It might not come as a surprise to you, but I’ve been out a bit myself lately. I’m in the second week of a vacation/work vacation, in the latter portion alas. The strips running in newspapers this week and next, and on GoComics, are “best-of” repeats, chosen and recolored by myself. This week’s strips are from 2012, and next week’s will be from 2008. I hope you enjoy seeing them again.
171 responses to “Time Out”
My earlier post about Jackie’s molar extraction should have read “without a hitch”, of course. I blame sleep deprivation.
In fact, if I weren’t so sleepy right now, I’d reveal the details of a mishap I had last week that led to a couple of bloody, yet not serious, wounds on my body. As a teaser, I will say that it was a freak shopping cart accident.
What that freak* was doing with a shopping cart, I’ll never know.
*With apologies to George Carlin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8pwV056d0Y
Carlin was obviously inspired by Groucho:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfN_gcjGoJo
For the birders among us: http://www.gocomics.com/herman/2018/03/01
Peregrine on the ledge, poking around; no egg yet.
http://chesapeakeconservancy.org/explore/wildlife-webcams/peregrine-falcon/
Looks like another night in Tulsa. Jackie is doing well from the tooth extraction, but unfortunately the antibiotic they put her on prior to the procedure seems to being a number on her gastric tract. We decided it would not be much fun for either of us to travel until her stomach settles down. And I can print more price labels for the boutique while we’re here.
Try Prylosec, Ghost. That’s what the VA gave me when I was on sulfa and it worked fine.
Sideburns, wouldn’t what you take depend on what symptoms you’re having? If it’s diarrhea, Prilosec won’t help, Imodium would be better. If it’s heartburn, etc, Prilosec is a winner.
My community orchestra’s concert on Monday should be great… as long as we don’t all stop and stare when the guest harpist plays. She puts the rest of us to shame.
Ah! Not only does sulfa do a number on my stomach, I’ve had other antibiotics mess me up, but never diarrhea.
Sideburns, sometimes an antibiotic will disrupt the digestive flora in the intestinal tract and cause diarrhea. There is even a code for it, so it must be a pretty common thing.
Antibiotics are chemicals, usually secreted in nature by bacteria or fungi, that kill or inhibit competing microbes, or synthetic compounds of the same sort. Sulfa is not an antibiotic. The sulfa drugs came out shortly before the first antibiotics, I think.
One problem with antibiotics, and also other drugs, is evolution. Often, genetic variations in some individual disease organisms or other species we don’t like enable a few individuals to survive the antibiotic, other drug, or poison we have used against them. These resistant individuals give rise to succeeding generations, and pretty soon, the weapon has become useless.
Another problem was mentioned above: the chemicals we use often kill other beneficial organisms, such as essential bacteria in our gut.
Peace,
The first time I had sulfa, I had a nasty boil caused by MRSA, and it worked great. The second time it was for a bladder infection. It worked, but not completely, so they gave me a different drug to finish the work. (That way, anything that survived had to be resistant to both, which is highly unlikely.) Once that was done, I had a bladder stone removed by laser lithotripsy the day before Rosh Hashonah.
i had a sinus infection that wouldn’t clear, and being allergic to penicillin, the doctor had to give me another antibiotic. I can’t think of the name right now, but after I took it for a few days I was completely covered with purple blotches and my skin was turning red. Back to the clinic and I looked so bad the nurse took pictures of the blotches. And they prescribed a different drug which worked fine without problems. Neither the professionals nor you know how your body will react till you try it. It might be a life saver or it might knock you on your backside.
Sulfa, Penicillin Shell Fish….All give me hives. There are a few other food items that do not cooperate with my lower GI like sour cream, peanuts and to a lesser extent, red meat, but I enjoy these foods. I am literally watching what I eat. I need to get a new scale as I bought a cheap one that seems to spit out random numbers.
My “Watch what I eat diet”? Basically eating a lighter lunch with salads or Slim Fast along with cucumbers. The key is that there is SO much candy at the office. I just say NO! Then when I get home, I’ll eat a handful of mixed nuts and then try not to stuff myself for dinner. I have more work to do on that end. But after a low calorie dessert, no more food until morning. This worked for my 6 years ago when I lost 30 lbs in about 3 months. I won’t bore you with the day to day weight loss, but I am sure that I will “brag” when I get closer to my goal.
