h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My Dad was very weak and vulnerable at the time. I don't think the boys brought it from school. I must admit I hadn't realised it could be so serious. useful information, thanks.

Websailor

There's a little more of relevance from the thread below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F8984900?thread=5387451 BBC - h2g2 - A Conversation Forum

I must say the people writing health standards often tempt me to use strong language.

With-holding zoovirax for chicken pox despite the life, limb, human suffering and contagion hazards, all of which can be drastically reduced by means of providing it. ...often on a basis of obsessive fears of resistant organisms evolving, which is still no excuse for not treating those cases that respond well to the medication.

Perhaps we should also have moratoriums on antisepsis and aneasthesia until the potential hazards can be better obsessed over.

I always found that Tea Tree Oil was a considerably more efficient anti viral, treatment than anything like Zoovirax,professionally speaking.

(If someone hasn't already done an entry on that, then I really ought to get going on one)

I don't see why you say that particular medication *can* be "with held" though, ITIWBS. The topical medication (ointment, to us with a less extensive vocab) can be bought over the counter at any decent chemist, surely? It's the stuff folk use on cold sores, which I believe is part of the Herpes simplex in Chicken Pox/Shingles.

Out of interest, what do the initials ITIWBS stand for? I know of wysiwyg, but ITIWBS is a new one on me

ITIWBS, acronym, in the spirit of the dysthymic robot from the h2g2 movie, for the first thought that came to my mind when I found that my first choice for a username had already been taken:

I

T hought

I t

W ould

B e

S o

Over the counter and non-prescription zoovirax preparations? Not in the USA. The difference between that one and the alternatives, for the general run of the pox-viruses, is that with the zoovirax, one is symptom free and much less infectious and contagious, usually without side effects.

Everything else is at best a paliative.

The zoovirax is a major breakthrough in antiviral medicine.

Ah. A mystery solved.Thank you.

I've just googled zoovirax -first hit was a site selling it in both tablet and cream form, and it looked to me that it was sold in American Dollars.

May be of use to you, perhaps?

Its a shame that nothing can be found to allieviate the pain of Fibromialgia, which is what, I believe, TB suffers from.

As do I,as well as an arthritic/degenerative spine

I'm prescribed slow release morphine to mask the pain of the arthritus, but unfortunately it's not awfully helpful for the nerve pain involved.

There doesn't seem to be much expertise regarding autoimmune diseases within the NHS... it seems to be just palatives and snake oil



Or there's always alcohol. A good muscle relaxant is a couple of units of beer.... or so I'm told

Medical science is still a less than than perfect science, after revolutionary advances of the early and middle twentieth century, currently a 'flat water' moment dominated on the political side by reaction against the illicit drugs problems of the latter half of the twentieth century and an excessively deontological outlook in medical policy making proper.

Sorry I haven't been in to read and reply to these messages. I intend to later. Can't at the moment. I'm doped to the eyeballs with pain-killers - which aren't making a blind bit of difference to the pain but have effectively stopped my brain from working. Forgive my tardiness.

There is no rush TB . You take it steady. I was doped up with painkillers yesterday and couldn't keep my eyes open, they kept closing which was frustrating .

I felt so last night, I even said a prayer. Now, I am not religious at all but was willing to try anything .

I feel a lot better today and not so .

You take it easy TB. Thinking about you .

Nigel

What Nigel's just said. Take your time.

I'm having a bit of a fork in the Goulash day myself today - put it down to the rainy weather I think I'll skip the praying if its all the same to you lads; instead I'll crack open a nice bottle of wine
and try and get some relief that way.

(And no, I'm not supposed to drink... but then, I'm not supposed to be in pain, either, far as I'm concerned, so it's all equal!)

Ev, I think I will come and join you for that bottle of wine. I haven't had an alcoholic drink for about four years now, I am waiting for a nice young lady to share a glass with .

That is why I am off to Ev's now .

.

Nigel

Nice? Yes

Lady? Most of the time

Young? Now; how can I put this tactfully?


Mind you, if you haven't had an alcoholic drink for4 years Nigel, I'd have thought you'd sup with the himself if a decent wine was involved

Here



Cheers!

Nigel

I don't feel I can add more to this thread without sounding cheap and nasty. I do admire all of you, and offer sympathy, for what good it does.

On chicken pox, though, I was under the impression that if the spots 'came out>,there was little permanent damage; this only occurred when they didn't 'flower' fully, as it were. Obviously I was wrong.

I've just thought of something else I can add harmlessly. Do, for goodness' sake, call on your MP whenever it's necessary. After all, it's their job to help. I was due a second cataract operation, and when I rang the hospital about it, I was told 'they weren't doing second eyes any more'. I reported this to the MP, who was told that I'd misunderstood (what part, I wonder?) and I was on the table within a fortnight. It can be done.

Br Evadne Cake, afterthoughts on differences between UK and US medical practice, morphine is rarely used in the US except in hospitals, though codeine enhanced painkillers based on aspirin, acetaminophen and ibuprofen are available on a prescription basis; a point that's academic for me, since I'm hyperkinetic and prone to paradoxical reaction to many medications in the class. Opiates (especially morphine) for me are not painkillers, but sensation amplifiers. If it feels good, feels better, if it hurts, hurts worse with than without. I can't so much as eat a poppy seed muffin without it feeling like a handful of gravel on the stomach. If I need something more potent than elevated ibuprofen (can't use acetaminophin), percocet is a good choice which for me is almost without side effects. For dental pain, rather than bothering about (for me) useless coca derivatives, usually I'll let a melatonin tablet dissolve against the sensitive tooth. Though the melatonin isn't usually classed as a painkiller, it is soothing, and there are some dental preparations using it currently in the preliminary release phase. Thankfully, I don't need any medications at all at present, though I am using a breathing machine during sleep for sleep apnea.

