moominmuppet

Your Own Private Ohio: Seven Ways Your Vote Might Not Count This November -- Good practical information and links.
Relatedly, from a few weeks back: Ohio's Election Stolen Again? State May Face 600K Voter Purge in Coming Weeks

Greta hits it on the nose about what's so cool about other people's hobbies and obsessions (bec76, you'll be particularly amused, as it's all framed around the really random Olympics sports no one hears about except during the Olympics themselves)

FundiePharma has some info about the HHS "conscience" clause, and the need for immediate action -- we've got 30 days on this My favorite bit, though? "Unfortunately for them, this works the other way too. Feel free to apply for a job at crisis pregnancy centers and then sue when they turn you down."

I'm really damn psyched about the language in the Dem's reproductive rights plank this year

Creepy as hell that this counts as Continuing Medical Education. WTF?


Provider Ignorance, Bias Turn Lesbian Patients Off Health Care. Yeah, no shit. Even as much as our students have improved over the years, you wouldn't believe the number who have no idea what a dental dam is supposed to be for.

Save Mr. Rogers -- there's apparently a current plan to reduce syndicated distribution of Mr Rogers to the local affiliates Blasphemous as it is, I was never a Mr. Rogers fan myself (or Sesame Street, either -- 3-2-1 Contact and Electric Company for me, thanks!), but I do agree that the show provides something unique, and I'd like to see it as available as possible.

Also, infowidget found me the coolest thing! I'm so definitely checking this out next time I make it to Toronto: The Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy

A fascinating article about causes of migraines, and new research in the field

A bunch of "poly in the media" links

Oooooh! Dark Crystal figures!

Fabulous magnet art

Interesting but disconcerting news about tilapia being potentially unhealthy

Way cool virology news

New research on sleep-dep and dopamine (last several all snagged from shadesong)

Hospital patients urgently need an advocate

So I don't lose the links:

For more help on how to be an advocate for a loved one who's been hospitalized, try these Web sites:

• Caregiver.com

• Hospitalstayhandbook.com

• Cancer.org -- and click on Caregivers.

• Cancer.gov -- and type "When Someone You Love Is Being Treated for Cancer" into the search box.

I've spent a moderate amount of time advocating for friends and loved ones in medical situations, and the advice in the article is good. I especially, especially believe in:

• Always take notes. "Not in an offensive way," Barg says. This serves two purposes. You have details -- dates and names and times -- that help you pinpoint problems and get them fixed. "And, No. 2," Barg says, "it really makes people pay attention."

It's an extension of the "write up your questions for your caregiver before you see them, and write down the answers", which works in outpatient situations just as well -- works well especially for people who have trouble being assertive about getting their questions answered fully, or who forget what they meant to ask. And taking notes really does make the provider stop and think about their answers, rather than blowing things off.

So, I've continued to nurse that Spicy Hot V8, and my headache is still substantially better than it was at 3:15pm. I'm definitely going to try this experiment again in the future. Need more data.

Oh, for my own reference, mostly. A conversation with my brother about our migraines:

I identify migraines as lancing pain through my eye sockets (behind the eye itself), usually the left side, strong associations with light and sound pain. My sense of smell is already very acute and I don't notice any difference there, but certain smells become more offensive. I don't seem to suffer the "halo" effect, but any light becomes pain to me when I'm in a full blown migraine so I couldn't care less if there is a halo around something. Besides I've always had a mild halo effect from my glasses.

Weather and pressure changes in particular make me more susceptible to migraines, frontal boundaries and shifting high pressure zones in particular. These cause more of the "mild" migraine effects, though I've had severe weather shifts drop me like a pole axed steer. (snipped from a locked entry by jajy1979, with permission)

All of that is true for me, especially the light and sound sensitivity, and the eye pain generally being on the left, often expanding to make it feel like the inside of my left ear hurts, too. It's why work in front of a computer on a headset is hell for me when I've got one. I also get the tension headaches, and migraines that I can't control often actually trigger tension headaches in response. I medicate with high-dose ibuprofen, flexeril (to alleviate the tension headache), and caffeine. I can't generally go to sleep with a migraine or I wake up with it even worse, which is infuriating.

I've tried imitrex, but didn't find it all that much more effective than anything else I'd tried, and it was $5/pill even after my insurance, so I basically said "fuck that".

I find that laying down with my neck entirely straight (no pillow) seems to help, as does dark and quiet (logically). When they're ungodly bad, I find wrapping something tightly around my head (usually a towel) to be oddly comforting, although I makes me feel a bit like Ford Prefect.

