2 Admin: Writer's Scatter, Rather Than Writer's Block

A more personal note here from CO:

I think I have the opposite of writer's block at the moment, and I'm calling it writer's scatter. While Lyme disease has left me with shoddy memory at times (Did I leave the water running? Did I leave something in the toaster?) in terms of concentration I am all over the map. I can be intensely focused on something for hours and the rest of the world disappears, or I can be so mentally scattered my mind will not rest on one idea at a time for more than a minute or two.

This is where I am at the moment, and it looks to all the rest of the world like ADHD. Except... for the most part, people don't see me as being hyperactive when my butt is firmly planted to the sofa all the time. But if they could see inside my mind, then what they'd witness is a very different phenomenon. It's one that is making it very hard to write about any one thing now.

I'll give you a peek into my stream of consciousness at the moment, so you can see just how many branches are splitting off the old mental tree:

I'm thinking of the letter that was recently published to the Lancet which I've ranted about, and the reception to that rant. A lot of people visited this site in the past couple days to read that rant, but only few people commented on it here. Why is that?

I'm thinking about how being a doctor is different from being a researcher and what that means when someone is discussing treatment versus discussing evidence-based medicine. Are these two things always the same things? Are they different things? When is and isn't that okay?

I'm thinking about the use of ketamine in mice to sedate them during experiments and wondering how that might influence the outcome of testing the effect of Borrelia burgdorferi on the immune system. I even wrote a post about it months ago but have never posted it, thinking few people would want to read about it.

I'm thinking about this stack of paperwork I have to sort through and find irritating to do so. I have to make some phone calls in the morning. I need to sign and put some forms in the mail. I am bound to not do half of what I need to do even if I write it down.

I'm thinking about my posts from months ago where at the bottom of each, I've written "to be continued in part 2" or "more in a future post on this topic", and part 2 hasn't been written nor has a future post addressed that topic. Where do I begin, when so many other topics and news have grabbed my attention and inspired me to write - and these old threads which have been postponed have not?

I'm thinking about how readers have suggested topics for me to write on and I haven't gotten to those, either.

I'm thinking about how it is that on some Lyme disease support groups - if you don't share the same opinion as the majority does and your difference of opinion makes others bristle rather than ask questions out of curiosity - how difficult that is for you to find support when you are already marginalized by illness.

I'm thinking about how the hell the kitchen is going to get clean given the state it's currently in. It looks like someone put a detonator in the crockpot and it went off. Five alarm chili just might mean anyone who looks in that kitchen is going to be alarmed... It is going to take a long time for me to do anything about it and I can only chip away at it for a few minutes at a time before my arms get too worn out.

I'm thinking about coming up with my own lazy bachelor with a chronic illness cookbook. It must include mixed drinks and easy snacks. Some of the recipes need to burn the roof of your mouth and clean out the sinuses, too. I don't want these recipes to be bland by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm thinking about all my friends who were in the path of the hurricane and lost their power. (Mine is fine, thankfully.) I've heard from most of them - their basements are soggy but they are alive and mostly well.

I'm thinking about how a year ago I told someone I don't want to be defined by this disease and I want my life back. And here I am, writing this damned blog. How did that happen? I swore I would get better and never do something like this. Yet here I am.

My ears are ringing. I need more sleep. So I'll end things here for the night.

Besides, I will just continue to have more random thoughts racing through my head like this until I pass out.

This work by Camp Other is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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10 Video: Tick Removal

I've been spending some time today looking for good videos on how to properly remove a tick and also what tools are best to have in your toolkit.

I've seen some really, really bad videos. Some American guy removing a tick from his leg when drunk (no, he did not do a good job) and some Australian guy removing a tick from his abdomen starting with spraying insect spray on the embedded tick.

As a reminder to those reading along: Do NOT spray or ignite ticks with insect spray and/or a flamethrower when removing them, especially while intoxicated on any substance.

