“It is now clearer than ever that the human species is in the midst of a war with the microbial world – a resilient foe that will never be completely defeated.” Anthony S. Fauci, Journal of the American Medical Association, October 20, 2004
Germs! Germs! Germs! They are EVERYWHERE! We share our world with all sorts of invisible creatures and many of them are germs, stealthily moving about our world and even in our bodies. There are even good germs, like probiotic bacteria that we are trying to put back into our bodies digestive systems.
“Probiotics are live organisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host…Those benefits are continuing to emerge…The field is now poised to claim more medical acceptability.” American Medical News, October 3, 2005
In light of Geraldine Ferraro’s passing from complications due to her long battle with Multiple Myeloma, it would seem that the reports are saying that she went into the hospital with bone pain and died there after contracting pneumonia or some such illness in the hospital. Some are even asking, “then did she die from Multiple Myeloma?” The answer is “Yes!” She died from complications resulting from her disease. The truth is, when most people die from MM, it is from something like this. But then… she was 75 and pneumonia can be deadly in general, and hospital are long known to be a breeding ground for germs as they are full of sick people. Our nurse has often shared the worst horror stories of someone who was running marathons after his tandem transplants and then went to a conference, got H1N1 and died within days. You might be aghast that she would tell us something like this, but Dave was (and continues) to refuse to take Tamiflu prophylactically as requested by his physicians. So she was making her effort to ‘educate’ him. It is not universally done and he has a right not to take it in this manner. In fact, its not recommended by CDC even to do this. Remember, I have said before, physician’s are “practicing” medicine. My biggest beef with them often is that they present data as fact when it is only a theory. I would prefer them to identify it as theory followed by their opinion, but not arbitrarily present these things as factual science, when they are most definitely not. But I digress…
“It is becoming increasingly acceptable and recognized that infections are probably an underappreciated cause of chronic disease.” Siobhan O’Connor, M.D. Associate director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Center for Disease Control, American Medical News, July 9, 2004
I happened across this weird website, I say weird because it doesn’t seem to be very active, on Stealth Germs. I found it intriguing actually because the author talks about chronic long term infections in our bodies that lead to disease. This is very interesting. I have long held that we fight disease and germs everyday. All sorts of things. Why do we get sick from them one day and not the next? I have believed that is where our spiritual well-being and psyche comes in. We can allow ourselves to be predisposed to develop illness. Either through exhaustion, nutrition, lack of exercise, emotional upset, trauma, etc. Then you add to that, that there is a great deal of research on a vaccine for Multiple Myeloma. I don’t know about you, but when I heard a “vaccine” I was a little taken aback. Really? A vaccine? As I was reading through this section of Stealth Germs about our bodies potentially having chronic infections going on, sometimes for years, that lead to other health issues at some point, it started to actually make some sense to me, vaccine research. But remember, it’s a theory.
Ok, so I’m really rambling on here. What I wanted to get at is, how do we handle this greater than normal vulnerability to germs in our environment when we have a disease such as Multiple Myeloma? Do we shut ourselves up in our own home and not go out, not have friends over, never see our grandchildren? Or do we clean like fiends, never eat out, nothing raw, everything raw? What?
Dave has chosen to LIVE his life. Some might view it as cavalier. He travels for his work, he works long hours, he eats out. It is a choice we have made. I simply sound a bit like a broken record. Packing in his carry on, or coat pocket, clorox wipes, purell, with reminders, “wipe down the belt buckle, seat arms, tray on the airplane. Wash your hands a lot. Take the bedspread off the hotel bed, wipe the door handles. If he’s traveling with a colleague, I have even called them or sent an email telling them to make sure Dave does these things. Then… I let it go. It’s all I can do. I’m not going to live in fear, though I acknowledge my heart stops when he calls me and he sounds like he’s getting a cold and he won’t cut his trip short. I let it go. I have heart to heart’s with him from time to time, about making sure he stays vigilant. He feels pretty normal these days and being vigilant about critters unseen (I really like Stealth Germs – a cool term) is a perspective that even I find myself becoming somewhat complacent about from time to time.
I don’t know what to tell you about all of this. How vigilant is vigilant and when does it become invasive? How invasive is invasive? Somewhere each of us has to find a balance in our new situation that we can live with. But I do think it needs to be based on some common sense measures, scientific facts, and even a little theory is OK. But I’m afraid I will subscribe a tad bit more on the side of LIVING. Dave is happy, he is productive, he is loved, he is LIVING. If it means he takes some modest, calculated risks, so be it. The ‘ol standby, “you can get hit crossing the street” comes to mind.
But since Ms. Ferraro’s passing, and if rumors are true, it does make me take pause and look around my cluttered kitchen and think, “It’s time to wipe down some things!”
Dave just informed me that he wiped his office at work down yesterday and does so on a regular basis. I’m impressed. He has made changes in his life to accommodate his new health status.
Oh man, I hear yah! Perhaps it’s the Germs We Know vs. The Germs We Don’t? (Take on the Devil you know…) Grins!
Why do I worry about washing hands, wiping off grocery cart handle, and using hand santizer constantly…..but don’t clean my house????? 🙂 I have GOT to get better at that. BIG Sadface!