Health

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“They don’t know I am here… I don’t really know what to tell them.”
“Just say you went on vacation!”
Everyone at the table laughs; this is nobody’s idea of a vacation. This was our last resort.

There is a stigma attached to spending several hours per day, for weeks at a time, on a psychiatric floor. One of the more universal concerns expressed at the program is that inevitably, you will be asked to explain your disappearance to people in your life–family, friends, co-workers. I haven’t come up with a good answer yet.

I don’t really have anything to hide; I just want to make sure nobody thinks I am some loose cannon prone to snowballing out of control. It’s just that I’ve got some shit I’ve been worrying over, I am trying to deal with in the present and as well as the past. But you don’t have to worry about me. I’m going to be okay.

I’m no longer certain if I have imagined you or if you are real. I’ve lost my place. I’m out of the hunt.
I think I fell out of the tree of life.
And hit every g-ddamned branch on the way down.

– Aaron Petrovich

I am finally getting tired of keeping all of it inside and these days I don’t care who knows.

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Google has unveiled its Google Flu Trends, which they estimate to be two to three weeks ahead of the conventional tracking methods used by the CDC. It looks like the flu is already gaining momentum in parts of the South and East Coast. Right now, Minnesota has low flu activity so it’s a good time to get your flu shot if you haven’t already.

You can receive flu shots at all MinuteClinic locations, and at the local Target and Walgreens stores that have attached clinics. Most of the flu shots offered in these settings will run you under $30. You can also find the closest flu shot clinic near you through the MN Dept of Health. Their site also includes vaccine prices and the types of accepted insurance.

A nasal spray alternative, FluMist, has been on the market for a few years now. You can search from the front page of the website to find where it is being offered near you.

I like convenient technology, but I am not sure how extreme I would go to be able to hear normally without my hearing aids. The Envoy Esteem implant feels like another crutch rather than a cure. Do I really want the machinery I wear behind my ears put in my skull? It just creeps me out. It’s unfortunate because I qualify perfectly for their trials with my hearing loss. However, as much as I like science, I don’t feel like offering myself up for it, especially when I think it is not solving the problem itself.

While it may be years before anything could be done for hearing losses with stem cells, I’d rather deal with an equally invasive procedure that would leave me “healed” instead of going through one that just prolongs actual advancement. Given how functional stem cells are, further research would be beneficial to everyone on the planet.

A Minnesota House bill introduced by Reps. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis; Chris DeLaForest, R-Andover; Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, and Leon Lillie, DFL-North St. Paul, seeks to lower the minimum drinking age to 18 for the purchase of alcohol at establishments holding liquor licenses. Critics of the proposed shift argue that binge-drinking and drunk-driving would only increase, but don’t recognize the combination of psychological reactance and alcohol expectations as active forces behind current underage drinking behavior.

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