Entries tagged with healing ["Warring Ideals in One Dark Body"]

Roomie came home complaining of a tick bite. "Did you save the tick for identification?" I asked.

"Uh, no. Should I do that?"

"Yes. You and the tick need to go to the doctor."

"Even though Northern California is a low risk area?"

"Even though. It's likely nothing to worry about, but y'all need to be tested."

She dug through our used floss and tissues in the bathroom waste basket, and I gave her a film canister into which she put the remains.

Turns out it's a Western Black-Legged Tick, and there were still pieces of it inside (E-yew!). She gets antibiotics. In the face of my EMT Practice Exam results which indicate the need for extensive review (except for pediatrics), practical skill application is comforting.

I think ticks are little demons who've come to our dimension. I find them to be possibly the most vile things that we share the planet with. I ask God*, "Aren't republicans, leeches, centipedes, and pimp n' ho party enthusiasts enough?" God laughs at me.

Anything that can go into stasis for years and wake up when something warm comes by inspires a gut level revulsion. (This also explains some of my contempt for the DNC, but I'll park that thought just now in favor of a round of DOOM3 to satisfy the urge to hunt demons, zombies, and wankers.)

*Yeah, I'm agnostic, but I still ask.

Music:: Tool - "Ticks & Leeches"

Mood::

okay

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From an email sent to me from Epocrates.com: (take away message is "H1N1 Rapid Tests Suck")

Dear Clinician,

Here is the information you requested (sourced from Journal Watch).

H1N1 Rapid Tests: Poor Sensitivity

Rapid tests for seasonal influenza generally have relatively low sensitivity; their sensitivity for detecting the 2009 H1N1 virus seems even worse.

Many respiratory pathogens can produce an influenza-like illness. With a sensitive and specific rapid test for influenza, the onset of outbreaks could be established and patients could receive appropriate antiviral treatment. Reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) can yield results rapidly and is potentially the most sensitive test, but delays associated with shipping of specimens and laboratory-based testing limit the real-time value of this test. Although widely used in emergency departments and physicians' offices, antigen-based rapid assays have shown a sensitivity of about 50% compared with culture or molecular diagnostic techniques.

Investigators in Germany recently compared the sensitivity of a commercially available antigen-based rapid test (BinaxNOW Influenza A & B Rapid Test) with that of a real-time RT-PCR assay specific for the hemagglutinin gene of the 2009 H1N1 virus. Of 1838 clinical specimens tested, 221 were confirmed as H1N1 positive by RT-PCR. When 144 of these PCR-positive specimens were evaluated using the rapid-antigen test, results were positive for only 16 (11.1%).

Comment: There's a lot of bad news here on influenza testing. Although the authors found only 11% sensitivity of the rapid test compared with PCR, the "gold standard" PCR detected the 2009 H1N1 virus in just 12% of 1838 respiratory specimens submitted at a time when this virus was pandemic and probably responsible for most influenza-like illness. The relative sensitivity of the rapid test may have been diminished by the use of frozen-thawed specimens, when the test is intended for use with fresh material. Although we don't know how other, similar assays would have performed, rapid tests appear to be unsuitable for use among patients suspected of having 2009 H1N1 influenza. Clearly, better rapid tests are needed.

— Stephen G. Baum, MD

Published in Journal Watch Infectious Diseases October 14, 2009

Citation:
Drexler JF et al. Poor clinical sensitivity of rapid antigen test for influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus. Emerg Infect Dis 2009 Oct; 15:1662. [Free full-text online]

Copyright © 2009. Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved

Mood::

good

location: I put up modest decorations and had 2 Screwdrivers

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Blessed moment of clarity and not a moment too soon. After a day of furious research, transcript requests, and bellowing like people whose cat has seized a private moment with the Thanksgiving turkey [snicker], I washed off the shame of not having throttled my academic advisor. The familiar anger didn't hold the usual comfort. Instead, I was exasperated with myself. Careworn and smelling half-prepared dinner is enough without adding the edema underneath a picked scab of anger, condescension, and impotence.

I've been wondering where all my calm went. I worked hard on it for a number of years and had a pretty good veneer of pseudo-calm for the most part. Then I moved here, shit went down on several fronts (much of which was due to my own ignorance and/or clumsiness, let's be fair) and I was glad to say, you know what? They say that the time it takes to get enlightened is the same time it would take for a bird with a scarf flying over a mountain six miles high to wear down the mountain with the scarf, ergo, I'm gonna be where I'm at and fuck all that fake-ass, hooey-hooey, self-righteous bullshit. And that's valid. But. Still. I'm aware of a time when I didn't feel so angry about the small things, a time when I'd trained myself to respond more calmly to challenges. I've been wondering where all that calm went. I haven't felt calm in a while. I couldn't remember why I ever would. As I was disrobing for my shower, I got it again.

It takes too much energy, and that energy is better spent problem-solving. That's all. Anger rarely only hurts the person its directed at. It always damages the person harboring the anger, even if the anger is righteous. Waste of food.

What an aching, bloody relief to remember.

In other relieving news, a sweetheart called me today to hear my voice. That's what she said, and I felt charmed. She's got a knack for doing that when I'm ovulating and have been crying all day, and (though I doubt she's charting my weird 41 day cycle) she keeps perfect time and better company. Thank you, Dear One.

Mood::

happy

Music:: Maxwell--"Silently"

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Going to go get my antibiotics and Diflucan now. And I'm going to get better, dammit. This is so not a good look on me. Too Victorian.

Oh, the "concoction" worked great in that it made me cough up a bunch of multi-colored, multi-textured goo. It would have been nice to have some vodka to stick in it--then it almost would have been like a Bloody Mary.

Mood::

sick

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I'm tired of being sick. [Insert rant here.] So fuck it.

Concoction:
Hot sauce
Horseradish
Ginger
Garlic
Slippery Elm
Honey
Lemon

Anything else I should put in there?
Any other suggestions?

Mood::

sick

Music:: The Gossip--Sick With It

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"Warring Ideals in One Dark Body"

Whatever else happens, I got that tick thing covered

Ha! I knew it.

(no subject)

Sinus Infection

I've been well two weeks since August

Links

May