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Aristus

Aristus's Journal
Aristus's Journal
February 29, 2020

Drunk-posting. I love you all. Thank you for keeping me sane.

All in all, a good week in clinic. A bad week for the country.

Trying to maintain...

February 29, 2020

Friday Night Wine Buzz. Ask me anything.

I love you all...



February 28, 2020

Just made my first-ever diagnosis of Hepatitis A. I owe my training for catching it.

Patient presented with some fairly non-specific digestive symptoms with acute presentation. No jaundice, no icterus ( 'yellow eye' ), no dark brown urine.

I took the history of illness from him. He said he worked in a pet store cleaning the crap out of the cages. I immediately thought of the hepatitis meme we learned in PA School to detect Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E.

A and E: Fecal/oral transmission - "The vowels are in the bowels".

B and D: Blood transmission - "B and D are in the BlooD."

C: Due to IV drug use - "C is IV".

Due to his exposure to feces, I ran a lab test for Hep A. Came up positive.

I owe my teachers and preceptors more than I can ever repay...

February 24, 2020

For those freaking out about the coronavirus, if they develop a vaccine, will you get it?

I'm only asking because influenza is still the much deadlier killer of the two viruses, and yet I've lost count of the patients who have refused the flu vaccine, despite my best efforts to convince them of its general efficacy, and the virulence of the flu virus.

Because if you want to develop talking points about how a coronavirus vaccine has polonium in it, or it doesn't come with a package insert, or washing your hands a lot is more effective, or Big Pharma execs by a yacht with the proceeds of every dose of vaccine, or Jim Carrey says not to, now is your opportunity, before the immunization is developed.

February 22, 2020

Friday Night Vodka-Buzz. Ask me anything.

A little help from a nice chocolate porter and some cannabis oil...

Feeling fine after a not so horrible week...

February 20, 2020

An anti-vaxxer actually asked me for medical approval to be a foster parent.

I signed a professional-sounding note of disapproval because the state probably wouldn't accept: "Not just 'no', but 'FUCK NO!'"

The nerve of some people...

February 19, 2020

My scheduler can be amusing: "Cute respitory hyploxia".

That's what a patient is coming in for today.

Now, I don't know what that is, but it sounds pretty serious...

February 16, 2020

The most obnoxious Trumpster is sitting too close to me at the bar.

What a fucking drag.

I come to my favorite hangout, the local Greek restaurant, get set up at a table in the tiny, cozy little bar, and some loud mouthed obnoxious guy blasts in ruining my quiet little hideaway.

Like me, he knows the staff, and he keeps them listening to his gravelly monologues.

I'm just trying to have a quiet dinner and a drink.

He just keeps bloviating, and I keep shaking my head, hoping he would leave. He outed himself, saying he gave a friend a MAGA hat. The woman behind the bar, who obviously knows this hammerhead well, said "I'm gonna have to fight you on that one."

"Why? HE'S A GREAT PRESIDENT!"

She found something else to do in a hurry, and he finally placed a to-go order.

He's gone. Ruined an hour of my life...

February 15, 2020

The Emerald Queen, Tacoma's Puyallup Tribal Casino, can probably be seen from orbit.

They're finishing up the new facility, a hotel/casino combo situated along I-5. It's so huge and so brightly lit that we'll probably be seeing pictures of it from the ISS soon.


Quite a change from the tiny gambling house in an old paddle-wheeler it startd out as.

By now, they've outgrown four buildings.

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: Puyallup, Washington
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 66,310

About Aristus

I truly believe that we will all live in peace and brotherhood someday. And so that I don't lose my faith in humanity, I will live my life as if that day had already happened.
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