tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-304021472009-10-14T02:47:09.537-04:00PFGnoreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-6786902614690047442008-09-30T21:20:00.005-04:002008-09-30T21:28:20.338-04:00

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-1983918736416822522008-08-30T20:34:00.004-04:002008-08-30T23:15:38.239-04:00

Hey, it's another cool site. Bad Cripple by blogger William Peace. So far, I've spent most of my time on there reading up on his experiences with the Obama campaign and accessibility. It's making me want to go and fix up all my posts with pix (I'm certain I don't always provide alternate text). I'm looking forward to reading more by William and I encourage you to check out his excellent blog.

PFGnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-51271777236024559352008-08-28T20:08:00.003-04:002008-08-28T20:17:51.140-04:00

...in your Spare TimeThis was the title of some recent inbox spam. Compelling, no? It was the "spare time" part that really hooked me. "Why become a nurse?" the spammy body text asks. Why indeed. Apparently... a nursing career is recession proofa full time position usually includes benefitsthere is a national shortage of nursesand you canwork in a professional environmentOh dear. If this

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-73382295353992613092008-08-28T00:17:00.000-04:002008-08-28T00:18:00.347-04:00

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-20414859224298321182008-08-17T13:54:00.004-04:002008-08-17T14:22:07.623-04:00

I asked the nurse practitioner at my GI office "How do your other patients who have symptoms like this handle it? I mean, what do they do so they aren't tied up in the bathroom all morning or passing out from cramping? How do they manage to even get out of the house and get to work?"She said: "Well, some of them just avoid eating all day" then after looking at my face and perhaps seeing the

PFGnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-27344954076047040452008-08-06T21:38:00.003-04:002008-08-06T21:40:36.950-04:00

This Onion clip which fit so well with recent posts about research and IBS-D.'Cosmopolitan' Institute Completes Decades-Long Study On How To Please Your Man

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-2845778657688311832008-08-05T08:57:00.003-04:002008-08-05T09:20:45.483-04:00

I have a meeting set up with a temp agency today and I thought it would be good if I weren't passing out in their bathroom. Hence, no breakfast for me this morning. I don't like skipping meals, it makes me irritable and lethargic but last night was horrible. I was about 10 minutes into dinner when I got massive cramping lower down. I stopped eating and took a bentyl (my first one). I ate a

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-8476633504873296142008-08-01T16:24:00.002-04:002008-08-01T16:33:00.575-04:00

No scopy for me today. Nasty little sinus/ear infection thing got in the way. On the plus side, at least I spiked a temp before I started the prep. On the down side, trying to get a straight answer out of my doctor's office on whether or not they'd go forward with the procedure if I had a temp today was like herding cats. "Anesthesia might not want to do it..." was the best I could get out of

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-6530616893321587612008-07-30T08:24:00.006-04:002008-07-30T12:17:22.785-04:00

I guess because we're in the midst of Lyme season here in the Lyme rampant states today I googled "lyme disease" + test + research. The second "scholarly article" return was this one which I found interesting enough to read in full text (and to follow several linked references to and from).Klempner, M. S., C. H. Schmid, L. Hu, A. C. Steere, G. Johnson, B. McCloud, R. Noring, and A. Weinstein.

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-72190280795255239042008-07-29T12:47:00.008-04:002008-07-30T09:35:46.588-04:00

I'm having my second ever colonoscopy on Friday. Or I'm supposed to at least.PEG is such an innocent sounding word. Reminiscent of what is at the moment a sort of ironic song, or an ironic bit of lyrics. "Peg, it will come back to you..." And indeed, it may if what might be coming back (up) is your clear liquid dinner.Really, it should be PEIG, which stands for "Plastic-like Emesis Inducing

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-79468940866036605732008-07-29T12:37:00.004-04:002008-07-29T12:45:36.405-04:00

Hey I just ran across a great section of what is looking like a pretty neat site, IBS Treatment. The section I came in through has patient reviews of various IBS drugs, with both an American version and a UK specific listing. The latter is a bit small, and I don't know if this reflects a true low number of UK specific IBS drugs or if the database just needs to be grown. To write a review, you

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-48651380825943850302008-07-28T13:23:00.014-04:002008-08-30T23:44:32.367-04:00

In response to my post Disability Law,Stephen said...McCain’s record of voting against issues important to people with disabilities speaks for itself. This recent complete reversal on his views is nothing more than typical McCain political pandering.I started replying in the comment field but realized my reply is bigger than a comment.So here goes.I don't know McCain's record on the issue, but

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-34509264494113786852008-07-28T11:24:00.008-04:002008-08-30T20:18:03.133-04:00

UPDATED August 30, 2008: I'm getting a lot of hits on this post from people looking for info about the hyoscyamine/Levsin shortage. The best I can offer (aside from my rambling story time post below which does actually have some useful information) is a more recently updated but still not very heartening bulletin from "The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists", full text at link &

