Yay for the good news, Cindy.

As for the flu shot, my personal experience would seem to contradict the claim that they are only providing vaccinations to high risk groups. I got the feeling they wanted to give out as many vaccinations as possible.

I think it depends largely on municipality.

I got the regular flu shot a couple of weeks ago (the school provides them for us), but they won't have H1N1 for another month.

whee. a run to the er vet. Happily, it looks like andy cat ate something that disagreed with him

Cindy, that's fantastic news.

Beth, I hope Andy Cat feels better soon. Poor thing.

I am in a wibbly wobbly world of research and social worker visits today. I could probably combine the two somehow. Social worker might be nicer to me if she thinks I'm writing a paper on her.

Social worker might be nicer to me if she thinks I'm writing a paper on her.

Seska: [looks at social worker (SW) and makes a careful note.]

SW: Watcha doing?

Seska: Research. For . . . a paper.

You don't actually have to tell SW the topic, do you?

That said, SW should be nice to you regardless.

Agreed with Calli that SW should be nicer to you, Seska.

AndyCat, don't do that to your humans.

Yay for new home ownership, erin!

Need moar coffee.

Isn't it a waste of time to get the vaccine that isn't for H1N1? The anticipated flu strain is not the one that's moving through the populace.

No -- Beth is right; "normal" flu season doesn't ramp up until November-December-January. Getting a flu shot now allows you time to develop antibodies.

Part of the clusterfuck that is H1N1 is that no one expected it to be hitting its peak now, because it's considered early for a flu virus. Combine the peak with not enough vaccine, and it's one big crazy factory.

Ugh. Woke up, ate breakfast, and almost immediately threw up. Not sure what's going on here, but I don't like it.

You don't actually have to tell SW the topic, do you?

Hee! Not a bad idea.

Part of the fun/weirdness of being a sociologist researching health and disability is the way doctors and rehab workers respond to me. 'Expert patients' aren't particularly popular over here, even though the government would like everyone with a chronic illness to be doing self-management courses etc. If I give away that I know too much about my condition or my rights, or suggest I want to have some input into decisions about my own health (i.e. I'm capable of reading medical journals and talking to friends who are doctors), I can get into quite a lot of trouble. So for years I've been playing the fool. I've recently got sick of that, since it doesn't get me very far - and also because I'm researching medical training and know exactly what current thinking is on patients like me (i.e. difficult people who ask questions).

Doing an odd kind of double bluff on them, by hinting at all the papers I'm writing on their training, might be one rather fun way forward. Also, it keeps me focused on getting a Ph.D. one of these days. I can't wait till I can introduce myself to a doctor as 'Doctor'.

Part of the clusterfuck that is H1N1 is that no one expected it to be hitting its peak now, because it's considered early for a flu virus.

This is really quite worrying. I hear it could get significantly worse if it mutates. There's no point in my getting a shot, because I've had it, but I've been told to watch out and try to avoid getting it again in mutated form. You can't win there.

Presumably, death rates from H1N1 are only going to rise over the winter. As flu deaths usually do - only potentially much worse. (I'm quite willing to admit I was wrong to say it was 'only flu', as I was saying a few months ago. It's not the thousands of deaths that the UK media was predicting, but it's not good, either.)

Apropos of nothing much, I was just taking a semi-nap and re-reading the chapter in Allyson's book about when you flew Nilly out to the States. Last time I read that, I didn't know who any of you were. So much more groovy now that I do.