Getting a prescription...

So I called my doctor's office this morning asking for a prescription for Tamiflu. What ensued will probably be typical for most people.

Right off the bat (once the assistant called me back at about 2), it was, "you need to get a flu shot. That's what you need."

This is when I knew I had to lie. Saying, "I'm afraid avian flu is going to kill me in my safe, lily white home in West Seattle" didn't sound convincing, even before it came out of my mouth. So I said, "I'm going to be traveling in Asia - frequently." She said she'd talk to the doctor.

She called back in an hour. "You need a flu shot. Come in and get one."

"No, what I need is Tamiflu. It's the only thing that's being suggested as a hope for avian." She said she'd talk to the doctor.

She called back later. She was terse in the first call, and bitchy by now. "You need to come in and get a flu shot. Tamiflu isn't for Avian. And you're not going to get avian. It's very rare. And where on earth did you hear Tamiflu was for avian?! "

"CDC."

"What's that? Some web site?" Clearly sick of patients who actually look stuff up.

"No. Centers for Disease Control. Atlanta. They're recommending to the State Department that anyone going to Asia stock up on Tamiflu."

"Oh...that CDC." Pause. "Well, you need to come in and get a flu shot."

"Lisa. I called my pharmacy here in West Seattle. They have a few courses of Tamiflu. I want some of them. Please ask Dr. Stevens." She said something abrupt and hung up.

Half an hour later she called back. "Your pharmacy has a scrip for you. But you definitely need to come get a flu shot before you go to Asia."

And that's a promise I can keep. Because I won't be going to Asia any time soon. And hopefully avian flu won't be coming here. Ever.

Enough politics already

My tilt toward political anger has become enough of enough already. I just read through my latest four or six weeks of stuff and it's tiresome. I'm sorry. That doesn't mean I'll stop gleefully dancing on the bruised and swollen heads of the idiots who keep traipsing by, but I really want to shift gears.

So here now, I have something new for you. Click on the story at the end of this for a summary. I did NOT get my info from this story. It just confirms a lot I've been aware of, and was reminded of today by a friend.

I was very anxious and weirdly wired for about 18 months about a flu pandemic until about four months ago. I dropped the ball (not obvious to you, because I hadn't written about it I think), and I want to pick the ball up again.

So, here we go: Avian flu was not an anomaly. It is a trend. A preview of something to come.

I believe strongly that there will be a flu pandemic in the next year...two...maybe four... that will shock the world. I base this on far too much reading of stuff that I know far too little about. But there are people - smart people - who will back me up.

Ask any infectious disease specialist, and they will shake their collective head at the lack of preparation the US government has made for a flu pandemic. It is not certain, but the drug Tamiflu shows the potential to subvert a major pandemic. You can get Tamiflu right now, just because no alarm has been put out. It should have been.

Call your doc, get the drug.

(Australia has 20 MILLION doses of Tamiflu on hand - the US has nothing - nothing - near this...and we have 12 times as many people).

The second any word is put out that a transmission has occurred - you better have a doc with some pull. Because this stuff - Tamiflu, which is the only known flu thwart - is going to get scarce.

Sorry to be so alarmist, and I may well be - history says I am - wrong. I'm cool with that. But evidence is mounting that some little bug is going to appear very suddenly and just go all Twilight Zone on us.

So click the link. Read the tip of the iceberg, then google tamiflu, and avian flu, and flu pandemic 2005, then call your doctor, and get you and your family:

TWO COURSES (20 DOSES) OF TAMIFLU EACH.

A dose is $6 to $10.

I used to be so much fun! This shit keeps me awake at night though. And I'm one of your smart friends...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/21/health/main870945.shtml

"Uh, sir? I think it would be best not to gloat about, uh, anything, really, right now. Sir? You still look like you're gloating...God doesn't like gloaters."
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DeLay Tactic

I just wanted to be the first one to use that headline.

I will probably be the only one to mention how sweaty Tom's private tissues are becoming as the red-hot poker descends toward his excremental orifice.

It's only a taste of hell, Tom, but you get it right here on earth before your final reward.

.
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The Big Country

From 'More Songs About Buildings and Food'

(Only one or two people I know will hear the music to this running through their head. That's no slight, friends. We were younger then.)

I see the shapes,
I remember from maps.
I see the shoreline.
I see the whitecaps.
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there.
I see the school and the houses where the kids are.
Places to park by the fac'tries and buildings.
Restaunts and bar for later in the evening.
Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas.
And I have learned how these things work together.
I see the parkway that passes through them all.
And I have learned how to look at these things and I say,

(CHORUS)
I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
I couldn't live like that, no siree!
I couldn't do the things the way those people do.
I couldn't live there if you paid me to.

I guess it's healthy, I guess the air is clean.
I guess those people have fun with their neighbors and friends.
Look at that kitchen and all of that food.
Look at them eat it' guess it tastes real good.

They grow it in the farmlands
And they take it to the stores
They put it in the car trunk
And they bring it back home
And I say ...

(CHORUS)
I say, I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
I couldn't live like that, no siree!
I couldn't do the things the way those people do.
I wouldn't live there if you paid me to.

I'm tired of looking out the windows of the airplane
I'm tired of travelling, I want to be somewhere.
It's not even worth talking
About those people down there.

Goo Goo Ga Ga Ga
Goo Goo Ga Ga Ga