What's really weird to me is that Mormons care at all whether they are included among Christians... because they are taught from birth that everyone else is wrong, anyway.🤷♀️
@Favwontmiss I set out to disprove the "rule of 4" and it was correct all along. Whatever time my brain estimates a task will take, it will take 4x as long. I was so sure I wasn't off by that much, but, well... I am. And now I know and can plan my timing better.
With everything we are hearing right now about ticks this seems like good information to share.
“Here’s what I’ve learned after more ticks than I care to count.
First, whatever your uncle told you, forget it. No matches. No nail polish. No Vaseline. No soap on a cotton ball. All of those do the same terrible thing, they stress the tick out, and a stressed tick empties its gut back into the bite before letting go. Which, if you think about what that actually means for a second, is literally how Lyme and the rest get transmitted so you’re not speeding up its exit. You’re making it throw up into you.
Fine-tipped tweezers. Grip right where the mouthparts enter the skin, not the body, the head. Pull straight up, steady, no twisting, no jerking. It’ll feel like it’s resisting because it is, the mouthparts are barbed. Just keep the pressure on and it lets go in a few seconds. If a piece breaks off in the skin, leave it alone. Your body pushes splinters out. Digging around with a needle does more damage then the fragment ever would.
Clean it with alcohol or soap. Wash your hands.
Now here’s the part most people skip: don’t flush the tick.
Tape it to an index card. Clear packing tape right over the body, write the date and where on your body it was, and stick the card in a drawer. If you come down with anything weird in the next 30 days, rash, fever, joint pain, that flu-that-isn’t-flu feeling, that tick goes with you to the doctor. Some labs will test the tick itself, which is faster and often more reliable than waiting for antibodies to show up in your own blood. A dated tick taped to a card is one of the most useful things you can hand a doctor who’s trying to figure out what’s wrong with you.
The other thing worth saying out loud: if the tick was engorged when you pulled it, and you can’t swear it was off your body within 24 hours, call your doctor that same day. Don’t wait for a rash. Fewer than three out of four Lyme cases even produce the classic bullseye. A single preventive dose of doxycycline within 72 hours of a deer tick bite cuts the Lyme odds way down, and most docs in tick country will write that prescription without giving you a hard time, especially if you walk in with the tick taped to a card and a clear timeline.”
@FeralHeather@michael_hoerger I ordered 4-in-1 COVID, RSV, Flu A/B tests from Germany and because of that, I know the last two times I've been sick (the only two since 2019), it's been RSV. [Gifts brought home by my kids who mask as well as they can and still manage to touch everything.]
@DonEford Will your presentation be available? My PCP is clueless about COVID and refused to write a script for me to get a full Nvax series because I'd already had Pfizer. So I managed to get two in the first year, and one annual booster, but I'd really prefer to do six months.
@drseanmullen I had to get to question three before I could answer question 1 because I was like, "Is he talking about individual squares? Surely he can't mean entire rolls."
@DonEford Which nasal sprays are recommended? I had been using Betadine and Physiomer's Virus Defense (both iota-carrageenan), but all brands have been sold out for a year where I am currently - even online. Fortunately, I bought in bulk, but I'm on my last one.