I don’t know anything about Fibromyalgia, yet I wince when someone says it’s psychosomatic. I wonder about almost any conditioned considered psychosomatic now. I realize I’m using the term in the vernacular to mean “it’s all in your head”. That’s how it is largely understood even though, technically, psychosomatic illness can refer to anything
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: Canada’s Healthcare Crisis
A major backbone of Canada is falling apart, and much of it is from poor policy decisions that has led to a serious doctor shortage. Mary Fernando, MD, wrote about it. “A personal post in two parts: 1. Someone I love needs a specialist but wait times are dangerously long
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Hostility Creating Isolation
A recent study found that older adults are spending less time in public due to hostility against people in masks. “The study comes amid what the U.S. Surgeon General recently called an ‘epidemic of loneliness’ in which older adults – especially those who are immune compromised or have disabilities –
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: What’s Good for the King is Good for the Kids
We KNOW that Covid makes kids sick, which affects attendance, and we KNOW cleaning the air will help (since so many have been convince not to wear masks to class), but we’ll still only implement solutions for the wealthiest 1%. Back in June 2020, the New York Times reported how Covid short-circuits
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: No Ragrets
The frustrating experiences that linger with me the longest are the times I was able to make a difference in my tiny corner of the world or have some kind of effect or even have the potential to have an effect, and then it was derailed, often by a well-meaning person
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Avian Flu and You
Avian flu has jumped to cows and a person, which is a little bit bigger deal than just avoiding soft boiled eggs. H5N1 was contracted by someone in Texas who was in contact with dairy cattle. His only symptom is eye inflammation, and he’s doing fine on Tamiflu. He was
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Four Long Years
A look back to four years ago: From Craig Spencer, MD MPH, Four years ago today, I walked into the apocalypse.Crossing the line in the ER felt like entering a whole other world.Frenetic alarms.Patients strewn about, struggling to breathe.Too few staff. Too many deaths.Covid was everything.It had completely taken over
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: One Step Forward…
More good news about antivirals. From Nate Bear: People are experiencing, “almost complete Long Covid recovery with the use of an HIV antiretroviral [ART]. There is obviously viral persistence in a proportion of Long Covid cases and the denial of this fact in the medical establishment is killing people.” So,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Suing Social Media Giants
A collection of school boards are suing a collection of social media sites for allegedly deliberately hurting students. That’s from the Toronto Star headline, but deliberate harm?? I’m not sure what the lawsuit actually says, and I’m not a lawyer, but I would think that a charge of deliberate harm means they’d have
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Cognitive Tests
I lost an hour of my morning to cognitive tests – just for fun (and a baseline). AARP has a battery of tests you can take. They’re free, but you have to register. They save them and can be retaken monthly to monitor any changes. I’ve been part of a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Identity: Erikson, Freud, and Sartre
I recently listened to a podcast of Dr. Louis Cozolino, a neuroscientist and psychoanalyst, discussing what he would teach if he were training psychotherapists. The first year would be phenomenology: the power of Carl Rogers’ perspective to train how to develop an alliance through reflective listening while keeping countertransference out
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Some Meds that Might Help
A new PrEP for Covid! Invivyd got FDA approval for Pemgarda, or pemivibart and formerly VYD222, to be used as Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for Covid, specifically for adults and adolescents with moderate-to-severe immune compromise. Of course it made their stock jump dramatically. They expect it to be available imminently (see
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: When the Rain Comes
A good rain metaphor from tern: Some people just can’t wrap their heads around the multiple dangers caused by covid infection. Speaking to a colleague yesterday, I tried to describe it like the effects of rain. If your roof is solid, and there’s a light rain shower, your house can
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Enshittification of Health Care
Last week David Moscrop wrote an excellent piece in The Walrus about Loblaw. He wrote, “If you live in Canada, you’re probably part of the Loblaw ecosystem, whether you like it or not. . . . It accounts for nearly a third of Canada’s grocery market. . . . Loblaw’s
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Government Provoked Global Suicide
Governments around the world have discussed solutions to climate change, but not enough are seriously acting to reduce this threat. From environmentalist Stephen Barlow: I’d far rather not have to spell out uncomfortable truths, and I have no agenda, other than to stop humanity committing global suicide by ignoring the seriousness
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: You Can’t Care about Refugees and Not Care about Covid
Disability activist Imani Barbarin made an important connection between Covid precautions and genocide. In this Tiktok video she explains why “It’s wild that people think they can support Palestinians as they’re being disabled without disability justice”: @crutches_and_spice De@th does not follow disabled people, nondisabled people carry it with them to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Hiding in Plain Sight
Anecdotal information – what we see around us – is far, far less accurate when measuring risks than scientific studies; unfortunately, it’s far more persuasive. We need to heed the science. I don’t actually know anyone who died of lung cancer from smoking. In fact, my grandmother smoked like a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Why Resist Clean Air?
Barry Hunt spent a lot of time in hospitals with a knee injury, but managed to never catch Covid because he knows how to avoid it. It’s possible for all of us to avoid it!! He wrote this thread in December 2021, but it’s still very applicable. This is all from
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: A Long Post for Long Covid Awareness Day!
March 15th is LongCovid Awareness Day, recognized in the U.S. and the U.K., and in Canada, and Sweden, but not yet by the United Nations. A bit about my biggest concern – the brain – from James Throt, MD: Covid: A Brain Damaging Story I believe that in the absence of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Shame-Free Guide to Masks
Chuck created a slideshow guide of coping with mask wearing:
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