Nurse Spoonie @nursespoonie - Tumblr Blog

Happy Smallpox Eradication Day!

On May 8th, 1980, smallpox was declared eradicated. Meaning there is no natural spread of smallpox anywhere in the world.

Smallpox infections date back at least 3,000 years. There are smallpox scars on the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V.

The last documented person to have naturally contracted smallpox was 23-year-old hospital cook Ali Maow Maalin, who survived the disease in October of 1977.

The last person to die of the disease was 40-year-old medical photographer Janet Parker, infected in a lab accident in the summer of 1978.

Smallpox was a terrifying disease. It was horrifically painful and killed 1/3 of the people it infected, leaving the rest badly scarred.

We got lucky with smallpox. It had no animal reservoir. Being that it only infected humans we were able to vaccinate our way to eradication.

Today variola major, the virus that causes smallpox, officially exists in 2 places: the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and the Vector Institute, Koltsovo, Russia. It is likely that many other countries have samples as well.

Deliberate infection with cowpox to prevent smallpox was the first effective vaccine. We owe every other vaccine to this one breakthrough.

The smallpox vaccine causes a scar at the injection site. You probably know someone with a smallpox vaccine scar. Routine childhood vaccination for smallpox ended in 1972 in the USA.

We used the smallpox vaccine to vaccinate against mpox in 2022. Because of this, I have given the smallpox vaccine. We also vaccinate researchers and others at high risk.

Be grateful you live in a world that does not contain naturally spreading smallpox. It has a long and awful history.

myalgicencephalomyelitiscfstom

One of the hardest parts of chronic illness? The isolation. Not just staying home—but feeling like life is happening without you. Everyone k

batbetbitbotbut

You have:

headache

Have you tried:

plain water

anything but plain water

sugar

caffeine

sleep

staying awake

social interaction

being on your own

paracetamol

lie down

sit up

gentle activity eg reading

nothing that involves your eyes

vigorous activity

rest

This might make it:

better

worse

no effect

Good luck!

thebibliosphere

I’m at the point where my meds don’t fit confortably in my pill organizer, and I’m this close to buying a bunch of plastic capsules and a gumball machine and calling it a day.

knitmeapony

Gotta get one of those three in ones

lifeafterpsychiatry

It's a lot healthier to go for a daily walk than to sign up for a gym membership you won't be using because you hate that kind of exercise. It's a lot healthier to eat a frozen meal than to skip a meal because you were too tired to cook something healthy. It's a lot healthier to take a quick shower than to procrastinate an elaborate routine for days. Don't aim so high that you won't be hitting anything!

creamypancakebatter

this is actually really helpful and affirming thanks

breelandwalker

sashaforthewin

Small steppy also keeps up your momentum and forms good habits which make the larger steppy not actually intimidatingly large but a few more small steppy than you were already taking

obsessivelycompulsiveblog

As a caregiver, I'm tired of people asking,"Do you wipe ass for a living?"

This isn't inherently because it's disrespectul to my job, though it is and us caregivers do SO much more than that; we're taking care of people. That's 10% or less of the job.

It's the genuine DISRESPECT of my clients that bother me.

Do NOT speak about my client like they're a dog. "Do you wipe ass for a living?" You could not have phrased that in a more insensitive, ableist, and dehumanizing way.

Incontenience care is NORMAL.

It is NOT gross, weird, immature, or anything else besides normal.

My clients have felt ashamed for normal things like needing their briefs changed or having to do toiletry and everytime I reassure them they're completely fine and not doing anything wrong. It breaks my heart to see them so embarassed over a normal bodily function, esepcially when they still feel so even though I signed up to do this.

Maybe the elderly or disabled wouldn't be so ashamed of basic things that ARE normal if people didn't make it sound like it was the most absurd, repulsive, and gross thing ever.

Please be mature. If you are an adult and cannot comprehend someone needing toilet assistance without making it weird or sound gross, then you really really need to grow up.

I don't really like making aggressive sounding posts or scolding posts, because every single person is learning and we all make mistakes, but gosh guys, this really bothers me.