American physicians are currently very rigidly restricted with respect to the medications they can prescribe and the amounts they're allowed to. Until the middle 1990s, they had much more latitude than at present.

Finally, on the chicken pox, while it was overshadowed during the middle twentieth byd diseases like small pox and polio which killed or maimed more often than not, its next on the list after them for life and limb threatening potential.

I'm kind of reminded of a passage from Goethe's autobiography in which he was describing the childhood diseases he'd contracted, matter-of-factly including the small pox among them, with remarks on how inoculation had been offered and refused and how when he and his sister contracted the disease simultaneously, his sister died of it. The eradication of small pox during the 1970s was a great step forward, culmination of an effort founded on about two centuries of steady inoculation effort. There's still a way to go on the eradication effort and the chicken pox is one of the diseases that's potentially eradicable

Phew. I must tell myself more often how lucky I am. You make me thoroughly humble. Bless you for that!

All the very best.

Goodness. What a very interesting thread grew from my unhappy rant. Thank you all

I'm quite a bit better now. I hope all you fellow sufferers are feeling far into the fair to middling range today.

Ev. Thanks for the advice re disability allowance. It's not the scrap heap that worries me though. It's the feeling of powerlessness once you commit yourself to the tender loving care of the system. I don't want to play a game by their rules. They're a bunch of twisters and I don't trust them. I'm tempted to say "over my dead body". If it's a choice at all, it will be OMDB. Sometimes it feels as though the choice is slipping away. Anyway. It's back now for a bit.

All the speculation about chicken pox is pretty fascinating. I'd heard vague rumours of the connection. I had it in mind that my dose of misery was kicked off by an anaesthetic for an ear operation I had right about the time the problem started. However, in the last 20 years I've had more of those so called "childhood diseases" than I ever had when I was a child. I've had measles, mumps, measles again, chicken pox and chicken pox again - and the first of those poxes was around the time of that ear operation. Trouble is, I can't remember whether it was before or after and by a weeks, or months. I've had this damn thing for over 15 years now and my memory is bad and getting worse. Ah well. Whatever caused it, it's too late to worry about it now. Still, interesting though, ah?

it's too late to worry about it now.

Try not to say 'too late'. I know just what you mean, but don't you think these are the saddest words in the language?

I wish you all that's good.

Dig

Hello seraphicDigitalis

I only meant it was too late to worry about what caused it in the first place. I suppose it would matter if knowing the cause, suggested a cure. But there doesn't seem to be any suggestion of a cure, whatever the cause. It would still be interesting to know for sure though, wouldn't it?

You're right, 'too late' is a sad phrase but if we limited ourselves to cheerful language we'd feel the lack.

to you too.

Tibley Bobley and seraphicDigitalis, I was just reading over this thread and apparently some of my messages failed to post. Happens once in a while, whatever the reason.

seraphicDigitalis, you're certainly right that progress on these things doesn't come without considerable politico support. The inoculation efforts to date could never have succeeded without government sponsored and funded efforts. Support on this is at a low ebb by comparison with the middle twentieth century standards. How soon that is going to change in the US depends on the next administration. I think one can be confident of crisis in the economy, medicine and telecommunications. What remains to be seen is how that will be handled.

Tibley Bobley, I'm glad to hear that you are feeling somewhat better.

I certainly can understand appreciate your distress at the thought of becoming dependent on the system. Its been my experience that official systems tend over time to accumulate disproportionate numbers of the semi-competent and the incompetent. It does no one's sense of self esteem any good being forced into a dependent situation at best.

Have you looked into endocrine replacement therapy for the tendonitis?
There is hope in that.

Other points, My Mom, just a couple of days ago, finished the second round of bypass/angioplasty surgery for her atherosclerosis following a TIA (small stroke). About 11 weeks after the first round, the problems she'd been having with slurred speech and memory loss were almost all gone and I'm optimistic for good results on the second round. She's talking about plans for the house and garden that would have been beyond her physical limitations before.

The atherosclerosis is a condition on which there have been some recent advances. Until the middle 1990s, it was thought to be a genetic problem. Then it was discovered that it was due to a plaque forming chlamydia bacterium that had to await the development of new electron microscope staining techniques for discovery, even though it is in a size range where it would be visible in an optical microscope if it were not so pallid. TB was like that, the micro-organism invisible under an optical microscope except in phase contrast until Dr. Paul Erlich developed his staining techniques. The indicated organism for atherosclerosis responds in about 1/3 of cases to Azithromycin therapy. Research is underway for more effective broad spectrum antibiotics for it. I will be very unsurprised if the breakthrough comes out of the German program. The current surgical regimens for the problem work extremely well, though. Thankfully, my Mom's medical insurance covered it.

This is one that's a concern for me, since I have a history of minor cardiac trouble, though nothing so far mandating treatment.

Maybe we ought to be getting up a public education effort on some of the conditions and issues.