I’ve noticed that even amongst my natural-leaning naturopath-loving friends, any hesitation about using antibiotics against bacteria is the “messing around” of the phrase “I wouldn’t mess around.”
Should we be concerned? My mother said that my great-grandfather wouldn't have died from an infection he got when he cut his hand on a saw if penicillin had been available. She was always lying to me. I checked, he died in 1946 and penicillin was available. I think he probably died just to get away from my great-grandmother.
Dang seagull, that’s a heck of a story. I sometimes confuse stories I’ve gotten from you and ones I’ve gotten from John Updike. He’s the only famous person I ever bonded with. He grew up in a Pennsylvania valley and I vaguely think of you two being in the same valley.
I went to the Rockerfeller surgeon today again. So nice and we and two others debrided poor Willie. Yanking scars off a pit bull bonds people I think. Willie soldiered through. A mix of good, bad, and medium news from this lovely Rockerfeller knife girl, though weirdly I’m the one that had to draw her attention to the swollen lymph groin as she got focused on some other small tumors. The upshot is I came out armed with even more powerful antibiotics and a determination to use them. The original main surgery has healed well and my decision to nix ninety percent of the antibios and steroids was probably for the best but now I’m swinging the other way and it’s full-on Rockerfeller war. Dave’s going in guns blazing. As my naturopath friend says, we can fix things later with probiotics.
Poor willy, wound debridement is no fun for anyone except for maggots. Maggots are excellent at debriding wounds but I've only ever seen it happen by accident. Doctors typically freak out whenever that happens. This is not medical advice but there is such a thing as maggot debridement therapy but I suppose antibiotics will do in a pinch.
For legal reasons I will say that I may or may not have been allowing the flies to land on it. I even talked about it with the surgeon, but obliquely by saying “in some cultures” they let the maggots eat the corrupt bits. Actually, she wasn’t disgusted and seemed to have heard of it, but [return to heavy chemicals] I mostly get my information from early-twentieth-century Himalayan climbing expeditions where the maggots would eat the gang green. There hasn’t been enough time between debridements for the maggots (many of them named Maggie) to get big enough to sink their teeth into the good stuff.
I was anti-antibiotics when my cat was becoming increasingly ill with snottiness and sneezing: It had slowly become worse as time went by: I was waiting it out and hoping for it to clear up on its own...but it got to the point where she could not drink or eat without sneezing: It was terrible to witness.
Now, bacteria excrete -- their poop is called endotoxins: There are obviously an abundance of bacteria in her respiratory system (lungs/sinuses) and their poop is irritating/inflaming living material and this is triggering mucus: But there's too much mucus and it's causing excessive sneezing to the point she can barely eat or sleep. Her breath smelled of ammonia.
Now the bacteria did not cause the death of the material they are cleaning up, but their poop is causing inflammation and too much mucus: So if we curb the enthusiasm of the abundance of bacteria, we reduce their amount of poop, and thus reduce inflammation, and thus reduce mucus production, and the cat can finally eat, drink, and sleep without sneezing.
We put her on a course of antibiotics with the intention of NOT killing all of the bacteria but only enough so she could get some relief.
And it worked.
That was about 2- 3 years ago.
She showed no adverse effects: no apparent damage to her digestion: Her poop looked fine. She has showed no other signs of illness since then.
And on the other hand:
At the same time, we decided to address the cough that my other cat had exhibited for a few years:
We put him on a course of antibiotics without wanting to kill ALL of the bacteria: Whilst he was on the course, and for a week afterwards, his cough disappeared. But a week later, his cough returned. Since he has always been alright in himself with the cough, and the cough has never developed into pneumonia or anything else, I decided we would not use another course of antibiotics.
He can live with it.
If we tried to eliminate the cough completely with antibiotics, we would have ruined his gut biome and killed him. He can live with it and we can live with it. Trying to attain or maintain perfection can often make things worse and lead to tragedy. Never forget we are in hell. It's simply not supposed to end well for anyone here.
Thank-you for such a detailed and thoughtful response. You’re clearly not gung-ho either way but have proceeded with caution and openness. Much for me to ponder here. Lots of good things can still happen here in Hell.
Great piece, I’m pretty sure. I believe Vonnegut talked about the insanity of antibiotics in the late 80‘s. Since then I’ve been from the don’t mess around school.
Every time I see that picture I look at the other adults around you, not noticing your impressive Nigerian head-carrying prowess, and I say Yep!
