table, (okay, I am a little biased, of course, about her cuteness), who was a real trooper in the booth; and of course the colorful Ugly Dolls booth!
And of course there were guts! The DKE Toys booth showed off prototypes of our new Huge Heart (see the liver next to it to see the scale), I met the pimpingest Darth Vader and Boba Fett ever, and there’s our display of plushes on the right. I was lucky enough to have help in the booth from some of my dearest friends, Shelayna, Chuva and Pollyanna, so we had a grand ol’ time talking to people, selling guts, and handing around the baby. The Chronicle Books booth honored our Spill Your Guts journal and mix and match stationery set by placing it between their awesome unicorn journal and Porn for Women. We were also flattered to be called “the coolest booth at Comic Con” by G4 TVs Alison Haislip. Yay!

Lungs at Work

Posted: Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Thousands of hearts and minds — and lungs — will be won at the U.S. Transplant Games, which begin tomorrow in Madison, Wisconsin. The games were started by the National Kidney Foundation, but double-lung transplant, bone marrow and heart recipients will compete in sports ranging from badminton to basketball to track and field. More from the Washington Post. {photo Nhat V. Meyer/San Jose Mercury News}

 
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