Severely Loved

I'm being a bad student right now. I'm in the middle of my Latino Health Class and writing a post for this blog. But then again, this is the second or third time I've learned about tuberculosis and seeing how I'm infected with it (not active, don't worry) it ceases to impress me any longer. But I have learned something new today. TB is not contractible through food or other objects, only through the air via "droplet nuclei." They estimate that 1/3 of the world population is infected. Crazy, huh? It's not much of a problem in the US because we've dealt with it for the past hundred years and have systems in place to address the issue. But countries like Russia, Brazil, and East Asian and African countries aren't so prepared. A little more info: 1) the stuff they inject under your skin is dead mycobacterium Tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes the illness. 2) Testing positive only means that you've been infected at one time; you could have latent or active infection or you might have just developed antibodies to it or another mycobacterium. 3) If you test positive once, you're assumed to always be positive, so you have to get a chest x-ray each year like me :(. 4) Treatment is usually INH (isoniazid), a nine-month long once/day pill.

In more important news, I'm loved. I have an amazing God who has blessed me with my loving wife and really supportive friends. Sometimes I forget this and feel alone at times. It sounds corny, but it's a really good discipline to keep: count your blessings, name them one by one. So here's some props: Shannon, Erik, Jimmy, James, Noah K, Noah K, Ben, Terrance, Zach, Steve, Jon W, Jon L, Neil, David, Josh, Matt, Tyson, Chris W, Payshun, Chris W, Chris B, Adam, Sean, Emmet, Patrick, Mark... To all of you: You're fierce friends and I love you all. I thank God for every one of you. ~Michael