Thank you, readers, for your interest in and queries about fistulae. If you were too fearful to look at the pictures, I will simply say that a fistula is a complication of Crohn's disease in which a hole forms in the intestinal wall, often leading to some other body part.

Here's something else that's gross: The Chicago River is the cleanest it's been in decades. However, 60% of its flow consists of treated industrial and sewage wastewater.

I read so much health stuff for work that my brain is overflowing with random facts from clinical studies. Sometimes when I'm trying to sleep all the facts start swarming around in my head, chattering and mating with each other. Last Saturday I was out at Guenther Murphy's, a most excellent bar, and someone mentioned a little girl who was just diagnosed with epilepsy. Despite my many Guinesses, all the facts related to epilepsy swooped down and proclaimed themselves:

OK to swim if supervised . . .Girls should be prescribed lamotrigine or carbamazepine, not valproate or phenytoin, because the latter two cause birth defects and 50% of women with epilepsy (WWE) remain on their first antiepileptic drug (AED) for life. . . but an acne-like skin condition caused by lamotrigine is more likely in children. . . strongly correlated with depression and suicide. . . Certain AEDs can also be used to treat . . .

It goes on and on and on! 

¶ 1:01 PM