Zeugma

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	13.1	13-17	^
Platelets	192	140-375	^
ANC	3850	1800-8300	^

"The young woman, feeling she had been thoroughly humiliated, left  in a huff and a pink Cadillac." This is an example of zeugma (pronounced zoyg-muh). Whogma? Zeugma! The word comes from a Greek vowel meaning "to join." The idea is "the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words usually in such a manner that it applies to each word in a different sense. (as "opened" in "opened the door and her heart to the stray kitten")" The Merriam Webster Dictionary goes on to state: "Zeugma, like the pun, is economical: it contracts two sentences into one . . . it links unrelated terms - mental with moral, abstract with physical, high with low - and thus generates surprise."*

All of my life I have been fascinated by words and languages. Not only words but the sounds of words. Snollygoster is a good example of the latter. It sounds funny. It's fun to say. And in those regards, it seems to me not to fit its meaning: "a shrewd, unprincipled person." That makes it even more fun. The word apparently comes from snallygaster, a mythical beast that preys on poultry and children. **

In high school, I studied German and Russian, and in college I added Japanese to the pair. Later, anticipating a trip to Brazil, I gave myself a crash course in Portuguese. Prior to choosing my profession in dentistry, my college major was English Literature, and I had in mind to study linguistics in graduate school. Until, that is, I realized that pursuing such trifling matters would most likely see me tramping through the jungles of Viet Nam. Dentistry was a more practical choice for a career, if not as much fun. At least I got a 4D deferment.

Language is everywhere; sign language, body language, computer language, and of course, the myriad spoken languages, to name a few. "Currently, Ethnologue reports that there are 7,151 recognized [spoken] languages in use, which are distinct from pidgins and creoles.*** 

Where did they all come from? According to the Bible:

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³ And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” ⁵ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” ⁸ So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused^[a] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:1-9)

I believe the Lord had a twofold purpose in confusing the language of the people. First, He knew that man's heart is "...deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) And what's worse than one man with a deceitful, sick heart? A bunch of people with deceitful, wicked hearts. God would not allow all of mankind to have free reign to wreak havoc with impunity (that's why He brought the flood). To do so would have allowed them to believe they were invincible, with no need for God. It would lead to their destruction. By confusing the language, He reduced the size and therefore the power of each language group, leaving them with less power to pursue their deceitful ways. 

The second reason for the confusion of languages was, I believe, so that people groups who shared a common language would tend to flock together, and thus they would need to spread out over the surface of the earth. God had told mankind to be fruitful and multiply and to subdue the earth. (Genesis 1:28) After Noah's flood, the family of man was centrally located in what we call the Middle East. If they continued to be fruitful and multiply there, they would soon be overcrowded and turn on one another over the lack of land and resources. It was necessary for them to find new lands and new resources and make use of (subdue) them. 

The Bible doesn't specify how many languages God gave mankind at that time, but four of the largest families of languages are: Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, Sino-Tibetan and Niger-Congo. If you notice that these language families correspond to various geographical regions, you will see that God's plan to spread people out has worked pretty well. 

Is it any wonder I am fascinated by the many means by which people communicate. What do the nod of a head, a computer program, the singing of a song, or the sound of a jungle drum have in common? They are all ways of communicating something to another human being. And in some cases language goes beyond human communication.  Here is a fun video of a dog that allegedly understands 1,022 human words. I'm pretty sure no dog I ever owned understood that many words, or if they did, none of them ever obeyed more than a handful of them! 

During the past three plus years, as Jill and I have focused on my AML and how to live with/manage/defeat it, we have learned more medical terminology (language) than we ever dreamed we would, or for that matter cared to learn. And now a new word has taken the forefront. Ferritin. "Iron is a mineral you get from food, while ferritin is a blood protein that stores iron."**** Mine is too high. While the standard range for ferritin is 35-463, mine as of a week ago, was 1,334! Just when we thought everything was perfect, too. I guess I will at least save money on Geritol!

The problem with high ferritin is that eventually it can cause problems with various organs, chiefly heart, liver and skin. So, what to do, what to do. Dr. Brow sent me a note yesterday that said she has a box of leeches that should do the job nicely. Well, that is a bit of a stretch. (There I go enjoying language again.) What she really said is that there are two ways of reducing ferritin levels. First, it can be managed with medication, a process called chelation. These drugs chemically bind to the iron so the body can excrete it, instead of store it. 

The second method of treating high ferritin counts is phlebotomy, or removing blood from the body (leeches, more or less!). This is a process with which I am all too familiar. See the Box Score at the top of this post? Those numbers come from phlebotomy. That is, some of my blood is removed from my body (about 5-10 milliliters (ml), or one to two teaspoons) so that it can be tested for various things. I currently have such a blood draw once a month for testing. The phlebotomy Dr. Brow is suggesting involves removing 500ml (a little over a pint) every two weeks for several months. The result is that my body will need to make more blood cells and will call on the iron reserves stored by means of ferritin accumulation to supply iron to make hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying component of red blood cells. If you will imagine yourself going to the Red Cross every two weeks to donate blood, you will get a rough idea of what this all entails. 

So, where did all of this iron come from? I am told it is likely the result of many, many transfusions I have had during the course of my leukemia treatment. Kind of ironic, isn't it! I got a bunch of blood put into my body, because my body was not making enough on its own due to chemotherapy. Now I need to start giving up my blood, because while my blood cells were dying, apparently the iron they would have used up was being carefully stored away, combined to ferritin proteins. It is one more instance of God's providence that he has enabled the human body to store various life sustaining entities for use when they are scarce (think of how we store fat to provide energy, when other sources are depleted). 

And so, the saga continues. My only real concern about the phlebotomy is the obvious one. Have you ever given blood? They usually take about a pint, and afterward you feel a bit woozy, due to reduced hemoglobin to carry oxygen to your tissues. It takes a while for the body to replace that blood, maybe about two weeks. At which point, I will give another pint. Unless I miss my guess, that blood can't be used to help others in need, because of my history of leukemia. I don't know that for sure, but I will inquire. If it can be used, I am only too glad to give it for the use of others in need. God knows, I am deeply in debt to others for their generous donations. 

The old man, having given a pint of blood, left the clinic in a woozy condition and a Honda! 

Zeugma!

*https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zeugma

**https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snollygoster

*** https://www.worldatlas.com/society/how-many-languages-are-there-in-the-world.html

****https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ferritin-blood-test