The Bar 2014 Edition

[Sunbeam56]

Yawn!!! You-all still awake?
Started an incubator full of eggs. Brought the parrot in for the winter.
Next weekend - greenhouse for the citrus and ferns.
My daughter has surgery for her broken leg tomoro.
Renfest planning - Nov 21.
I need a shot of Kahlua!!!

[Mojojita]

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!

[sadie]

Hey Bar Peeps.
Sunbeam..I hope surgery goes well...does not sound like much fun for her..

I just got a call from my daughter and the new baby has whooping cough. I am really pissed at her doc...she was taken in with a cough 2 weeks ago and they called it allergies and gave her zyrtec or something...the cough persisted...my daughter called back 1 week ago and they told her to "give it another week"...she did, and now whooping cough. The baby is not quite 5 months old - she is not adequetley immunized yet. The whole family now has to go on antibiotics as a precausion and stay isolated for 24 hours. My daughter was told to expect a nasty call from the health dept. as well as the daycare...

The over reacting mama bear in me wants to drive to Ft. Worth and pay a visit to the doctors office - or at the very least give them a "nasty call", but that would not solve anything. It's just really scary when they are so tiny and their little bodies have to fight such a thing.

*gears up for empathetic sleepless night*

[theCryptofishist]

That's dreadful, Sadie.
Now, PSA time. Everyone, this is why you get vaccinated, so tiny babies don't have to have dreadful diseases like pertussis. This "whooping cough" is so nasty that people have broken their ribs coughing. So, protect yourself, protect your family, and by being part of herd immunity, protect tiny babies.
Sorry about that Sadie, but the doctors aren't the only people who made mistakes here. I hate anti-vaccers. (and I hope you're not one, because, it's damn hard to take my foot out of my mouth...)
I don't really have good words for you in this situation. It must suck. and be very worrisome. I hope all are fine and in the pink of health, quickly.


(((Sadie)))

[unjonharley]

I got and still get very upset when the doctors mess with my kids..

[Ratty]

Unjohn, I know how you feel. My kids are in their 40s so yours must be in their 50s but they will always be our 'kids'.

[sadie]

Thank you, Fishy. No - I am not an anti-vaccer at all. Your PSA states exactly why it is important to immunize.

All three of the older kids in the house will be fine (2 seven year olds and an eleven year old)...they have all had their regular vaccinations and are probably thrilled to get a bonus day off from school tomorrow. Apparently the baby sounds like she has smoked a pack of cigarettes, and the coughs rack her whole body. My daughter teaches orchestra at a middle school and my son-in-law is a coach/trainer, so between their exposure to germ infested kids and the day care - there are most likely a good percentage of anti-vaccers she could have picked it up from.

Fingers crossed the meds kick in quickly - but recovery tends to drag for a while with this.

[theCryptofishist]

From what I've read, it's nasty business.
I can't believe the sorts of diseases resurging, both from anti-vacsers and from complacency breeding multi anti-biotic resistant strains of other bugs. The 20th century may, at least in this country, prove to be a golden age of disease-free childhoods. I feel like I should be rolling around in some sand by the top of the statue of liberty yelling about how we had it and lost in due to our own stupidity...

[Aurelia]

Of course everything Fishy said also from me

Oh Sadie I am so sorry .
You are of course crazy worried..
hopefully darling baby will soon be feeling better.

xoA.

[^Rhino!]

From what I've read, it's nasty business.
I can't believe the sorts of diseases resurging, both from anti-vacsers and from complacency breeding multi anti-biotic resistant strains of other bugs. The 20th century may, at least in this country, prove to be a golden age of disease-free childhoods. I feel like I should be rolling around in some sand by the top of the statue of liberty yelling about how we had it and lost in due to our own stupidity...

People who don't get vaccinations are, as fishy said, putting the rest of us at risk. We had a couple of simple measles outbreaks north of here, largely confined to the Amish community. They just don't have the sense to get their kids vaccinated. By the time these kids were vaccinated, two little girls were already dead. Word of mouth from the elders of the church blamed bad vaccine. They didn't know the two little girls were dead BEFORE vaccinations started.

I remember the DPT shots I got as a kid.....diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine. I got a set of 6 and 'boosters' because Mom thought it was the right thing to do. I got both Salk and Sabin vaccines for polio. Now THERE's a dread disease preventative that you shouldn't EVER be without. This week, I get my flu shot. And, my employer pays for it. 'Wellness' at work and away from work leads to less sick leave used, less vacation used, and an overall better work force.

