“March Madness” - Rabies awareness month

Rabies.  The sound of the word sends a chill down
my spine. I have seen what this virus can do, and it’s very very frightening:  Hydrophobia, ‘foaming at the mouth’, psychotic screaming, savage agression, immunity to pain.  These are symptoms of a dark, terrifying Force - a Fury unleashed.

It astounds me to know that in this 21st century, such an ancient, Evil disease can flourish in so many parts of the world.  It truly is ’madness’.

Rabies is one of the ‘neglected’ diseases of our time.  It is 100% vaccine preventable, yet 100% fatal once symptoms are present.  No other infectious disease has such an unforgiving mortality rate.  Ebola, by comparison, carries at least a 10% chance of survival. 

Miracles do occur (see Jeanna Giese) but certainly not enough of them.  We need more miracles out there, especially for the 55,000+ people who die from rabies every year according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  The fear, the terror I’ve seen in children’s faces suffering from rabies haunts me.  I wish somebody would do something…

A miracle on the water

February 29th is a special day - not
just because it’s that extra day in February of the ‘leap’ year, but it’s also my former rowing coach’s birthday.

I remember with fondness the days when
Ken Sabbag was our Novice Men’s rowing coach at Wesleyan. I had signed up for ‘crew’ as a college freshman because anyone who was interested could join. At the time, I had little insight into what rowing was all about. Through Ken’s leadership and my experiences, I came to appreciate probably ‘the ultimate’ in team sports. Crew meant dedication and commitment, hard work and endurance, sacrifice and pain. Yet a special camaraderie was formed during those times. Friendships were forged that I still treasure almost 2 decades later. Giving your all for the team, the ‘crew’, meant something. Testing ourselves beyond anything we could have imagined or expected brought out the best in us.

‘The Bucket List’ - A movie about miracles

I’ve just seen the ‘the Bucket List’ which stars Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.  I thought it was a wonderful film and well worth seeing.

This movie was about miracles, particularly the small, personal kind. I felt very inspired- I laughed and I cried through this story of courage and love. The film gave a ‘big picture’ perspective to life.

The premise of the movie (without giving too much away) is that two random people become friends while sharing a hospital room together.  Their friendship blossoms, partly because of the life-changing events forced upon each character.  They create a so called ‘Bucket List’ of things to do before they ‘kick the bucket’. Of course, the list contains a few concrete goals in life, such as seeing the Great Pyramids of Eygpt, or skydiving, but actually goes far beyond into the spiritual realm.

MRSA - a ’superbug’ explained

There has been a lot of media buzz about MRSA recently. In a way, it is good that finally some attention is being paid to this problematic ‘superbug’. There should be more health education in this country, as evidenced by the palpable fear spread by these news headlines.

MRSA or Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus has actually been around for decades. Humans and microbes have been engaged in an ongoing battle ever since the development of the first antibiotics. Penicillin came into widespread use in the 1940s. Staph aureus or ‘Staph’ pretty soon figured out a way to overcome this ‘poison’ and resistant strains started emerging. Penicillin at first seemed like a ‘miracle’ drug. Patients who were supposed to have died from infections were saved!

I remember an old retired doctor, Dr. Chotkowski, who lived at the end of our street. He described to me his first time using penicillin in 1943 to save the life of a young girl from Staph sepsis. In those days, big doses were given with big needles in the butt. Painful to think of, but at least this girl lived thanks to this new medical breakthrough.