— 1 —

Could I have Ebola? I was going through the new patient paperwork that my doctor sent me and there was a screening sheet for Ebola. I was going through the symptoms and comparing them to the fibromyalgia flare that I’m dealing with. The scary thing: all I’m missing is the fever, vomiting, and hemorrhaging of blood. Everything else matches up perfectly. I can rule it out because I haven’t spent any time in West Africa recently nor do I spend time with anyone who has.

— 2 —

The “Science Babe” takes on the “Food Babe”. As one who has serious eye-rolling episodes over some of the stupidty in people going gluten-free (who are not, in fact, suffering from celiac disease or a wheat allergy), I had to laugh at this article on Gawker in which a chemist takes on the Food Babe. I remember her complete stupidity about the ingredients of a pumpkin spice latté from $tarbux and her arguments on toxicity of ingredients remind me of the idiots who claim that every ingredient in vaccines is a toxin in any dosage. (I’ve taken organic chemistry — I know my stuff and the claims of the anti-vax people are complete lunacy.) Pretty much ANYTHING in a high enough dosage is toxic, including water. I also am rolling my eyes at the fact that her crusade started when she was told that sometimes you just get appendicitis for no good reason — apparently, her doctor failed to tell her that her appendix is a vestigial organ left over from when our bodies had to process large amounts of cellulose.

To be fair, I’m not criticizing people who have a legit problem with gluten — I’m part of the ethnic group in which celiac disease is frequently found (I’m Irish-American and we have a pretty sizeable incidence of it) and I have friends who have severe food allergies that cause them to have to avoid anything involved with wheat. The people I am going after are the ones who are doing the gluten-free thing because it’s trendy or they read about the idea in some book written by a homeopathic quack. Every nutritionist and dietitian I’ve worked with in the last two years has had some rant on the subject.

— 3 —

Jimmy Kimmel on the anti-vax movement. My mom had me watch this when I was home over Daniel’s Spring Break. Best line ever: “Hey, remember that time you had polio? No… you don’t because your parents got you f-ing vaccinated!”

In all seriousness, Mom told me about her memories of classmates who are deaf because of measles or who almost died as a result. Of the (many) people over 55 in my life and whose blogs I read, I’ve only had one person say that they have no memory of problems with all those diseases against which we vaccinate. In fact, almost everyone over the age of 55 is completely flummoxed that we even have this problem with people not vaccinating their kids. As someone with a compromised immune system and who has a kid with one, it’s actually a slap in the face for me that people are so selfish as to not do something that could prevent me or Daniel or my father-in-law (cancer) from getting sick.

— 4 —

Interesting article on preeclampsia. One of the chicas in the HELLP Syndrome Survivor group on Facebook posted a link to this article in The New Yorker and I recommend it. Given my experience with Daniel 6 years ago, I’m all in favor of research on the origins of preeclampsia and methods of treat it.

— 5 —

Speaking of preeclampsia… I’m participating in the Promise Walk virtually this year because there isn’t one near me. I’ll be doing it for my 35th birthday in May instead of getting a tattoo like I’d been planning to do for 5 years. For details, click here.

— 6 —

Spare some prayers for Fulton. Fulton, the son of our Quick Takes hostess Kelly, is in the hospital with respiratory issues. Everything Kelly mentions is something that I’ve dealt with in the last 6 years with Daniel so I feel completely qualified to ask you to PRAY HARD for both Fulton and Kelly. (It’s hard on the mama to have their kid sick and also to live at the hospital for an extended period of time.)

— 7 —

Easter. We had 20+ people here for Easter and it was lovely. As Daniel’s birthday was the 7th, we combined the family feast with a party for him and my parents came down for it. It was wonderful to see them again (even though I’d spent 5 days of the previous week with them) and they got to see some of my life down here. Daniel was very much into his presents and showed well, which is always a relief for us as parents of a child with autism. (Autistic kids tend to not bond with people.) We also had a boatload of leftovers so I’m getting a little sick of ham though I have had no problem with finishing off the tiramisu or the caramel machiatto cheesecake. 😉

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.