[tatonka]

my mom got the polio shot , and got polio. Small case in one leg ,made it so she couldnt use a clutch had to drive a automatic . I got sick when I got the shots had such a high fever it destroyed my eardrums. the scar tissue in there now acts as my eardrums , when I joined the service they gave me many shots and put me in sick hall. Next batch I got almost put me down so I almost didnt make it to nam.
So I didnt get my kids any shots , and they never got sick . When they give shots at school , they give them the disease which they can pass around . They make carriers yet my seven kids never got sick. I also dont get sick anymore . In the 80's me and my ex-wife got into herbs , so we grew alkinds that build up the immune system . Even your bible says take and eat all the seed bearing fruits and herbs . So people without this knowledge say we are the carriers , how is that possible if we dont get sick.

[AntiM]

Wow, Tatonka, that is not how the science works. At all. Love ya, dude, but I'll still get my shots.

I have had every type of shot possible, all my life. My oldest brother had polio before the vaccine was widely available. When the vaccine came around, mom made sure the rest of us kids got it. I had a nasty case of measles, again, before the vaccine was common. We lived overseas, more shots, all the shots. Dad still freaked out when we had neighbors with cholera in Iran. The vaccines did their job.

I joined the Navy, more immunizations. Even bubonic plague once, by mistake. Yes, a few have made me feel like crap for a day, but certainly have not "given" me any of the diseases. Nor made me into a carrier (that's a new one to me). Just my immune system getting stronger and having a workout.

I recently got the pneumonia vacc, and the one for shingles. Even if the shingles one only reduces the severity of an outbreak instead of preventing it, well worth it. Mom suffered so much with shingles, she would lie in bed and cry all day.

Nope, shots have done well by me.

[tatonka]

thats how the shots work , they give ya a small dose and you build up immunity . So you have the disease in ya and can spread it .

Vaccines teach the immune system by mimicking a natural infection. For example, the yellow fever vaccine, first widely used in 1938, contains a weakened form of the virus. Human macrophages can’t tell that the vaccine viruses are weakened, so they engulf the viruses as if they were dangerous. In the lymph nodes, the macrophages present yellow fever antigen to T cells and B cells.

A response from yellow-fever-specific T cells is activated. B cells secrete yellow fever antibodies. The weakened viruses in the vaccine are quicky eliminated. The mock infection is cleared, and humans are left with a supply of memory T and B cells for future protection against yellow fever.

[Ratty]

Wow! Just wow. It's ok. Shots have served us well too. If your kids ever plan to travel are they are going to need a buttload of shots.

[tatonka]

when i went to nam I had to go thru six guys with those needle guns that give 4 shots a a time , I was sick for a week

[Aurelia]

Thanks Anti M ,I really appreciate you perfectly responding as I was trying to think of how to answer Tatonka without a medical rant.

Sorry about your experience Tatonka ; but medical science is my world even when it is not enough.

For example ; I am just now feeling well again since playa .
Weird symptoms of pain and weakness which I think was possible W.Nile virus.

xoA.

[Ratty]

For the last 20 years I've gotten my flu shot. I'm in charge of scheduling a bar and restaurant crew. There are 210 employees in the casino. It would be so much easier on everyone if people went this week and got a flu shot. In 20 years I have NEVER been able to convince anyone to go get one. Either you get shots or you don't. It would be easier for me to change your sex. People need to accept the fact that not everyone views vaccinations the same. Then they need to move on because they will waste a day, week or lifetime trying to convert someone. Don't be sad about differences. Just don't kiss that person.

[tatonka]

I use doc's that not a problem for me. I can eat wrong foods and get sick from that also . I got cancer from being exposed to something in the service or after the service on my way home I went thru white sands AF base . that night in the motel alot of my hair was falling out and I got blissters on my face. Got back to Oregon to discover I was allergic now , I believed all the shots in the service had weekend my immune system. Met my ex and we got into the herbs and it took maybe 15 years to build my system back up and now no allergies. All with natural herbs .

[tatonka]

For the last 20 years I've gotten my flu shot. I'm in charge of scheduling a bar and restaurant crew. There are 210 employees in the casino. It would be so much easier on everyone if people went this week and got a flu shot. In 20 years I have NEVER been able to convince anyone to go get one. Either you get shots or you don't. It would be easier for me to change your sex. People need to accept the fact that not everyone views vaccinations the same. Then they need to move on because they will waste a day, week or lifetime trying to convert someone. Don't be sad about differences. Just don't kiss that person.

you are so right , my view of them is set. Guy at work just got his flu shot , he's called in 2 days in a row now.

