It’s tick season in New England, and Lyme disease is spreading more each year. Everybody’s talking about it. We’ve seen a few ticks lately, and I knew one dog that recently died from it, so I did some reading about how to get rid of ticks and about Lyme disease.
The most recommended way to get rid of ticks involves a poison that’s safe for dogs and mice, but quite dangerous for cats.
As for the disease, two companies made a vaccine for it years ago, and was something like 75-92% effective. But you can’t get it now. Unless you’re a dog. They still sell vaccines for dogs, but not for humans because ‘not enough sales, so it wouldn’t be profitable enough’ - until more people get infected.
A friend of mine possibly has Lyme disease. I say “possibly” because even though she had the swollen joints etc., her doctors always blow her off and say she’s a hypochondriac.
She loved to hike and ticks are more populous than previously in the area she lives in, but the doctors keep saying people don’t get Lyme disease in the Ottawa Valley. Meanwhile:
Er… it’s been over ten years now, and she’s been to several doctors a year. She recently got diagnosed with some other things, which is good, but she spends a lot of time being told she’s a hypochondriac.
There’s a lot of having to re-verify her patient history, because apparently nobody writes anything down or tells other doctors anything (she recently was described in a record as “from Toronto” when she’s never lived here).
As much as doctors complain about the effects of WebMD on patients, they still need to learn to listen to patients.
It is Monday. That’s enough for today. The beautiful possibilities of the weekend evaporated behind me and now I’m back to a place they literally have to pay me to come back to.
I’m sure there must be some German word for walking into your office Monday morning and suddenly remembering all the things you were going to get ready for work over the weekend.
Probably not though, Germany has a much better attitude to work\life separation.
I see I’m in just a great mood to start a new hire today.
