Caught an interesting article recently that wondered what happened to all of our fears about disease outbreaks. You remember the hoopla over SARS, West Nile, and the Avian flu?
For a while, that’s all anyone could talk about. We were watching the crows in our backyard closely because if you saw one dead it could mean the West Nile virus had killed it. People were buying surgical masks and staying away from standing water.
But now, just a few years later, talk of these diseases is almost nonexistent. The article questioned where this was due to an actual decline in these …read more

There was a time not long ago that every time I called my pediatrician the receptionist would say, “What has Truman eaten now?” Since he was a wee kid, my son has enjoyed shoving all sorts of strange objects into his various orifices. The cat treats (one went up the nose and the other past the lips, into the belly) didn’t warrant much medical attention, but the soy nut in the nasal cavity cost us a trip to the emergency room.
The strangest experience was when my son ate bird poop. (There was a nest above the speaker on our deck …read more