This is a lick and a promise.....anon, anon
Picked up a few more words in my reading:
squamous adjective: covered with or characterized by scales: a squamous black hide. . Anatomy relating to, consisting of, or denoting a layer of epithelium that consists of very thin flattened cells: squamous cell carcinoma. • [ attrib. ] Anatomy denoting the flat portion of the temporal bone which forms part of the side of the skull. ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin squamosus, from squama ‘scale’.
imbricate chiefly Zoology & Botany verb with obj. ] (usu. as adj.imbricated) arrange (scales, sepals, plates, etc.) so that they overlap like roof tiles: these moulds have spherical bodies composed of imbricated triangular plates. • [ no obj. ] (usu. as adj.imbricating) overlap: a coating of imbricating scales. adjective: (of scales, sepals, plates, etc.) having adjacent edges overlapping. Compare with valvate. DERIVATIVES imbrication noun ORIGIN early 17th cent. (in the sense ‘shaped like a pantile’): from Latin imbricat-,‘covered with roof tiles’, from the verb imbricare, from imbrex, imbric- ‘roof tile’ (from imber ‘shower of rain’).
nebulizer (also nebuliser) noun: a device for producing a fine spray of liquid, used for example for inhaling a medicinal drug. he needs to use a nebulizer to get drugs and oxygen to his lungs. DERIVATIVES nebulize verb ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Latin nebula ‘mist’ + -izer (see -ize) .
oncology noun [ mass noun ] Medicine the study and treatment of tumours. DERIVATIVES oncological adjective oncologist noun
NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH
ontology noun [ mass noun the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being. DERIVATIVES ontological adjective ontologically adverb, ontologist noun ORIGIN early 18th cent.: from modern Latin ontologia, from Greek ōn, ont- ‘being’ + -logy.
necrosis noun [ mass noun ] Medicine the death of most or all of the cells in an organ or tissue due to disease, injury, or failure of the blood supply. DERIVATIVES necrotic |-ˈkrɒtɪk| adjective ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: modern Latin, from Greek nekrōsis (see necro-,-osis) .
neuropathy noun [ mass noun ] Medicine disease or dysfunction of one or more peripheral nerves, typically causing numbness or weakness. DERIVATIVES neuropathic adjective
You will not be surprised to find out what I have been reading lately - actually, re-reading: MORTALiTY by Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), author, columnist, social critic and a famous atheist - who wrote this last book as he recorded his reactions, both physical and mental/emotional to his terminal illness (esophegeal cancer). I read it for the fourth time and I think I may have looked up some of the medical terms before but they don't seem to stick. They take some learning; so does death.
A writer friend of mine just opted for an assisted death. She was suffering from a sudden and surprising diagnosis of a lethal, swift cancer with a brief, painful prognosis.
Hitchens cites several works that I still want to follow up. He quotes an entire poem by WWI poet Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), "Dulce et Decorum Est", describing reactions to a gas attack - "obscene as cancer". Hitch (as he is called) defines death as a "firm deportation...across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady".
I'll be back in the land of the living tomorrow.