RERUN: FRONTLINE'S REPORT ON CTE

PBS ran part one of Frontline's report on CTE and the history of its discovery.  It is really a great report, one that pulls no punches.  Worth seeing again (and again)!

This is definitely something to have in one's personal collection/library.  As always I would like to see the connection made between head injuries and acquired hydrocephalus.

I'm sure that this is being shown again since the movie based on Dr. Omalu's work is coming out soon.  It wasn't lost on me that Dr. Omalu did an interview on GMA around the same time.

I disagree that football is going to be killed off by the publicity/awareness.  There will always be those who don't believe that CTE is a real risk for themselves or their children--no matter what.  Just as there will always be those parents who don't believe that there is an increased risk for their 4 year olds in playing pee-wee football.  There will also be those cheerleaders, soccer players, etc. who won't believe that any of this would/could ever happen to them.

Operation Wild--PBS

The PBS series, Operation Wild is great, in general. However, last night's episode was particularly interesting. They profiled a Sun Bear in Laos who has hydrocephalus! Vets & a team of specialists installed a shunt. I was a bit surprised that they didn't use a programmable, to minimize the invasive surgeries in the future. It also would have been easier on everyone, including the Sun Bear, to simply make most changes to a programmable shunt, as opposed to the invasive procedure with the 'old fashioned' shunt they used. I watched w/one of our group's members & it was great being able to identify with everything the team was doing! I'm sure we'll discuss this at Saturday's meeting.

Being Mortal

I saw Being Mortal on Frontline last night. Fascinating piece! Very interesting. They had one patient who had a terminal brain tumor. You could see the impact on him over the time they did the series of interviews with him. One thing they mentioned was his intercranial pressure and the fact that he had repeated lumbar punctures (lps). It seemed odd to me that they didn't put in a programmable shunt. It would have allowed the doctors to monitor his condition as well as relieving pressure in a much simpler, less stressful way--for the patient. It was an excellent piece.

PBS: Frontline Rerunning 'A League of Denial'

Just heard that Frontline is going to be rerunning the documentary about CTE, 'A League Of Denial'.  It is an excellent piece about the growing body of information about CTE, resulting in large part from concussions during contact sports--like football.  Definitely worth seeing.  Every parent with a child even considering contact sports, at any age, should watch this piece at least once.

Unfortunately, they don't mention other issues, like acquiring hydrocephalus & what that means over the lifetime of someone who has acquired it.  As we always say, every case is unique, but life without it doesn't have nearly the challenges over a lifetime.

This documentary can really open up a vital discussion about head injury in general & how it relates to contact sports specifically.  They also discuss the false sense of security provided by helments & touch on the risks for those who DON'T use helmets--like cheerleaders & soccer players.  Sad to say, one of the shortcomings is that they do talk about the 'right way' to head a ball, which is also simply wrong.  It was long ago proven that heading a ball, especially without a helmet, DOES cause frontal lobe damage.