January 2023 chitchat

[Virginia]

Howie, they put dogs to sleep in order to clean their teeth.

[agate]

I think he's even concerned about being bitten by humans.

As as matter of fact, just today I noticed a local news article about a man who was arrested for biting another man's ear OFF. This happened on a train-stop platform. I won't post a link to the story as it's almost too grim but this really happened.

[Virginia]

That must have been SOME fight!

[agate]

The attacker thought the other man was a robot according to the news story. The attacker had taken fentanyl and alcohol. Maybe he'd been watching too much "Star Trek." It sounds as if he was in some alternate universe.

[Howie]

AI scares me. You buy the AI to replace humans. Then the jobless rate sores, then what?

[agate]

The humans are being retrained to make the AI work right, as I understand it, though that type of work isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Another option is that the humans will be more and more inclined to take service jobs, and there will be more and more of them because there is a vast number of senior citizens out there, all living far longer than ever before and many needing care or services to help them.

[Virginia]

I went out to the bank and the drive thru pharmacy about 12:30 today. It was a beautiful day. Then I came home and waited for the NP to call me from the Neurologist office. It was less than 5 minutes. I told him I was doing good and to please get a new Rx in for my Rebif. He said he would and then said he would talk to me in 6 months. I asked him if my Doctor was still there and if he is still my Doctor. He says he is. That was about the sum total of my six month appointment. Although he did say if I needed anything to call them.

[agate]

I wonder if some neurologists decide that the kindest thing they can do for their patients with MS is to stay out of our lives as much as possible, particularly since there's really not much they can do aside from prescribe one of the MS drugs. I would have thought they'd be interested in tracking the course of each MS case they handle but that isn't the way my neurologist has been behaving.

If I were a neurologist, I'd want to know how MS behaves as people live with it over the years but I don't see that interest in my neurologist, and it sounds as if your neurologist might be the same type.

[Virginia]

Yes, Agate I think he is the same. The one I had for 16 1/2 years was not. He had diagnosed me and took a real interest in me, my welfare and progression. Medicine has changed so much. My new PCP got really angry when I told him how long it had been since I have seen my Neurologist. I told him there wasn't anything else he could do for me I guess so he just doesn't have me come in. He said that the Neurologist was prescribing medication that would mean that he should see me, at the first least once a year.

[agate]

Yes, it's always been my clear understanding that if the neuro is prescribing an MS medication, there are supposed to be patient office visits to the neuro at least once a year--and with lab work ordered up as needed.

My neuro did at least order up a whole flock of lab tests that I'm going to have done soon. She says that the glatiramer acetate (Copaxone, basically) that I'm taking has effects on the thyroid, for instance, and she says it should be monitored from time to time. Some of the other MS drugs require regular tests involving the liver, or they did when I was taking Avonex, a hundred years ago.

[Virginia]

They still do require it Agate. But what is requited is not always done.

I am concerned about California. It may just float away. They went so long without rain and now just look at what is happening. I also don't like the mudslides. I hope Rose is alright.

[agate]

Yes, I was thinking of Rose too and hoping she's able to stay away from any mudslides or floods.

This seems to be an example of "Be careful what you wish for." Usually the problem there is drought and they'd give their eye teeth for some rain, but this wasn't what they had in mind.

I just realized I shouldn't have used that expression about giving their eye teeth. It's apt to bring on Howie with his pliers....

[Howie]

Sam, bring me my other pair of jeans, the ones with the pliers in the pocket, we have some tooth pulling to do!

[agate]

The old ways may be the best ways.... Hunter-gatherers probably pulled their own teeth, with or without a pliers.

[Virginia]

Many years ago I worked for 2 doctors. Back then all able bodied men had to serve in the military or something comparable. One of the Doctors chose to serve in a Women's Prison. It was a rough one and they had had some hardcore criminals. One of the women went to the doctor wanting her tooth pulled. She said she had the toothache. There was no Dentist and he said he didn't know the first thing about pulling a tooth. She kept coming back. He had nothing with which to anatheszise it. He finally pulled it without giving her anything and as best I can recall he did do it with pliers or something like that. He said it was a rough place. If only Howie had been there.