What a Really Good Day is Like...

Dear F&F,

I had a really good day today. In honor of my day, I have composed a poem:

I really love the Human Race;
I check sensation to its face;
I can assess the way it walks;
And listen to the way it talks;
And when I'm introduced to one,
I like to think, "Feel Better, Hon!"

Take that.

Anyway, today was flea-bite-less (so far). I went to my clinical skills exam this morning and my partner and I only got minor, trivial feedback -- which is always a good sign. I think we are definitely improving. We're faster and we miss fewer things (like we were saying earlier, "Lungs? She has lungs? Oh, crap.") And then we decided, on the spur of the moment, to go to a Grand Rounds about H1N1, colloquially known as The Swine Flu...

Speaking of which, here's a really politically incorrect joke that my mom's friend came up with. I've modified it slightly:

Naysayer (in November): A black man as President? Sure, when pigs fly.
Retort (in April): Well, he's been in office 100 days. Lo and behold...swine flu.

So anyway, here's what I learned at Grand Rounds. The H1N1 is similar to other swine flus in severity, except that this one is transmissible from person-to-person. The major mode of transmission is droplet, so that means being within 6 ft of where someone with the flu was standing when they coughed or sneezed. Handwashing has not been shown to help, except that it decreases your risk of catching other stuff that will tax your immune system. The H1N1 has not been particularly virulent thus far, but we're afraid that it will follow the pattern of the 1918-19 Pandemic: mild in spring, horribly virulent in winter -- attacking healthy people, too. If this did come to pass, than those people exposed now will have some protection come winter, but the rest of us will have no immunity unless we are vaccinated. The vaccine is being produced. Priority for the vaccine will be to those considered necessary to keep society running, whatever that means.

So far, the epicenter is supposed to be Mexico, where there have been 590 cases and 25 deaths. We aren't sure why the deaths in Mexico also occurred in healthy young people -- it may partially be lack of care in time, or other factors. In the US, there have been 226 confirmed cases and only 1 death (a toddler). In the Bay Area, there has been one case each in San Francisco and Berkeley. The only way to confirm a case of H1N1 is by RT-PCR -- the rapid influenza test does not pick it up.

Right now, they are recommending self-isolation for 7 days and immediate medical attention if you're sick with respiratory symptoms + a fever, or GI symptoms + respiratory symptoms. Don't take Tamiflu unless you're exposed to a sick person, or are a baby, older adult, or pregnant. So far, the H1N1 has not been as lethal as regular flu, which takes 20-40,000 lives per year when you take pneumonia, one of the major complications, into account.

And don't panic. Chances are good that you will be okay.

So that was fun, and we got to have lunch with the doctors. There was an interesting man there (a surgeon, I believe) who thinks it's all a conspiracy to prepare us for bioterrorism. Whatever! Anyway, we wouldn't know that until after the fact even if it were true. Needless to say, I'm hoping we don't have a pandemic on our hands.

Then I went and wrote a paper just in time to turn it in, which always provides a small adrenaline rush. Hmmm. I might be a procrastination junkie; that's not healthy. I got an email saying I got accepted to a position I wanted. And I got to hang with my med school friends a bunch (one of whom gave me a FREE BOOK!) before coming home to my darling cat. That cat is pretty damn adorable -- I think she lowers my blood pressure about ten points when I see her. It's seven thirty and the sun is still out! I love spring!!

Sigh. Anyway. Now I have lots of papers to read and two clinical skills write-ups to write. Maybe I'll have chocolate for dinner. It's a beautiful day!