My Recent Health Struggles were... Self-Inflicted

It's been a while since I've offered an update, that's because I had been feeling sick for a WHILE, months. 

Without making it too gross, let's just say, I've gotten into a LONG bout of stomach upsets, diarrhea, that lasted months. OTC drugs didn't really help, and even prescription strength stuff barely kept it under control. Let's just say, I had to standby near the toilet quite a bit. 

And I just realized I did this to myself. 

Basically, it's caused by 2 things: my air fryer, and my lousy cleaning habits. 

I have a personal air fryer, and I used to use it a lot. Let's just say, the hot air exhaust is... oily as I tend to cook frozen chicken thigh w/ skin. It's simple, decent protein, and you can do all sorts of sauces to make it edible. 

However, I don't clean it enough. I bought one of those silicone "trays" that goes inside, and promptly forgot about cleaning the inside. And grease started to accumulate inside I didn't rinse out after each use. As I said, I had a lousy cleaning habit. 

I think there was a month or two where I ate something else, so I didn't use the air fryer for a month or two. When I opened it up again, there's a mount of MOLD that grew on the leftover grease in the silicone tray. 

I tossed the whole tray, found a backup silicone tray I had purchased, rinsed the inside of cooking basket with the hottest tap water I can get out of the faucet, and proceeded to cook two more chicken thighs, and ate at least one. 

I suspect there are mold inside the fan assembly, and I basically fed myself mold and mold spores. I don't want to look, now that I think about it. It'd explain the prolonged stomach problems. 

I'm going to toss the air fryer, of course.  Already bought the replacement. 

There is a bit of a benefit... I lost 50 pounds during the ordeal. Now I don't have to diet. 

Not sure all that suffering (even now) is worth it though... 

Dumb COVIDiocy: Podcaster Self-Pwns With Idiotic Tweet Comparing Self to Dog

Before today, I have never heard of Cari Kelemen. She was apparently some podcaster and media "star". Unfortunately, her tweet demonstrated that her scientific education is severely lacking, and in comparing herself to a dog, probably should have thought about it first... But here's the tweet:

You may think this does sound kinda odd, but there are a couple assumptions that you failed to question. 

1) Are medicine treated same as vaccines in dogs? She's assuming they do.

2) Do dogs get different vaccine dosage based on their weight? After all, a dog could vary from a tiny chihuahua or a small terrier to a huge 100+ pound mastiff. She's assuming yes from 1). 

3) Should you treat a human the way you treat a dog? Of course not...

I am a skeptic, and let's answer these questions:

Do dogs get different vaccine dosage based on their weight? 

No they do NOT. They all get the same vaccine dose (about 1cc). Bodyweight is irrelevant when it comes to vaccines. Skepvet answered this in 2016:

There’s a common misconception out there about vaccines that small animals should have lower “doses” of a vaccine than larger animals. This is a natural assumption stemming, most likely, from our familiarity with how medicines are dosed. However, while there are some differences in the amount of a vaccine given in different species, it is far less of a difference than would be expected if vaccines worked like drugs.

Basically, a vaccine only needs to be enough to trigger an immune response from the immune system. And immune system response threshold is NOT volume- or weight-based. Once the response is initiated, the immune system itself will generate the antibodies and the rest to populate the entire body. If you use a lower dose, you may not trigger the immune response. 

Medicine works differently. Medicine has to get into the body and travel throughout the body via the circulatory system. So the dosage is affected by how big the body is. The body is not triggered by it to help out. Got that? 

So medicine in dogs is NOT the same as vaccine in dogs. 

Guess that blows Q1 and Q2 out of the water. 

 

Do we really need to cover Q3? Why would she compare herself to her dog anyway? 

Don't be a COVIDiot like her.