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"You want to get these things out to relieve the pain, and that's why you pull and then you can see the fibers there, and the tentacles are there, and there are millions of them," Bishop said.
oh. my. god.
This has replaced ebola as my #1 Disease Not To Get.
I may not die of this disease, but there's now a pretty good chance that I will die from nightmares and related stress brought on by reading about it. o. m. g.
docgonzo (who I believe is a grad student in epidemiology) and docpops (a clinician) on this thread suggests that it's a psychosomatic disease. (Hmm, damn, Am. J. Clin. Derm. doesn't seem to have a fulltext of the article available for free/for free-through-my-University, though someone linked to this story.)
Amazing what the mind can get the body to do.
Funny, though, just how many people wouldn't believe docpops that this could be psychosomatic...
Whew... got out of L.A. just in time... as long as the "geographic cluster" areas don't grow until the L.A. cluster meets the San Jose cluster here in S.L.O.
Should I add this to my Signs of the Apocalypse on Armageddon or Not? (I hope you don't mind if I ask this question around here on occasion)
Psychosomatic is something doctors say when they don't want to admit they know nothing.
Look at all the stuff they've said was psychosomatic: PMS. Asthma. Migraines. Ulcers. Oh, and Gulf War Syndrome- a favorite of mine. It's such an infuriating and condescending way to blow off a patient.
They'll find something that causes this, you watch. It'll be related to scabies or shingles or something. Maybe lyme disease, since that's a disease whose symptoms MDs constantly dismiss. Ugh. Psychosomatic is SO not a real answer.