DEAR DOLLY (my fave pain-killer)

                                                                           

cc: Tylenol Panadol Paracetamol Dafalgan Afferalgan Calpol Alvedon Excedrin Acetaminophen....... ad nauseam. 

Dear Dolly,                                                   

I hope you don't mind the nickname, Doliprane. It's your French brand. This month you've been a constant presence in my life, I'm so familiar with you now, and I thank you for this.

Tendinitis and myalgia have given me an opportunity to crack open your blister-packs and make my way through the backlog of pills I'd thought irrelevant. Also I wouldn't want you to expire. 

I have a big supply, and I've shared you with others in need, and we know giving to others stimulates the release of dopamine, one of the happy hormones. Ah what a rush!

But for now I need to keep you for myself, my friend, where would I be without you? With the kidney-hostile ibuprofen in her various pseudonyms? Rougher on the stomach - you have a gentler touch. And no-better naproxen? 

However I must concede that you're a featherweight in the pain-killing arena. Even ibuprofen and naproxen do better than you. And then the heavyweights oxycontin, oxycodone, codeine, opium, heroin, morphine, hydrocodone ad nauseam and the more recent winner in the addictions sweepstakes - Fentanyl.

But I would never abandon you, dear one, Your sister-in-arms who goes by the bane Tylenol is a best-seller back in the US. You can all hold your heads high and continue dispensing relief to the millions.

Yours,

Lexie

PS  This one is addressed specifically to Tylenol-- you must recall the scandal back in 1982, the bad old days before sealed packaging?

Someone slipped imposter pills of cyanide-laced 'Extra-Strength Tylenol 'into the packages.                                          

Horrific scandal! Your reputation tanked. You became the Untouchable, even after multiple mea culpas......

But don't be too modest...... 

You put your name and reputation on the line to galvanize the revolution in safe packaging. 

You were the poster-child for taking charge!! It was onward and upward again, you were the Darling Daughter of the drugstore over-the-counter revolution.

                                    Way to go Girl!

                                                                  

 PPS. But watch out - research is ongoing and you ever know when you'll become Bad Girl on the Block again. They're following you.....

A  'thesaurus' of heavies:

Opioids: brand names, generic names and street names

https://www.asam.org/docs/default-source/education-docs/opioid-names_generic-brand-street_it-matttrs_8-28-17.pdf?sfvrsn=7b0640c2_2

A short disquisition on disease and disease prevention. Plus an unsung disease.

I grew up in a family that harbored health experts and world-class hypochondriacs, and I am one of ‘those‘ insufferable patients – a media surfer who wants to be on the same page as her doctors. Obnoxious. Well no, I’m pretty discreet.

Many of us oldies are lining up for double-whammy vaccinations to prevent or attenuate influenza (strains expected this year) and Covid 19 (idem). RFK Jr notwithstanding, those who can generally go for prevention. Despite some negative reactions it’s still wise. We won’t lock up RFK Jr just because he has issues with mainstream science, ignores and undermines it, obsessed with unverified theories of autism. New vaccinations have been developed, the door is open for more. We’ll simply carry on, despite Olympian Trumpian cuts to universities, the CDC, major medical research projects and so on.

We oldies still recall polio, whooping cough, measles, mumps, chicken pox, if not diphtheria, etc. Weeks and months of suffering. Bovine tuberculous was still alive and well in Switzerland, and all schoolchildren received chest fluoroscopies annually (with generous doses of radiation). Measles kept me in bed  for a month, a nightmare of fevers and isolation.  And measles is rearing its angry rash again among the unvaccinated, with the risk of severe complications.

All this is a lead-in for my favorite under-the-radar disease…….

Cat-scratch fever, with the beautiful Latin name:

 

 Bartonella henselae

My younger brother was diagnosed with cat-scratch fever by the pediatrician-who-made-housecalls with his stuffed monkey puppet meant to distract a scared child. My brother was 6, I was 11 and curious about all the attention he was getting.  He had very swollen lymph glands and fever, and simply wasn’t his usual sunny self. 

I was fascinated that a cat could cause this condition. Yet I have owned many cats, have endured many scratches over the years but never had it, and I haven’t met anyone else who confesses to being a survivor. 

The sheltered life? Better flea powder? Who knows?

Westerners still live with parasites, worms, head and body lice, scabies, etc. 

So where are the Bartonellistas?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November Morning, Driving to Geneva

 

November Morning, driving to Geneva

While I was driving east to town today 

a metaphor escaped my morning mind

as sun blew off the mist, a brilliant reprieve.

