BOOK REVIEW: MARIA KIMINTA’S FIGHT AGAINST FGM

Maria Kiminta’s personal account, Kiminta: A Maasai’s Fight against Female Genital Mutilation, is a survivor memoir which reveals her genital mutilation and her comprehensive range of vision on FGM in an audacious, argumentative, and persuasive fashion. It lucidly and pragmatically recounts her first-hand experiences as a Maasai FGM survivor; thus, it is an essential memoir on FGM advocating the global movement to eradicate the horrendous practice. The memoir is also significant in that it renders the readers the resources/arguments to realize the violence and depth of excruciating pain on female sex, to understand “loss to development as a whole” (Kiminta 2015: 44), and to support the movement. Her memoir focuses on a pivotal stage of her life, that is, her clitoridectomy and her holistic findings related to FGM as part of her anti-FGM activism in Germany. Her simultaneous placing of arguments and counter arguments to justify her claims/arguments with fact/data enables her to achieve an objective tone in her memoir. In so doing, she indistinctly divides the memoir into seven parts, such as her clitoridectomy at the age of ten in Kenya, causes behind FGM practice, strategies to execute FGM, impacts of FGM, points of claim and counter claim, hindrances to implementation of anti-FGM Acts, and her recommendations.

A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW ON APANGA MARMA

The concept of marma is one of the unique principles mentioned in ancient Ayurvedic texts. Marma are the vital sites in the body where there is confluence of mamsa, sira, snayu, asthi and sandhi where prana resides. These generate the symptoms from excruciating pain to fatal effect when exposed to trauma. Ancient ayurvedic seers have mentioned 107 such vital areas in the body. Apanga marma is one among them, present in the head region, at the area outer to lateral canthus and below the tail end of eyebrow within half angula dimension. It is a vaikalyakara marma and results in blindness or visual impairment on injury. Knowledge of marma is very important in clinical field in preventing the complications during the surgical and parasurgical procedures. Details are collected from ayurvedic texts and published papers aiming to provide a comprehensive overview on Apanga marma.

Aetiology of Neuropathic Pain (NP) Along with Role of Gabapentinoids Like Pregabalin and Gabapentin in Treating the Excruciating Pain Besides Other Newer Alternatives-a Systematic Review

Neuropathic pain (NP) by definition is a problem that involves the somatosensory system either as a manifestation as disease or as a lesion. Lot of differing causes either of central/peripheral origin can stimulate NP and that might affect life’s quality badly. Worldwide prevalence of NP varies from 6.9-10% with spinal cord injury (SCI) explaining 40% of them. The 2nd commonest cause is diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) that accounts for 22-28% of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). After having reviewed thoroughly how to manage diabetic neuropathic pain here we decided to conduct a systematic review on varying causes of NP and the role of gabapentenoids in managing the excruciating pain. Besides newer opioid analogues not having addictive potential like fentanyl matrix with its availability in intradermal formulations, delta opioid receptor agonist BBI-11008, an innovative analog N-(1-benzylpiperidin-4-yl)-4-fluorobenzamide (LMH2), that is like haloperidol, along with advantages of Gabapentin-ER as well as therapy of trigeminal neuralgia with anticonvulsants like carbamazepine and use in Immunotherapy utilizing 14,18 anti GD2 antibody (ch14.18) associated excruciating pain and in Meralgia paraesthetica (MP) is discussed besides alternative therapies when gabapentenoids fail.

Azadi: Partition Holocaust

Chaman Nahal’s Azadi, concludes on a note of forgiveness as the only means through which Indians can recover their sanity. And Lala Kanshi Ram, the protagonist of the novel, feels that to live at peace with oneself, one must cease to hate and learn to forgive. Thus humanism is very transparent in Nahal’s Novels. Azadi by Chaman Nahal accepts the partition as a fact, an inevitable happening and he does not blame anybody for the partition but he effectively showcases the excruciating pain, repercussions after independence in 1947 and halocaust experienced by people around.

Reduced Pain Reports With Increasing Cognitive Impairment in Older Persons in New Zealand

Background: Conflicting findings prevail about pain in older persons with cognitive impairment. There is evidence of changed pain perception; however, pain is also underrecognized. Pain and cognitive impairment were examined in a national cohort of older persons assessed using the Home Care International Residential Assessment Instrument (interRAI-HC). Methods: Participants were 41 459 aged 65+ years receiving a mandated needs assessment to access publicly funded services. InterRAI-HC pain severity and Cognitive Performance Scale analyses covaried for age, gender, and ethnicity. Results: Milder pain prevalence increased with age, whereas daily severe-excruciating pain prevalence decreased with age. Daily severe-excruciating pain was reported by 18% of cognitively intact individuals decreasing to 8% in the severe cognitive impairment group. This relationship remained after covarying for age, sex, and ethnicity. Differences among dementia subtypes were found. Conclusion: Although severe pain reports decrease with increasing age and cognitive impairment, more nuanced research covarying for dementia severity and subtype is required.

Last Days

Ovshinsky’s life and work was celebrated at an early ninetieth birthday party on September 2, 2012, a joyous event attended by some 300 guests and family members, where many speakers paid tribute to his achievements. He had, up to that point continued to work on his ambitious gigawatt solar energy project, and also took a number of adventurous trips with Rosa and other family members. But his health had been declining for some months earlier, and after the party it deteriorated rapidly. He suffered excruciating pain and was finally diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer. It was too late for anything but palliative care in hospice, and on October 17 he died, surrounded by family members. Mourned by many, Ovshinsky was buried beside Iris in the Akron Workmen’s Circle cemetery.