Where was I? The videos. Right.

A lot were poorly lit and filmed so far from the bite area that it was out of focus - and others, while well-made with 3D animation of a tick in all of its glory - contained errors or missed important points.

I'm still looking for something better to post here. Until I get my own copy of Pixar studio software and can make my own tick removal animation, these will have to do - unless you're reading along and have found better examples.

Please feel free comment with links to the best tick removal videos you've found online and tell me why you think they are worthwhile. In the meantime, check out the two below, and pass them on to kids and adults alike.

This first one is an animated film from Canada.

It's simple and to the point, and aimed at children - but the advice and information given applies to adults, too.

Tick Talk - The Adventures of a Not-So-Super-Villian [Time: 3:30]



This second one is a short film from a woman in the UK who is close to someone with Lyme disease, and while the prices for items in her tick kit are in quid, her feedback about various tools is useful to hear.

Ticks - Human Survival Kit [Time: 2:23]



I went to many well-known informational Lyme disease web sites and have been surprised they did not have any video - animation or otherwise - showing the procedure for how to remove a tick, though they did provide pictures and instructional text.

As always, keep the following in mind when removing a tick:

• Do not burn or use any substance on tick
• Do not grasp, squeeze, or twist body of tick with tweezers (tick twister is an exception)
• Grasp tick close to the skin with tweezers
• Pull tick straight out
• Use antiseptic on skin
• Disinfect tweezers
• Wash hands thoroughly
• Always see a physician for possible diagnosis, testing, and treatment
• If desired, save tick to be tested at tick testing laboratory

In the United States, here are some well-known tick-testing labs:

IGeneX Labs, Palo Alto, CA: 800-832-3200
MDL, Mt. Laurel, NJ: 877-269-0090
NJ Labs, New Brunswick, NJ: 732-249-0148

If anyone would like to share their experience with getting their tick tested at any of the above labs or another lab, that would be appreciated.

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2 A Reminder: Your Patients' Bill of Rights

If you're a patient, you may have seen this bill of rights hanging in your doctor's office.

I'm reprinting it here as a reminder to empower yourself. To ask questions. To learn about options. To ask about risks and benefits for a specific treatment. To refuse a treatment until you have researched it more, or refuse the treatment entirely from the moment it is suggested.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons adopted a list of Patient Freedoms in 1990 [3] which was modified and adopted as a Patients' Bill of Rights in 1995 [4]:

All patients should be guaranteed the following freedoms:

• To seek consultation with the physician(s) of their choice;
• To contract with their physician(s) on mutually agreeable terms;
• To be treated confidentially, with access to their records limited to those involved in their care or designated by the patient;
• To use their own resources to purchase the care of their choice;
• To refuse medical treatment even if it is recommended by their physician(s);
• To be informed about their medical condition, the risks and benefits of treatment and appropriate alternatives;
• To refuse third-party interference in their medical care, and to be confident that their actions in seeking or declining medical care will not result in third-party-imposed penalties for patients or physicians;
• To receive full disclosure of their insurance plan in plain language, including:

1. CONTRACTS: A copy of the contract between the physician and health care plan, and between the patient or employer and the plan;
2. INCENTIVES: Whether participating physicians are offered financial incentives to reduce treatment or ration care;
3. COST: The full cost of the plan, including co-payments, coinsurance, and deductibles;
4. COVERAGE: Benefits covered and excluded, including availability and location of 24-hour emergency care;
5. QUALIFICATIONS: A roster and qualifications of participating physicians;
6. APPROVAL PROCEDURES: Authorization procedures for services, whether doctors need approval of a committee or any other individual, and who decides what is medically necessary;
7. REFERRALS: Procedures for consulting a specialist, and who must authorize the referral;
8. APPEALS: Grievance procedures for claim or treatment denials;
9. GAG RULE: Whether physicians are subject to a gag rule, preventing criticism of the plan.

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