Stop making people feel bad and THINK about what you're saying when refering to another human being before you say it. I will NEVER tolerate this disrespect for these people I'm taking care of who trust me.

little-miss-rasputin-pageant

having chronic pain is just like. ur sitting perfectly still doing nothing meanwhile the space above your head keeps flashing -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp

vasyan-pupkinyan

make that "-1 stamina / -1 sanity point". it's not killing you that quickly, it's disabling you in all matters.

guerrillatech

kendrysaneela

This is why I love the “Covid is faked” conspiracies. Like really?? You think the WHOLE WORLD is working together THAT EFFICIENTLY?? Even the countries that hate each other? Wow cheers for the optimism

geijutsu1

Look up the manhattan project you dipshits

sashibunbun

You mean the project where the only reason there was any secrecy was that none of the people had any part of the wide reaching project (Oppenheimer, Einstein, and all the others were pretty much kept way away from eachother) and was almost brought down as a secret in the group by one of the guys being an amateur safe cracker? That Manhattan Project?

The one where everybody near Los Alamos knew that something big was happening, because they were actively hiring during the War?

The one that had so many close calls to they’re working on some kind of bomb that by the time the war was over you had people involved blabbing, to the point the Rosenbergs happened?

THAT Manhattan Project?

dixkens

The Manhattan project, the one that the editor of a science fiction magazine (I think it was Astounding) figured out was happening because all the physicists who subscribed suddenly changed their addresses to Los Alamos?

That Manhattan project?

anarchopuppy

We’re talking about the Manhattan project that Kodak had clearance to know about (and even got advanced warnings about tests) because they figured it out when radioactive fallout from the tests contaminated their x-ray film? That one?

bogleech

And that was still just one government using the fullest extent of their power to try and keep just one secret in a time before cellular phone cameras or the internet. Imagine thinking multiple, rival governments agreed to fake a virus to fool just some of their citizens into staying home from work, while also agreeing to pay billions of dollars to compensate them for it.

mamoru

I think one of the goals of society should be that someone who requires expensive medicine and a lot of care can live an amazing life, the longest life they possibly can, with dignity, even if they have no friends or family or anyone who cares enough about them to help. the goals of a society should be to make life better than if we are alone, society should want life to be as good as possible for as many people as possible, and those goals should account for people not having social support networks.

mamoru

social life aside, the most hated or ignored person in town should be able to live as good and fair and just of a life as the most loved person in town. survival needs to stop being a popularity contest.

ijustwannafallunderyrsawteeth

the cognitive dissonance is getting so severe as someone who has spent roughly half my life grappling with having postviral illness, with no cure in sight. I am housebound and even when I'm trying to not think about covid I run into people online in non-covid cautious spaces constantly like:

"My kids and I are sick all the time now!"

"My cousin had a heart attack (or stroke), he's 30!"

"My stomach hurts constantly, I have no idea what's going on."

"I feel like I don't remember anything anymore."

"I'm so tired. I don't wanna do anything. I don't know why I'm being so lazy, I should exercise more."

+ 100 million other remarks.

y'all. I am so sorry. everything is not long covid, but covid is a mass disabling event. at least 400 million people are estimated to have long covid and it has a whole variety of symptoms.

remember how ugly and horrific things were on a mass scale in the early days? does it really make sense that you either died from covid or are fine? a lot of people are not fine and don't even know it.

please be kind to yourself and get whatever rest you are able. every covid infection, no matter how mild, causes damage to bodily systems. it damages your organs. and your doctor saying nothing is wrong doesn't mean it isn't - it takes on average 17 years for new research findings to reach clinical practice. a lot of them don't know shit about postviral illness, even though it didn't start with covid. I got mine from mono.

we are only gonna get through this by learning and advocating for ourselves and each other. covid is not over. 💗

correctopinionhaver

so many mental health issues these days are due to the fact that we no longer put the gargoyles on buildings that used to scare away the evil spirits that cause mental illness

miinobobeano

It bothers me so much that the healthcare system relies so much on the patient's ability to advocate for themselves, organize their history, and be so persistent against every medical “professional” who says there’s nothing wrong/they can do. But so many struggle with fatigue, brain fog, and face such ingrained systemic barriers, that the people who need and deserve help and support can’t access it.

I saw something recently that resonated with me: “Access shouldn't depend on who has the energy to fight for it.” And I’ve never agreed with anything more.