ANA Discussion Forum
AN Community => AN Community => Topic started by: Pooter on March 19, 2010, 04:36:10 pm
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After thinking about how we all say our outcomes are pretty unique, our presenting symptoms are pretty unique, etc... I decided to mathmatically figure out how many scenarios there are...
Presumption: The 16 items listed in the ANA Patient Survery in the "Symptoms reported by respondents" are the only possible symptoms.
Presumption: You can either say "Yes I have/had those symptoms" or "No I didn't have those symptoms"
That means, there are only 2 possible answers for 16 questions.. If you take the number of possibilities for symptom 1 and multiply it by the possibilities for symptom 2 (e.g. 2 * 2) and then multiply that by the number of possibilities for symptom 3 (eg. 2 * 2 * 2) and so on for all of the possible symptoms listed in the survery (16).. You should come up with 65,536 different possibilities.
Seeing as the forum only has a little over 4,000 subscribers, then it's highly likely that we are all "unique" to each other, but we're not overall unique taken the entire AN population...
Anyone have any comments? :) Yes, I was bored today..
Brian
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I was going to say that you had WAY too much time on your hands...I hope that was AFTER our chat & not during!! ???
K ;D
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Brian .....
No matter what the stats say, YOU are unique! ;D Love it!!
Clarice
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i think i'm uniquely confused! ???
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Pooter -
I'm with my sister, Kaybo.
You DEFINITELY have too much time on your hands. You should check out the threads on the ANA Book Club or the one called Let's Run! or Walk! or Something.
Either one would be a much better use of your time ;D
And although I agree with Clarice that you are "unique", I also have to say quite frankly that you are "scary" at the same time :D
Jan
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What's that you say ??? ::) :o :-\
:) Cindy
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Funny post to wake up to. You need to get out and smell the fresh air,lol!
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Oh my God!! I survived AN surgery only to have your post almost exploded my brain. Haha!! I was never really good at stats anyway.
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Brian ~
I'm going to take your statistically-based premise seriously and respond by commenting that with AN patients, 'the devil is in the details'. Although there may be lots of similarities in the symptoms, each AN patient has a slightly different level of pain, headache, facial immobility, hearing loss, etc., as well as a slightly different tumor location and shape, making each of us, in fact, unique - although we often add a modifier to the adjective 'unique' as a tacit admission that, while we each present with similar symptoms, they are not precisely the same for each individual.
Now, let's go get some fresh air! :)
Jim
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Hahah... Kay, this was done AFTER our chat by several hours. I was fully engaged (as I could be at work with people walking in) in our chat, and thank you VERY much for that, btw.. It really opened up my eyes and world..
Actually, it took me about 5 minutes to come up with that number. So, I wasted more time posting about it than I did coming up with it..
Jan, about the walking thread... I've been following it. I've wanted to contribute, however 2 months ago when I started jogging/walking again for exercise, I somehow tweaked my knee. Now, 2 months, 2 doctor visits and a round a x-rays later, it's still got fluid on it. Luckily, the last doctor said it didn't require surgery... I had hopes of running in a 5k here locally on the day of my 2-year ANniversary, however with my knee still being bummed, I don't think I'm going to be able to. I still have aspirations of running a 5k and eventually running the Houston Half next year, but I've got to get my knee well again first.. So, what else can I do but come up with stats like this to fill my time? ;)
Clarice, awww... how sweet! So are you! The stats don't lie! ;)
It's nice to see that my Discrete Mathematics course in college (where we learned combinations and permutations) has FINALLY come in handy all of these years later.. ;)
Jim, excellent points! I hadn't factored in the LEVEL for each 'symptom'.. Wow.. The number is much higher than I first predicted. Sufficiently high enough, that I'm pretty close to saying that we are all, truly, unique individuals with ANs. It's raining here today so no fresh air for me today. Now, where's my calculator.. ;)
Regards,
Brian
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I am glad you found a use for the math you learned in college ... I still struggle trying a place to use the advanced algebra I took in high school ...and I used to think it was fun... but that is because I used to not be this cool person that sits before you but was a bit of a geek and found enjoyment in things that made my fellow students cringe
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Damn, Pooter! Sorry to hear about the knee. Hope it gets better soon!
In the meantime, lay off the statistics. If you contact Steve maybe he can help you learn how to knit hats. A MUCH better hobby ;)
Jan
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sorry about the knee too... hope it gets better soon
as far as the houston half, y'all could have a whole AN reunion there. patrick ran it; laura (allegro17) runs it every year...