I think sometimes about how far Competitive Pokemon has spread throughout the world. I myself am a Pre-med student, so I imagine sometimes that I might be halfway across the world and be treating a patient who secretly is one of the all-time tournament greats. I wonder if someone like that would think of themselves as super-human, or whether they'd just see themselves as an ordinary person.
Of course, I myself am no special player. Mostly I stick to Unranked Randoms and other casual game modes.
6 days ago, I was in class and my professor displayed on the screen a picture of a 38-year-old man's abdomen that was cut open for a liver transplant. They (the professor) instructed us to focus on the badly diseased area around the liver, but I was looking at these fleshy structures right under the heart that appeared exactly like Pokeballs. Not only where they spherical, but each one was even enclosed by a ring, though the "button" was a little different. Each one seemed to be about 5cm in diameter if I had to guess. I saw 5 of them but maybe there were more.
I raised my hand and asked what they were but the professor didnt see what I was pointing to and there were a lot of other students raising hands so I wasnt able to get my question answered. Luckily, the slides were saved online and I was able to see the picture again. I emailed my professor about it but again they said the area there was "just regular flesh" and there wasn't anything special about it. I won't post the picture on this thread because people would find it shocking, but please believe me when I tell you that the person had Pokeballs inside his chest. Though I'm no expert, I have basic familiarity on how cancerous and other diseased tissue appears, and this was very different from that.
Recently I have been talking to a close friend about this incident. She's very interested in feminism, and has suggested that my professor is not listening to me because I am female. However, I don't believe this is so. I chose this school specifically because it appeared quite progessive, and I haven't had any experiences here like the ones she talks about.
Although Pokemon is just a hobby for me, I have begun wondering if it has any links to the phenomenon that I observed. For instance, the high proximity to the heart could mean that lots of blood flow is needed to grow whatever is inside those flesh sacs. Also, it makes a lot of sense to me that each one might have a different function. Since the space just under the heart is "high real estate value" so to speak and I can hardly see the body manufacturing so many things just for redundant purposes. If they all did the same thing, they should be in one or two sacs like the other organs. So it would actually make some sense that I'm looking at a diverse "Pokemon team" that nonetheless all fits into similar-sized capsules.
It seems like the furthest thing from a useful scientific question, but sometimes I wonder whether that man was a competitive Pokemon player. There's no way for me to know due to confidentiality of course. Despite this my imagination sometimes runs wild and I imagine the man focusing on a tournament finals match, carefully finding the right opportunity to set up his Dragonite, while simultaneously there was a Pokemon team fighting within his own body, and his liver deteriorated constantly. The man may have died after suffering complications related to his liver transplant, but I don't like thinking about that very much.
Since I still have a lot to learn about human anatomy, it's possible that the "Pokeball condition" is a more common, mundane thing that's maybe found in 1/10 of humans for example and I just haven't heard of it. I don't think it matters that much. It was just an inconsequential connection I happened to make. But I do wonder what might I see if I ever have a high-ranked player as a patient.
I wrote about this experience because my feminist friend told me to share it with others. She wanted me to clarify that this was a non-fictional event that actually happened to me. She said that one of the ways people shut down the things women say is by accusing them of speaking in obscure riddles or metaphors, instead of clearly communicating what's happening to them. Personally, I would have a hard time believing this if it didn't happen to me, but her point was interesting. She says a lot of interesting things.
Of course, I myself am no special player. Mostly I stick to Unranked Randoms and other casual game modes.
6 days ago, I was in class and my professor displayed on the screen a picture of a 38-year-old man's abdomen that was cut open for a liver transplant. They (the professor) instructed us to focus on the badly diseased area around the liver, but I was looking at these fleshy structures right under the heart that appeared exactly like Pokeballs. Not only where they spherical, but each one was even enclosed by a ring, though the "button" was a little different. Each one seemed to be about 5cm in diameter if I had to guess. I saw 5 of them but maybe there were more.
I raised my hand and asked what they were but the professor didnt see what I was pointing to and there were a lot of other students raising hands so I wasnt able to get my question answered. Luckily, the slides were saved online and I was able to see the picture again. I emailed my professor about it but again they said the area there was "just regular flesh" and there wasn't anything special about it. I won't post the picture on this thread because people would find it shocking, but please believe me when I tell you that the person had Pokeballs inside his chest. Though I'm no expert, I have basic familiarity on how cancerous and other diseased tissue appears, and this was very different from that.
Recently I have been talking to a close friend about this incident. She's very interested in feminism, and has suggested that my professor is not listening to me because I am female. However, I don't believe this is so. I chose this school specifically because it appeared quite progessive, and I haven't had any experiences here like the ones she talks about.
Although Pokemon is just a hobby for me, I have begun wondering if it has any links to the phenomenon that I observed. For instance, the high proximity to the heart could mean that lots of blood flow is needed to grow whatever is inside those flesh sacs. Also, it makes a lot of sense to me that each one might have a different function. Since the space just under the heart is "high real estate value" so to speak and I can hardly see the body manufacturing so many things just for redundant purposes. If they all did the same thing, they should be in one or two sacs like the other organs. So it would actually make some sense that I'm looking at a diverse "Pokemon team" that nonetheless all fits into similar-sized capsules.
It seems like the furthest thing from a useful scientific question, but sometimes I wonder whether that man was a competitive Pokemon player. There's no way for me to know due to confidentiality of course. Despite this my imagination sometimes runs wild and I imagine the man focusing on a tournament finals match, carefully finding the right opportunity to set up his Dragonite, while simultaneously there was a Pokemon team fighting within his own body, and his liver deteriorated constantly. The man may have died after suffering complications related to his liver transplant, but I don't like thinking about that very much.
Since I still have a lot to learn about human anatomy, it's possible that the "Pokeball condition" is a more common, mundane thing that's maybe found in 1/10 of humans for example and I just haven't heard of it. I don't think it matters that much. It was just an inconsequential connection I happened to make. But I do wonder what might I see if I ever have a high-ranked player as a patient.
I wrote about this experience because my feminist friend told me to share it with others. She wanted me to clarify that this was a non-fictional event that actually happened to me. She said that one of the ways people shut down the things women say is by accusing them of speaking in obscure riddles or metaphors, instead of clearly communicating what's happening to them. Personally, I would have a hard time believing this if it didn't happen to me, but her point was interesting. She says a lot of interesting things.
