Ok, I'm gonna do ID instead.

What's ID, you ask? It's more than what I get asked for every time I want to see a rated-R movie or buy a pack of cigs (My for-real, I'm in an American Lung Association sponsored smoking cessation class quit date is Feb 3rd--wish me luck. In the interim, the woman at the corner store-- with what are apparently the early signs of dementia--asks me every single time, "What are you, in middle school?" No, ma'am. Just flat-chested and baby-faced. Moisturize, and you too could be mistaken for half your age!). It's Infectious Disease, y'all, and it's super cool.

Did you know there are more microbes in and on your body than there are cells that belong to you? So even if you're an atheist, or agnostic, or on a desert island...you're REALLY never alone. I know it's weird, but it's sort of a comforting thought. You, by yourself, are a community--an ecosphere all your own!

There are lots of microbes that live happily with you and don't cause any disease...it's called commensalism, or mutualism. Actually some bacteria even feed you--making Vitamin K in your intestines, for example. Others live on your skin and keep bad guys like MRSA (the nasty 'superbug' that's been in the news lately) from taking over...like your own little bacterial bouncer patrol.

And even bad bugs--enterococci that cause gastritis, para ejemplo--have some mechanisms of action that are truly amazing (sort of like how you hate the Bond villain in every movie but are frankly amazed at the intricacy and detail of his/her evil schemes): E. coli can actually get INTO your bladder cells and chill out there, evading detection. You get treated for a UTI, all the 'outside' bacteria are wiped out, but then there are these little 'seeds' of e. coli lying dormant-ish, waiting, and then BAM! Even though you haven't been reinoculated (ie, you haven't gotten more bacteria into your bladder by having sex and not peeing afterwards, or wiping back-to-front, or wearing tight pants, or whatever else is on the 'not-to-do' list these days) you're reinfected. Whoa. Take that, Mr. Bond.

Also, staphylococcus aureus is named that because 'aureus' is from the (Latin?) root for gold...y'know, Au? Remember the periodic table, kids?...and when you plate them out, the colonies are a brilliant gold color that's frankly stunning. I know I'm going to earn some weird looks for this, but especially when they're plated on blood agar, the contrasting colors are spectacular. I'd put a picture of that up in my living room, with the caveat that no one be allowed to ask what it is.

PS--No, I'm still totally married to psych, but ID is definitely, undeniably enthralling.

Learning to laugh at my own stupidity--and Microbes!

So I slept essentially...not at all last night (ok, 5 hours) and that was from 4:30 to 9:30. That may not seem like much of a shortcoming to you late-night IMers and Conan O'Brien watchers (yes, I realize I just sounded like a geriatric patient, and secretly I am a 87 year old woman--you kids quit playing grabass on the lawn!), but I've got me some bipolar disorder, and I need my damn sleep. So I was not running on all however-many cylinders today, as became immediately (or, unfortunately, not-so-immediately) apparent when I went to pick up some essentials at the grocery store today. Never mind that the grocery store is kind of a fraught place for me, or that I have a rough time actually picking things up and putting them in the cart, or that I always feel like I'm in 15 different people's way...beyond all that intrinsic neurosis, I got to the check-out counter FINALLY, and when all was said and done...I didn't have my credit card with me. Got it out of my wallet to do God-knows-what with it and never put it back in, and had all of $7 in cash with me. So I did the whole stammering/turning red/sweating/sympathetic nervous system in overdrive thing, y'know, where you wish the earth would open up and swallow you down to the bowels of hell where at least you could hang out and drink absinthe with Oscar Wilde. So I muttered an apology and all but ran out the front door, my face a color somewhere between "rose" and "carmine" in the Martha Stewart interior decorating palette. Once I was home and finishing the last of a bottle of merlot I could look back at it and laugh, because it is sort of a ridiculous situation for a person who's obsessed with doing everything perfectly and never incoveniencing anyone to find herself in. Maybe I'm learning, little by little, to laugh at my shortcomings--at least those that don't kill anyone (please, please, universe, don't let there be any of the other kind!).
Also, had Microbes today for the first time, and it was so utterly kewl. We got a pack of these Microbe Cards to augment our learning process...like Pokemon or sports trading cards, with images of the infectious fungi, bacteria, viruses, or parasites in question on one side and information (from epidemiology to diagnosis to treatment) on the opposite side. I'm really looking forward to getting together a microbe card playing league..."I play N. gonorrhea!" "I play Cipro!" or "I play Hepatitis C!" "I play interferon!" Gonna be a +3 infectious disease specialist by the end (Note: I have never actually participated in an RPG and thus have no idea what I'm talking about...except for the microbes. I kind of know what I'm talking about there, but only to such an extent that I can sound reasonably intelligent at cocktail parties and probably be very dangerous to actual patients, which is why I'm not yet allowed in the same room with them without an M.D. chaperone).