As for that metaphor eclipsed by sun:

why substitute a simile or simply curse? 

If a trope eludes me then I’ll let it be, 

it’s headed for a better metaverse.

🌥

⛅

🌤

🌞

(written that night when I couldn't get to sleep!)

• 
  

WORDLESHIP - WORDLE WORSHIP

Let's face it:  it's an addiction. Playing Wordle produces a delicious rush of dopamine - your little morning energy shot.

Wordle is a social, if not sociable game, sharpening your competitive edge with friends and relatives. With or without commentary you can rely on a daily Wordle boost to wake you up.

Many go solo, but I enjoy rubbing my grid up against other grids. 

If a Wordle buddy doesn't send you their daily result you begin to wonder--are they OK? What's wrong? Why haven't I heard from them? 

They may not be part of your intimate entourage but you now have a Wordleship that needs  to be nourished, upheld---- a commitment:  I will play Wordle and share it with you, crow when I do better than you, cower when I don't.

Some begin with the same few words that favor maximum vowels or consonants. Key words, go-to five-letter words. To me that's boring -- I use whatever word pops into my head for variety.

And you know what? I have the impression that my own scores and those of my 'opponent' friends - over time - average out the same (though I haven't charted them).

There are no champions in my book!

triumphant two     thrilling three     banal four      frightened five 

stupid six

WORDSHARE ------ TACHYPHYLAXIS

A mouthful of a word. My brother-the-doctor (in fact both brothers are doctors) offered me the Greek word incorporated into the medical lexicon. In response to my complaint that perhaps a medication I was taking was no longer as effective after a long and happy coexistence with my body. Pills, pills.

Tachyphylaxis - that medicine you loved has stopped loving you.

Certain words are just too delicious. 

Like a hand-made dark truffle from Auer Chocolatier, rolled repeatedly over and under the tongue. 

So what do you do? Reduce dose, take a drug 'holiday' (a dreadful American term that makes it sound like you're on spring break in Miami), ignore it, get over it, shop around for another med ?

But this is nothing compared to what's happening to the overseas drug industry Americans have relied on for decades which Trump has tariffed mercilessly.  European Pharma may not be saintly, but it still should be allowed to serve the public, export medicines and their components to the US without costly impediments. 

Now prices in the US are soaring......unless the Supreme Court rules that Trump's arbitrary and vengeful tariffs are illegal.

The Supreme Court is busy mulling it over.

'Tachy'  means lightly, quickly

'Taxis' in Greek means order, regular disposition, arrangement....:

We beg the Supreme Court:   Tachytaxis  (pseudo Greek).

  

AI AND I #2

AI and I: What is Jeûne Genevois? #2

 Carol did tell us it Chatbots sometimes lied, invented facts -- perhaps to flesh out the narrative, pretend it knows, protect its ego and shut you up.

I queried my bot on the history of the Jeûne Genevois, a (religious) day of fasting (jeûne) on the first Thursday of September.

Well.....apparently it's a kind of SWISS CHEESE!

                                                                                                        

                                                                        WHAT?? 

Follow-up:

I checked both my search bots and now they have come

to their senses: a religious commemoration of the

Protestant Reformation (thought so) and some

people do fast. I haven't met them.

No one fasts. 

It's like Labor Day with plums.

People bake or buy scrumptious plum tarts, go to

the country, take in a show, meet with friends and enjoy   

Labor Day by the Lake.  

I simply wanted a bit more historic/religious context 

for this special holiday.

Bot Motto

"No deep-dive research - just a quick dip for whatever

floats belly-up to the surface.

Politicians can be liars to please the crowd.

Hey........just like a bot!

 

 

AI AND I #1

Witty, Cagey, Elusive, Lying

My first, and so far only investigation of the powers of AI-generated narrative is when Carol, our collective writing coach, challenged us to download ChatBox AI, feed it a storyline and set it free. 

I entered a general plotline and some distinctive characters and a vague narrative arc and set it free. 

The story was shockingly good. It also seemed to reflect my tone of voice. It requested more prompts so it could continue its filibuster. I use the word ‘filibuster’ because it can hold up a session of true personal creativity. It talks and rambles, taking up time and space, hungry for more feeds and then? I could put out a collection of AI fiction – as people probably have already – and ……..

I was so excited I accidentally erased all of it, just as I was contemplating a collection with a major bot-feed element. Surely writers have already done this, but I was an AI virgin (almost) and was ready for a fling. After the story got re-absorbed into the AI bardo I dropped the idea.  

At least for now.