health weblog

Headlines are the life blood of newspapers. So any animal story is like a gold to any headline. Now this is the ultimate cat story because the headline misses out the vital reference to squirrels. Yes, it was a double attack.

The cat and the killer squirrels would have been more accurate. But we don’t do sensationalism for its own sake here. We kept it simple. Richie Simmons’ cat was sick. She had visited with the local veterinarian to get drugs. A few days later, she was flat on her back with a high fever. It took a month for the lab to identify the problem. One day, Richie cut her finger but thought nothing of it as she tended to the cat.

Her diagnosis was tularemia. What is this? Well, back in 1911 there was a disease that almost wiped out the squirrel population in Tulare, California so they called it tularemia (creative!). One thing - it was highly contagious between humans and animals. How did the cat come to be infected? It’s going to remain a mystery. Did the cat travel back in time or just visit with some squirrel cousins in California? We will never know… The good news Doxycycline was an almost instant cure. Just goes to show. Once you know which bacteria are making you sick, you get the right antibiotic and get better fast.

Ask a doctor how to deal with constant pain and the most prevalent answer is to prescribe a painkiller, e.g. Ultram. It’s commontrue that the medical profession is under pressure. Not enough doctors are prepared to work in general practice. But prescribing pills is a lazy answer. It gets patients out of the door quickly, but it’s not treating them as human beings with a problem to solve.

The main thought I want to say is that, rightly or wrongly, painkillers have a bad press. Open a newspaper and you’ll routinely see stories of people arrested for dealing in narcotic painkillers, or hooked on them and going into rehab. Folks often need reassurance that a drug like Ultram is safe. More importantly, they need options if they prefer to avoid taking medication for their problems. The medical profession has the resources to deliver physical therapy. Sometimes, it’s at the light end with massage. Other times, it’s at the heavy end with manipulation.

The aim we are trying to achieve, is very simple. Pain, acute or moderate, often arises because joints stiffen and people lose muscle tone through inactivity. So people need to be reintroduced to the idea of mobility. In this, the social interaction between the patient and the therapist is crucial. If trust is established, people work their way through the fear of movement to find they can move without feeling pain or with less pain than they expected. This doesn’t mean people should avoid Ultram. It simply means they should take Ultram only for a limited time and work more at getting better naturally.