[lucky420]

Morning all,

When my son registered at UNR (university nevada reno). He had to show his immunization card and I believe he also had to get a tetnus shot as a condition of enrollment. No immunizations=no university.

And today the cold monster has moved to my throat. It's swollen and hurst real bad whenever I swallow

[AntiM]

when i went to nam I had to go thru six guys with those needle guns that give 4 shots a a time , I was sick for a week

Ah, memories. 1979, in Orlando.

BC red circle.jpg

[tatonka]

when i went to nam I had to go thru six guys with those needle guns that give 4 shots a a time , I was sick for a week

Ah, memories. 1979, in Orlando.

BC red circle.jpg

yep .those guns ") In 79 , I was already out for a few years .

[Savannah]

I'll be getting my flu shot this week. I work in a medical environment and am surrounded by researchers and physicians educated to the moon and back, and they all roll up their sleeves for the shot, despite there being a loophole that technically allows them to skip it & sign a waiver. That's not lost on me--that they know what has to be done for themselves and the public health--and so the hospital's not understaffed in flu season. I've also got a little niece, and little kids (and the elderly) are quite vulnerable to death by flu. Can't risk getting her sick.

Nor can I forget that the (ex) doc famous for drawing a spurious link between immunizations and autism had his license stripped away from him for falsifying his research.

I do think that the vaccines given to the military are a special case; those are totally different than a little flu vaccine.

*goes to make coffee*

[Madgirl]

One of my undergrad degrees is in microbiology so this is a bit of soapbox topic for me...vaccines are not bad for you! Yes, they carry some risk, even the really safe ones. Some are riskier than others. Some are more important than others. I fully believe that everyone should be vaccinated except for very rare exceptions. That's all I'm gonna say about it.

Yes, the flu shot makes you feel like crap (it always has for me, anyway). Still gonna get one though, especially since my employer pays for it.

I do think that it's a bit different for the military...they get vaccinated for all kinds of crazy things that the rest of us rarely have to worry about.

[unjonharley]

Got the flu shot.. Only difference was taking a nap in the day time four days.. The nurse told me I would feel sleepy cus I'm old.. Now to just stay out of WalMart where all the little snot picker go.. Kids are deadly on us old folks..

In the military (boot camp).. We were lined up in a long hallway.. There were fire doors every so far along the hall.. Just in side one doorway was a table with a tray and this huge embalming needle. Just sitting there for us bunch of hicks to see..

[magicmarty]

Savanah, Madgirl and UJH all have it right IMHO. Definitely gonna get my flu shot.

[Elliot]

One of my undergrad degrees ...

I knew you were my kind of girl! I sooooo wish I hadn't dropped out.

[theCryptofishist]

I got mine on Thursday. (It's offered by my workplace.) I haven't had any trouble.

[Elliot]

*strolls in, hangs up rain-coat and sou’wester – both dry*

So…. My brother – who goes by “R.C.” – is probably somewhere in Nebraska now, heading for Battle Ground, Indiana, where his girlfriend – Laura – is starting a three month internship at Wolf Park. R.C. interned there himself, many years ago. After Laura is well established at Wolf Park, R.C. wants to travel – probably with a 5th wheel camping trailer behind his pickup.

Then I notice that LeChatNoir and Karine are having Open House at their Studio in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, on November 1.
Uncle Google says that’s only 233 miles from Battle Ground.

And R.C. has a serious case of wanderlust, and wanting to meet new people, see new places, learn new skills, and whatnot. Primarily he wants to keep working with animals, but he is a Gear-head also, so maybe he can get a ride on The Contraption?...

I have also told him about the Texas Renaissance Fest, where GreyCoyote and Sunbeam and others will be November 21-23.

Where else might a displaced wild-animal behaviorist want to visit? He is free to roam the U.S. for six months, and even settle in somewhere for part of that time. Of course, in winter he will want to be fairly far south. He’s had enough winters in Norway.
There is a possibility I will join him on some of his travels, but I’ve seen enough highway for one lifetime already.

He may come back here and volunteer at the elephant sanctuary right here in Northern California, since he has taken a special interest in elephants lately. But he is very much open to other opportunities. And his specialty remains wolves.



R.C. at work. No, that’s not a dog.



So I’m just kind’a thinking out loud on his behalf.

*pours hot tea – the first of the season*

[Aurelia]

Yes, the flu shot is important.

Wow!
That is a great photo .
RC is right on with the N.W. preoccupation with wolves.

xoA.