MRSA: In the news and in my house

About a week ago on Friday evening Nik complained that her chest hurt and she had a small red spot on her left side. Not thinking much of it, we went to bed. On Saturday morning she slept really late and when I woke her she said her left side hurt really bad. I looked and the red spot had swollen up and spread over her entire upper left chest. I started looking up the symptoms and figured out she had cellulitis, but this was really vague and didn't explain why it was spreading so fast. She had really bad fevers and kept sleeping. Her friend from Michigan was coming in later that night and I said she needed to find a quick care but she refused. After debating the cost of an ER visit and whether it was necessary, she said if it got any worse she would go in later that night. We agreed and she fell back asleep.

Two hours later (at 2pm) I woke her up again and she was drenched in sweat and breaking another high fever. We looked at her chest and the infection had spread another two inches and was increasingly swollen and there was a large lump under her skin. She was complaining of her heart feeling strange. Being that the infection was located directly over her heart she finally agreed to go to the hospital.

Once in the ER (after a long delusional 2 blocks trying to get her there) they put her in isolation. The nurse said she had MRSA (a staph infection resistant to certain antibiotics). They gave her a last resort type of antibiotic that causes adverse reactions in most everyone. Once they started it, about a quarter of the way through Nik started itching really badly and we buzzed the nurse who shut off the IV and gave her about 5 vials of Benadryl and waited for the allergic reaction to calm down before starting the antibiotic again. After about 2 or 3 hours of antibiotics (and a prescription for 2 more), we were told we could leave as long as we came back if it didn't start going away. As Nik was standing up she got really dizzy and the nurse took her pulse and blood pressure, which had sky-rocketed. After waiting another 30 minutes of them monitoring her blood pressure, she was finally discharged (still feverish and in pain). The pain she felt wasn't like a little ache, it was extremely painful to even have the bed sheet over her skin.

She is doing much better now and the infection has almost entirely gone away, but the nurse said she was lucky she came in when she did considering how fast it was spreading. Now I'm seeing MRSA in the news everywhere. Apparently it is really common with IV drug users. I think the intake nurse might have thought she used IV drugs, but she was really nice regardless of whatever was going through her head.

Another step backward for the US

I know it's been awhile since I wrote but I can't believe what I'm reading right now. It's an article about the supreme court banning the use of race to assign students to certain public schools (even to ensure diversity). Here is an actual segment of the article below:

The ruling was a victory for groups of white parents who sued the Seattle and Louisville districts, saying their children were turned away from their preferred schools because of their race.

(Read more)

Oh wah wah wah. Seriously, all of those people that were responsible for this "victory" should be castrated and not allowed to breed. Are Americans that dumb that they don't realize that even with the racial/gender-based assignments, the schools will still be dominated by white people?

Oh but my little brat didn't get to go to the school they wanted to? Waaaaannnnhhhh.... Here, suck on this. Now because you have 'protected' your spoiled, self-indulgent child's "right" to go to the school of his/her choice, now thousands of people from varying cultures will not get that opportunity.

If a handicap parking space weren't reserved for the handicap, that doesn't mean that you would have been able to park there. The spot would still have been taken by someone who woke up earlier and drove faster than you to get there. Chances are your stupid kid will still be stuck in the same crappy public school that they deserve anyways because I highly doubt with such dumb parents, that they are at the top of the list for the good schools. So thanks for your whining, go put on your white robes and burn a cross, assholes.

Family Visit

My family came in this past Saturday and they're here until the 16th. I was really nervous about how things would go. So far it's been a wonderful trip. The weather could be better, but it's so nice to see my whole family and spend time with each of them individually. I will have photos (courtesy of my mom) and more details later. I need to get to sleep. I'm fighting my second cold in a month and all of these tourist activities are quite exhausting.

Microsoft Vaccines? Yikes!

Gates refers to his philanthropic work as "solving inequity," as if it were a long-division problem. When Gates looks at the world, a world in which millions of preventable deaths occur each year, he sees an irrational, inefficient, broken system, an application that needs to be debugged. It shocks him — his word — that people don't see this, the same way it shocked him that nobody but he and Allen saw the microchip for what it was. "We had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them," he said in his Harvard speech. "But it did not."

- Time Magazine: Bill Gates Goes Back to School -

While I sincerely commend Bill Gates for putting forth his energy and resources to help people, I'm hoping the method in which he does this is completely different from the what was used to create Vista. I'm hope he realizes there isn't a ctrl+alt+delete for humans aside from a nuclear holocaust. Not that anyone could do more damage than the Bush administration.

School, Job, Family and HEAT

Today I confirmed my admission for the doctoral program (not without a minor hiccup). Anyways, I start back to school in the Fall and I'm really excited because now I'm more settled and can afford to pay my bills at the same time. This was my reason for moving to Seattle and a year later I am finally able to begin the work.

In other news, Nik started her new job this week with her old manager getting a start-up company in Ballard up and running. It sounds like it's going to be an amazing place. I can't give more details yet because it is not open yet. She is really happy about the opportunity and it is so nice to see her working for a company she believes in and who likewise believes in her.

This Saturday my family is coming to town.. all 7 of them plus 1 boyfriend. I'm so excited to see them and show them around Seattle. I wish I had the week off of work but I need the vacation time for my cryptic posts.

P.S. Contrary to popular belief, you DO need an a/c in Seattle. Global warming is a bitch.

Cryptic pt. 2

A while ago I posted about a significant event taking place in 75 days. Now there is only 39 days, 22 hours and 59 minutes left. The counter that was on my site got deleted when I changed the layout (which I still don't like).

I'm sort of becoming bored of Blogger, at least Livejournal encouraged some socialization. I suppose maybe I should use this to actually WRITE instead of just blabbering on about a countdown for something most people are clueless about.

Grad School

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to go back to school this fall. Last fall I deferred my admission to grad school for a year due to the fact I wasn't yet settled in Seattle, things were rocky with my family and I didn't have a job yet. I really just wasn't ready yet. I needed time to let the events from the year prior sink in and settle first. But now I have steady employment, we've got furniture, my family is coming to visit soon, and Nik and I have lived here long enough to know the city.

Speaking of family, it is harder than it seems to find a place for 7 or 8 people in the summer.

Coming soon: Final word on grad school, Nik's new job and freaky blog (and real-life) stalkers.