I am walking a marathon again in early April. All that extra weight is not good to be carrying around.
Mark in Ttown- I think this reaction is pretty common, especially with antibiotics which attack a greater variety of germs and are called broad spectrum drugs. They kill more germs, including the beneficial microbes in our guts, which often leads to diarrhea and other intestinal distress. Erythromycin is an old drug that was famous for this reaction and was called a gut-killer by medical practitioners when I was young.
Nowadays, if there is a drug that I know will upset my gut, I start taking pro-biotics at the same time as I take the drug and for a little while after I quit taking the drug and feel much less distress. Luckily I have rarely had to take antibiotics. Some people have to take them more frequently – for instance, my husband has had knee replacement and has been told to take a prophylactic dose every time he gets his teeth cleaned or otherwise worked on.
More people have allergies to sulfa drugs and penicillin than to any other medications. I wonder if it might be because they have been around longer so people have been exposed to them longer. I know that some people do not break out when exposed to poison ivy (I didn’t, the first few times I accidentally encountered it) but that increased exposure is more likely to result in an allergic reaction (again, that was my experience).
I’ve developed an allergy to Bactrim, a sulfa drug. I’ve taken it 3 times during my life. The first couple of times were for bladder infections, then a couple of years ago I was prescribed it when I oozed a couple of drops of pus from a stitch after surgery. That time I broke out in a rash and now it’s on my chart as an allergy. I have taken a couple of medications for blood pressure and hypothyroid for many years and have never developed an allergy to them. I wonder if antibiotics are more likely than other medications to lead to allergic reactions?
As a person with CHF, and a diabetic, I’ve had a couple of strange reactions to the newer medications for blood sugar control. With Janumet, a combination of Januvia and Metformin, I developed an intolerance for gluten which vanished once I quit taking it. More recently, I tried a once-a-week injectable which kicked my heart into hyperdrive (120 bpm while resting!) and concerned me that it might not just stress my heart, but that if I did anything strenuous my heart rate would go out of range and make the device in my chest fire its defibrillator.
Thanks Judy. It was Bactrim that broke me out so badly, too.
Debbe (and you other cat people), this should keep you amused for a while: https://www.boredpanda.com/not-my-cat-i-dont-own-cat-inside-house/
Back in Eufaula…for about 48 hours. Yep, they have Jackie back on a Monday schedule for her chemo, so we will be leaving about 5 PM Sunday to go back to Tulsa. As I told a couple of folks, this wasn’t a fun week, but at least it was a very long one.
She got over her gastric reaction to the penicillin and seems to be feeling very well now. We even stopped and did some shopping on the way back. She wouldn’t let me buy any more miniskirts (something about how I already had us overstocked with miniskirts, although I’m not sure such a thing is possible). She did let me pick out some shorts (some of them lacy) and some skimpy tops that are best described as the top half of a skimpy sundress. And then, praise the Lord, we found some actual skimpy sundresses. You may be seeing a trend here.
Just doing my part to keep Eufaula females skimpily clad.
c x-p et al.: Here’s Elena Garanca doing the Carmen habanera again, this time in its proper setting. Dangerous woman. I like the concert version w/ Dudamel better.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=habanera+carmen&view=detail&mid=CCF6956C8E19A18560B0CCF6956C8E19A18560B0&FORM=VIRE
Peace,
Anyone have an opinion about the possibility of our food supply being toxic? Some researchers seem to think it’s a distinct possibility.
That is a serious question, not a joke. Although I eat as I should and exercise, I am regaining weight and feel tired most of the time.
Fortunately, my blood tests show that everything but PSA is excellent. My blood pressure and pulse rate are also excellent.
“Una Voce Poco Fa” & “Granada” also sung by Garanca are among the nest versions I’ve heard, too. Same site – just look at the listings.
“best”, of course
Well Rick, I once ate a whole box of thin mints and didn’t lose a pound….rim-shot. Very old rim-shot.
Good. Morning. I need to Check in more!