Oh, and I get nauseous, but kind of like carsickness for me, it's not really in my stomach, and I don't throw up. I usually describe the feeling as "nauseous in my head".

So, I finished Smearing the Queer: Medical Bias in the Health Care of Gay Men on my way to B'more. It's excellent, and I highly recommend it, even though it's older than I first thought; published in 1999.

The section that really blew me away was the section about the female condom, the original intents to market it to all genders for both anal and vaginal sex, the benefits it seems to provide for anal sex when used properly, and the underground popularity it has gained in sections of the gay and bi community despite its heavily feminized marketing.

Crap. Meeting-time, gotta run. Maybe I'll finish this up later if there's time. Anyone else know much about this? I'm very curious.

Edit: Here's some more info about it, under the description Bottom condom

Symptoms Found for Early Check on Ovary Cancer

I lost a friend to this in college, so I tend to pay closer attention to news articles about it. I wouldn't say this is actually any remarkably new information, except that it's now "officially recommended" to get these kinds of symptoms checked, but it's a well-balanced article that acknowledges the balance between awareness and paranoia, so it seemed like a good time to pass it along.

It looks like there's a strong link between some strains of HPV and throat cancer

All the more reason for us to finish figuring out whether the vaccine is ok for all genders and age ranges.

This one's rather near and dear to my heart, since Mom has diabetes as a result of Zyprexa. Attempts to block access to information piss me off in almost any case, but particularly in this one. Besides, EFF's a good organization doing good work, and I'm happy to publicize that.

From the EFF newsletter:

For more information on EFF activities & alerts:
http://www.eff.org/

Make a donation and become an EFF member today!
http://secure.eff.org/support

effector: n, Computer Sci. A device for producing a desired
change.

: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :

* EFF Defends Right to Link from Wiki

Legal Battle Over Controversial Prescription Drug Zyprexa

San Francisco - Last week, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation defended the First Amendment rights of a
citizen-journalist to link from a public "wiki" to
electronic copies of damaging internal Eli Lilly documents
relating to the controversial prescription drug Zyprexa.

At the hearing, federal district Judge Jack B. Weinstein
refused to change his order blocking publication of
material that would "facilitate dissemination" of the Lilly
documents. A further hearing on the issue is set for
Tuesday, January 16.

EFF's client, an anonymous citizen-journalist, posted the
links on the wiki located at http://zyprexa.pbwiki.com .
Eli Lilly complained, and Judge Weinstein issued his order
on January 4. EFF went to court to challenge this order as
an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech in
violation of the First Amendment and to ensure that the
right of nonparties in the litigation to link to publicly
important information remains protected.

"Preventing a citizen-journalist from posting links to
important health information on a public wiki violates the
First Amendment," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von
Lohmann. "Eli Lilly's efforts to censor these documents off
the Internet are particularly outrageous in light of the
information reported by The New York Times, which suggests
that doctors and patients who use Zyprexa need to know the
information contained in those documents."

According to The New York Times reports, the Eli Lilly
documents show that the company intentionally downplayed
the drug's side effects, including weight gain, high blood
sugar, and diabetes, and marketed the drug for "off-label"
uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). The documents were leaked from the ongoing Zyprexa
products liability lawsuit, where Weinstein is the
presiding judge.

Copies of the leaked Eli Lilly documents have appeared on a
variety of websites and other Internet sources. The links
to the documents that were posted on the wiki at
http://zyprexa.pbwiki.com/ were part of extensive, in-
depth analysis from a number of citizen journalists. A wiki
is a website that allows many users to collaborate on its
content, creating a kind of simple database for collecting
information -- in this case, about the controversy
surrounding Zyprexa.

Zyprexa is Eli Lilly's best selling drug, used to treat
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Last week, Eli Lilly
agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle claims relating
to Zyprexa. This latest settlement brings the total paid by
Eli Lilly to resolve lawsuits involving Zyprexa to more
than $1.2 billion.

For the full motion filed in the Zyprexa products liability
litigation:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/zyprexa/zyprexa_motion.pdf

For the court's order of January 4:
http://eff.org/legal/cases/zyprexa/jan4_order.pdf

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_01.php#005058

Price Tag of HPV Vaccine Stuns College Students -- discusses confusions about insurance coverage, eligibility for the vaccine, etc.

I figure this might be useful info for many folks on my friends list.