TMI a little place to whine

Being a cautious type I went to the Urgent Care Center yesterday.

Why?

I had a pimple looking thing on my right calf.

Usually I don't get panic striken over a pimple, but this time I asked my sister who works as an R.N. in a nursign home to have a look at it. It didn't hurt, but it was puss filled, and weeping and red around the edges. Nursing homes and hospitals have had a lot of experience with staph infections, which is what MRSA is and which is why I asked her opinion. I asked her if it looks suspicious.

It did, so I went to the Urgent Care Center just in case.

Now, how did I happen to have this "lesion"? Who the hell knows. I don't share towels with anyone except my husband (which has now stopped until they get the culture back from the lab). I don't go to gyms and share gym equipment. However I do ride a "public" form of transportation - I use the university shuttle bus system to get from the parking garage to my building. But I also attended church and sat on communal chairs, and was in the food court at work, and at a restaurant. I could have rubbed the back of my leg on a grocery store "buggy", or a display case, or anything. Apparently MRSA and other staph infections can live for hours on surfaces.This one little spot is in the middle of my calf, on the back of my right leg, easily a place that might be hit by the back edge of a chair.

So the Dr. looked at it, and wasn't sure so he cultured it. I get the lab results in 3 to 4 days.

Until then I have to use Dial antibacterial (liquid)soap, neo sporin and scrub my "spot" every 2 hours, dry it well and apply a bandage. I washed all the clothes I had worn on Saturday when I first saw the spot, using Lysol in the water. I had to wash the bed linen also using Lysol. It's smells like a nursing home - ICK.

The Dr. was an old guy, and he said MRSA was something that the press just blew out of porportion. It's a staph infection that's been around for MANY years. If caught early it responds to SOAP and WATER and frequent handwashing and cleaning. It's not a plague, it's not going to kill you generally speaking, but if left untreated, in patients with supressed immune systems it's going to be a problem

At first the nurse and Dr. didn't think it was more than a pimple, or a fire ant bite, until I told them I had been on anitbiotics for 10 days because of a recent root canal. Apparently that suppressed my immune system for a time, so it just "might" be more than a scratch,bite or a pimple.

Now for my problem. Do I mention this to the people I work with, before knowing the results of the culture, thus putting people in a panic (because the new media has everyone anxious about it.) Or do I wait? If I tell them now they might get angry for coming to work. If I say nothing and wait and it does turn out to be MRSA then they will be angry that I didn't tell them before.
I think I'll just tell my supervisor - not the whole world - and let her know that I am just waiting for the lab results.

Oh well....

I will do what the Dr. says, I will wash every 2 hours, change the bandage AND wear long pants so no one notices. I hope that will be enough.

So now it's official. No matter what team I go to see in person, Hurricanes, Marlins, you name it, the team will lose.

What happened to medicine for the sake of helping others?
Why is it all a matter of making money now?

Went to a dental appointment on what I thought I had made clear was an emergency appointment.
Instead I am told I was scheduled for a cleaning first, then I could get x-rays on another visit and finally on a 3rd visit I could see a dentist.

On a third visit?

What if after the cleaning and x-rays I meet the dentist and find I hate him/her? What the hell does he care, he's already gotten two paments out of me so why bother.

Money.

It all comes down to money.

And no one cares about the health of the patient, only the patient's wallet.

Lately it seems like the War on Terror is just a cover up for the Blackwater operations.

I mean the Republicans who are protecting their contractors and businessmen in Iraq are definately more important to the economy of the USA than are a bunch of yahoo midwestern kids who can't better themselves unless they "defend our country" and join the US military, aren't they?

I mean, come on, we should be doing all we can to protect our own citizens and if it means hiring professional paramilitary body guards who don't have to adhere to the rules of engagement that's fair, isn't it?

So what if the "enemy" doesn't see the difference between hired thugs and our real military? We have to protect our assets.

What a shame that seems to be the defense of such Blackwater actions. It seems ironic that the Blackwater people actually wear black. Reminds me of the Nazi "elite" stormtroopers who also wore black. It also makes me wonder what other comparisons between the two can be made.

Three former friends, from High School Days and one from my internet contacts, have stopped talking to me because I told them George W. Bush was not going to do a thing he promised. They said I was wrong.

So, now I ask.

To those who were so convinced that W and his Republican cohorts would put an end to abortion, has it?

To those who said that we had to fight terrorists in their own land to stop them, has it?

To those who think that W had the right solution to our econimic situation. Now that we are trillions in debt instead of having a surplus, has the American economy improved?

Who beleives W now?