Happy Monday Friends!  It is an usually busy day in Dogdom for a Monday.  This morning there was a very large funeral going on at the church across the street and the neighbor on the other side is having his roof done.  The pooches seemed unconcerned with the chaos outdoors and enjoyed their pool time as usual.  Things began to deteriorate when we moved indoors, as one of our furry friends has the worst gas EVER!!  Lest you think I exaggerate, I'll have you know that I am no stranger to bad smells.  In addition to working with dogs for the past 11 years, I have also worked with horses, marine mammals and human cadavers.  Each of these experiences left me with a more detailed olfactory knowledge of gastrointestinal diseases!  So when I say one of the dogs here has the worst gas EVER, I mean it!  The pooches are pooped from their morning outside, so they are snoozing, unperturbed by the noxious fumes.  However, my eyes are watering as I type this!!

The book signing went very well last Friday.  I didn't belch while speaking to people or spell anyone's name wrong.  As a group, Buffalonians are very knowledgeable about their history and I really enjoyed chatting about various parts of my book research with my new friends.  We sold out all of the books and took orders for a few more.  I am eagerly waiting for the next shipment to arrive.

If you are reading the blogs regularly, then you already know that we have identified several individuals from the Erie County Poorhouse Hospital Records who have peaked our interest.  One is a women who appears to have suffered from a disorder like Hunting's Disease.  This is a late onset abnormal involuntary movement disorder.  What is interesting is that the poorhouse physician reported a very detailed family history in 1854 for a disease that was not well defined until 1872.  Her condition apparently afflicted women more than men, as the woman's mother, grandmother and aunt had it as well.  It is also interesting that the woman had lost 4 of her five children and several cousins to the disease (the age and sex of these individuals was not recorded).  I went through the records very carefully and found that she had been first admitted in December of 1854, which was where she was listed as suffering from "chorea" and her detailed family history was recorded.  At this time the records indicate that she was 43 years old.  She was transferred several times from the poorhouse to the hospital ward between the years 1854-1858 for various infections, including two eye infections, severe diarrhea and several mouth infections.  In these entries, the age recorded for her ranged between 39-49 years old.  Sadly, she died without comment in November of 1858.  I now suspect that the disease referred to as "chorea" was not Huntington's Disease.  Assuming she was in her early to mid forties in 1854, her oldest child could have been in his or her late twenties (it would not have been unusual for her to be married, or at the very least bearing children as young as 15 years old).  Typically Huntington's Disease is a late onset genetic disease, with symptoms emerging in the third, fourth or fifth decade of life.  It seems unlikely that our patient's children could have died from HD, as they were likely too young.  Syndenham's Disease can occur in children and adolescents as a complication of rheumatic fever.  It occurs as an autoimmune reaction to the bacterium that, in turn, affects the part of the brain that controls motor function (hence the abnormal/involuntary body movements). SD typically affects children between 5-15 years old and affects girls more than boys. While SD makes more sense than HD given our patients age and the likely ages of her children it brings to light more questions, like what was the prevalence of rheumatic fever in the mid nineteenth century?  Did adults experience Syndenham's chorea? Did the extended members of this family live together?  Were their deaths clustered around a single outbreak of the fever?  If not what are the chances of these individuals independently contracting rheumatic fever?  This evening's task will be to learn more about rheumatic fever in Buffalo.  Stay tuned...