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-60016685615031288582008-07-27T09:54:00.004-04:002008-07-27T10:22:00.101-04:00

I find the last paragraph of the excerpts from the AP article (below) to be a great example of doublespeak. For more in depth information on the bill referenced below and the issues surrounding it, go here. McCain vows to back changes to disabilities lawBy Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press Writer Jul 26, 2008COTTONWOOD, Ariz. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain is pledging support

PFGnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-90897106333451028942008-07-25T12:57:00.006-04:002008-07-25T14:48:42.100-04:00

I fell asleep in pain and I woke up in pain. Because I'm currently unemployed (going on two weeks now since my last job ended), it wasn't as big a disaster as it could have been. However, to say that it gave me pause to be in such pain right now would be an understatement. I didn't want to stay in bed because being unemployed is freaking me out enough, evoking the questions of how employable

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-6482751769968094122008-07-23T12:08:00.007-04:002008-07-23T14:41:08.189-04:00

It's July. This means it's national "how the fuck do I order that?!" month.As a unit clerk, I dreaded July. Sure, it meant some new fresh folks to replace the ones who had been worn down and frayed by February. But it also meant too many over-eager interns and inflated residents strutting their stuff through our halls, sitting at my computer, walking off with my pen, running away with charts,

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-86053472341274856162008-07-22T11:53:00.011-04:002008-07-22T12:28:22.021-04:00

I've been hoping to make a Lyme public service announcement for the radio, oh for a while now. If you have chronic health problems, you know what it's like to find time for these "extra" things. Anyhow, I am determined to do it this year, mostly because I still run into people in my area who do not know even the basics about Lyme disease. Where I live is an extremely high Lyme disease area. I

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-63072265593015494072008-06-29T19:09:00.003-04:002008-06-29T19:33:17.973-04:00

I went to a wedding this weekend. I went armed with meds - usually my purse is good for a few ibuprofen, tylenol, various anti-diarrhea meds, allergy pills, and even a stray decongestant. Pretty much everything is OTC. This is only the third formal occasion I have had to go to since becoming chronically ill and the first two were unpleasant to disastrous. The last one, I spent the majority of

PFGnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-83846386266895413842008-06-26T18:18:00.006-04:002008-06-26T18:36:22.376-04:00

A lovely plugin/add on was recently brought to my attention. It's called "flashblock", and when it's installed for Firefox (which is the browser I use), it blocks those super annoying flash ads - you know, the ones that feature often flickering, dancing, flashing, and otherwise strobe-like visual patterns in the margins of your screen. These are very annoying for most people, and for a few of

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-24876924880933727262008-05-11T16:18:00.002-04:002008-05-11T16:22:06.137-04:00

PFGnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-14420189214974353232008-04-23T01:55:00.005-04:002008-04-23T02:11:28.032-04:00

I was talking with a graduate student in my program today and medical stuff came up. She's had a run of bad health in the last few years - being diagnosed as needing heart surgery and then had acute and quite bad GI episode (likely due to or exacerbated by a series of intestine slowing drugs a presumably well intentioned but apparently moronic provider put her on). She's finally coming through

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-88622868094757670992008-04-04T21:15:00.006-04:002008-04-04T22:54:23.646-04:00

Still on the prednisone. I think I'd like to stop but I guess I'm supposed to taper. I haven't been on it long, although it's a high dose and I suppose better safe than sorry. I'm ready to be done with it though. Yes, my hip feels excellent. My gut hasn't felt this well in some time, and so far (knock on wood) I haven't had a single GI side effect from the prednisone.However....every evening

PFGnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-28385019735451714332008-04-03T18:59:00.003-04:002008-04-03T19:23:37.038-04:00

I recently have discovered that although I kinda feel like shit on prednisone, I look good while I'm on it. This may be the beauty secret find of the season. The low grade fevers I've been running since day three have added a rosy glow to my otherwise normal pallor. And the facial bloating is at a level where it has just filled in a bit of the normally over-deep hollows under my cheekbones

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-42970804227637553222008-03-13T01:03:00.008-04:002008-03-15T23:14:30.819-04:00

The capacity in which I deal with consent processes is quite different from the issue at hand in the story below. The people I am obtaining consent from are in a research setting, not a treatment setting. Thus, in the contexts I am most familiar with, the issue of withdrawal or refusal on the part of the patient/participant is to be assumed a basic right. As a researcher, I am very careful to

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30402147.post-58366755809335344902008-03-08T00:48:00.005-05:002008-03-10T21:20:11.948-04:00

From a local paper this week:School administrators locked down two schools Thursday afternoon as five middle school students were rushed to hospitals after swallowing various pills. A sixth student didn't require hospitalization.The students showed up in the nurse's office after lunch complaining of feeling sick after they took over-the-counter and prescription medication, Police Chief Mark

PFGnoreply@blogger.com0