That’s what adulthood is! You miss the real action while paying attention to ???
Should we be concerned? My mother said that my great-grandfather wouldn't have died from an infection he got when he cut his hand on a saw if penicillin had been available. She was always lying to me. I checked, he died in 1946 and penicillin was available. I think he probably died just to get away from my great-grandmother.
Dang seagull, that’s a heck of a story. I sometimes confuse stories I’ve gotten from you and ones I’ve gotten from John Updike. He’s the only famous person I ever bonded with. He grew up in a Pennsylvania valley and I vaguely think of you two being in the same valley.
I went to the Rockerfeller surgeon today again. So nice and we and two others debrided poor Willie. Yanking scars off a pit bull bonds people I think. Willie soldiered through. A mix of good, bad, and medium news from this lovely Rockerfeller knife girl, though weirdly I’m the one that had to draw her attention to the swollen lymph groin as she got focused on some other small tumors. The upshot is I came out armed with even more powerful antibiotics and a determination to use them. The original main surgery has healed well and my decision to nix ninety percent of the antibios and steroids was probably for the best but now I’m swinging the other way and it’s full-on Rockerfeller war. Dave’s going in guns blazing. As my naturopath friend says, we can fix things later with probiotics.
Poor willy, wound debridement is no fun for anyone except for maggots. Maggots are excellent at debriding wounds but I've only ever seen it happen by accident. Doctors typically freak out whenever that happens. This is not medical advice but there is such a thing as maggot debridement therapy but I suppose antibiotics will do in a pinch.
For legal reasons I will say that I may or may not have been allowing the flies to land on it. I even talked about it with the surgeon, but obliquely by saying “in some cultures” they let the maggots eat the corrupt bits. Actually, she wasn’t disgusted and seemed to have heard of it, but [return to heavy chemicals] I mostly get my information from early-twentieth-century Himalayan climbing expeditions where the maggots would eat the gang green. There hasn’t been enough time between debridements for the maggots (many of them named Maggie) to get big enough to sink their teeth into the good stuff.
I was anti-antibiotics when my cat was becoming increasingly ill with snottiness and sneezing: It had slowly become worse as time went by: I was waiting it out and hoping for it to clear up on its own...but it got to the point where she could not drink or eat without sneezing: It was terrible to witness.
Now, bacteria excrete -- their poop is called endotoxins: There are obviously an abundance of bacteria in her respiratory system (lungs/sinuses) and their poop is irritating/inflaming living material and this is triggering mucus: But there's too much mucus and it's causing excessive sneezing to the point she can barely eat or sleep. Her breath smelled of ammonia.
Now the bacteria did not cause the death of the material they are cleaning up, but their poop is causing inflammation and too much mucus: So if we curb the enthusiasm of the abundance of bacteria, we reduce their amount of poop, and thus reduce inflammation, and thus reduce mucus production, and the cat can finally eat, drink, and sleep without sneezing.
We put her on a course of antibiotics with the intention of NOT killing all of the bacteria but only enough so she could get some relief.
And it worked.
That was about 2- 3 years ago.
She showed no adverse effects: no apparent damage to her digestion: Her poop looked fine. She has showed no other signs of illness since then.
And on the other hand:
At the same time, we decided to address the cough that my other cat had exhibited for a few years:
We put him on a course of antibiotics without wanting to kill ALL of the bacteria: Whilst he was on the course, and for a week afterwards, his cough disappeared. But a week later, his cough returned. Since he has always been alright in himself with the cough, and the cough has never developed into pneumonia or anything else, I decided we would not use another course of antibiotics.
He can live with it.
If we tried to eliminate the cough completely with antibiotics, we would have ruined his gut biome and killed him. He can live with it and we can live with it. Trying to attain or maintain perfection can often make things worse and lead to tragedy. Never forget we are in hell. It's simply not supposed to end well for anyone here.
Thank-you for such a detailed and thoughtful response. You’re clearly not gung-ho either way but have proceeded with caution and openness. Much for me to ponder here. Lots of good things can still happen here in Hell.
they believe in the good natural things
Great piece, I’m pretty sure. I believe Vonnegut talked about the insanity of antibiotics in the late 80‘s. Since then I’ve been from the don’t mess around school.
Every time I see that picture I look at the other adults around you, not noticing your impressive Nigerian head-carrying prowess, and I say Yep!
That’s what adulthood is! You miss the real action while paying attention to ???
Thanks Jack. Always nice to have you weigh in.