Tony has pulled through a tough operation with admirable courage.
Now in possession of a shunt (there's a better picture on another site, but it's too detailed for the Wildcat and others concerned) and "a bloody turban round my head", he's also bored already, but has retained his considerable sense of humour. Even with regard to the very first boudin noir (black pudding) he felt compelled to eat rather than contemplate with mild distaste on the plate of barbarians like me.
zzz
To finish with my own woes, this afternoon's session with Yang was far better than the last, which is another way of saying that I hope I took what the doctor had to say far more constructively than last week.
Before laying off, I'd merely add that it led to several hours' serious inspection of medical websites, mainly in a successful hunt for the many things they don't tell you in the leaflets that come with the drugs in many a bathroom cabinet.
This led to a close look at the key role played by the neurotransmitter serotonin in brain chemistry and moods. The clearest explanation I found outside the scientific papers came from Philadelphia biomedical writer Carol Hart. She's written a whole book about it, 'The Secrets of Serotonin' (St Martin's Press, 1996), with a chapter from it on her own website, describing "how one little molecule can do so much".
As an incidental sidenote, my eye was briefly caught by an abstract on "romantic love, the serotonin transporter and OCD" (obsessive-compulsive disorder) at what turned out to be a most interesting place: 'The Good Drug Guide' (biopsychiatry.com).
The most frightening thing I learned was how freely available mind-altering drugs, a number of which have been prescribed to me in the past, have become for purchase on the internet, no questions asked.
In my case, those most liberally handed out by doctors in France and in the United States were a bad idea. Today's browsing has told me why. Since the focus of treatment for the Condition looks increasingly like moving from the guts up into my head, I want to know exactly what's going into that chemistry and how it works.
And finally on the subject, "alternative" medicine is on the cards too, to answer a question I've frequently been asked. It was ruled out during the tests but no longer, now they're done.
11:25:52 PM link 
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