I have patients all the time who go on and on about how this or that plastic or adhesive or plastic we have in supply smells bad or irritates their skin. I had raised itchy bumps in the exact shape of the EKG electrode pads for over a week after my ED visit for a panic attack with severe chest pain and shortness of breath and the main thing I regret about that visit is the bill.

If I’m putting EKG leads or a tegaderm on you you’ve got way bigger problems than a rash my dude. And if your problem actually is unserious or alternately terminal enough that it’s more comfortable for you to just suffer in the comfort of your own bed, then just do that. If your problem is benign enough that you can even be worried about a rash more than you are worried about dying painfully from whatever you’re there for, you’re probably lucky enough to have a problem you can handle in the comfort of your own home.

And I’m even talking about serious chronic and terminal disorders. Everybody dies. If you are able to make the decision that you value spending the time given to you on earth in comfort rather than fighting through medical treatments to maybe get more of it then I encourage you to actively choose comfort for yourself. Don’t spend what time you’re given on this earth waffling back and forth between trying to get invasive treatment vs trying to be comfortable and bitching at other people the whole way down trying to make them as miserable as you just because they literally cannot by the physical rules of the universe provide both to you at the same time.

And ffs get a palliative consult. It’s not hospice and you don’t need to be actively on the way out to get it. You can do it at any time. And they’ll make you way more comfortable than you’ll ever get from complaining to a random floor nurse about Band-Aids.

buboosenchan is one of my absolute favorite YouTube creators.

When I heard him talk about his relationship with Carl Sagan and how he was one of the very few people that were willing to invest time and energy in him as a black man in STEM at the time he made a little more sense to me. I feel like having to fight for it has probably made him a lil crispy around the edges.

He’s like the dude version of Brittney. Like they even publicly sexualized him too it just looked a little different because he’s male.

Me listening to my dementia patient rant about “that awful bitch that was in my room an hour ago” (it was me).

E Major

I work with a vulnerable population. In addition to every job doing piss testing my fingerprints and DNA get recorded and checked against unsolved assaults / murders. Nothing ever comes up but I always worry I’m gonna be like the last person that touched a vase before the dude that bashed somebody’s head in with it and the dude who did it isn’t in any databases and I’m gonna have to answer a bunch of intrusive questions.

I also love that book so you’re not special. Take that.

The part of the US I’m in its associated with sketchy dudes cheating on their girlfriends. Or maybe that’s just my social circle.

oooh that’s a thought. I thought it was gonna be more like what their poop / excretions smell like because maybe some of them smell like those things they don’t like but now I’m wondering if it’s the other way around?

Yeah like. I’ll google stuff on his phone if it’s within reach and mine’s not but like. I’m not combing through his messages or anything that seems exhausting. That seems like the most normal level of openness to me cuz he’s not afraid but I’m also not looking.

It’s not too bad when you’ve got a license that’s in demand but without a license # to put in the box on the app it’s pretty rough. Was pretty rough for the unlicensed roles in my field but is decently easy with. This is reminding me to call back that recruiter in the morning that hubs convinced me to stay in-state because they gave me a follow-up call like a month later to ask if I’m still considering them and idw be too rude in case I do decide to move the year after next.

Mindbridge was pretty good iirc.

…but if you’re on warfarin, don’t like, suddenly eat a bunch more than usual.

The good bit from the article (not that the methodology isn’t interesting):

What mosquitoes did – and didn’t – like

Each species showed clear preferences when it came to the odors and skin bacteria.

Aedes aegypti showed a slight preference for men over women, while the other two mosquito species did not discriminate on the basis of sex. The reasons for this are not clear, and the differences in odors and skin microbes between men and women were too great for us to tease out any individual factors driving mosquito attraction.

Aedes aegypti preferred people that had less of certain odors like cyclic alcohols, which are ingredients in some fragrances and cosmetic products. But they were attracted to people on whom Staphylococcus bacteria was more abundant. Meanwhile, lower attraction was associated with certain Pseudomonas bacteria.

Aedes albopictus was a little less picky, preferring people with plenty of odors. They particularly sought out people with high amounts of organic compounds called ketones. One of their favorite ketones was mesityl oxide, which has a sweet, honeylike odor. These mosquitoes also preferred people with more skin microbes, particularly when bacteria like Streptococcus intermedius and Anaercoccus octavius were in higher abundance.

But they also avoided certain bacteria, like the Mogibacterium genus. We suspect that these bacteria may produce odors that these mosquitoes don’t like.

Much like Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus picked participants that had fewer odors overall. They were attracted to monoterpenes like alpha-pinene, which are organic compounds often found in essential oils.

Interestingly, there were no bacteria that were associated with high attraction for Culex quinquefasciatus, but there was a high abundance of the bacteria genus Actinomyces on the participants that were low attraction to these mosquitoes.

The results weren’t all differences: Some odors and bacteria were attractive across all three species. For example, all three were attracted to participants with the odor chemical ethyl 2-methylbutanoate, a fruity scent often found in fragrances. And all three species were less attracted to participants with lots of the odor 1-penten-3-ol, a chemical typically used in fresh- or crisp-scented products.

We also found that some skin bacteria were attractive across all three species. For example, people with more Corynebacterium kefirresidentii living on their skin were highly attractive to all the mosquitoes.

Connections Puzzle #1184
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It feels like getting a secret fifth category.

You know what’s an underrated ship? Rick Sanchez and Stanford Pines.

My family did this after hamstringing my ability to interact with the outside world by raising me fundie and teaching me ideologies that were incompatible with the outside world and that men would just like randomly attack me. Eventually I got a job with criminally insane men which bizarrely really leveled up my social skills then they put me through nursing school and now that I’m financially independent I don’t speak to them. Consequently my recommendation is to do a horribly unpleasant job for a few years, get through a trade school if you can, and once you’re financially independent cut contact. Best of luck!

And 10-20 years ago a licensed RN working for a university hospital would’ve been solid enough to afford an apartment in that city while the hospital paid for the bachelor’s. That’s… getting less doable. And I don’t want them paying for the bachelor’s in case the boss starts telling me I gotta do sketchy shit and I have to jump ship suddenly. Let’s not even get into how a CNA is considered a “starter job” for a student of some higher paid healthcare position instead of it’s own perfectly respectable career that’s vital to the safe functioning of a decent hospital and as such has always deserved a wage that can feed kids.

In fact sex being used as the indicator is actually a clue to one of the largest contributors. There’s a very wide reaching assumption that men should get most of their emotional support from their female partner. This is often very stressful to the female partner and is a fragile way to meet a basic need; if she gets sick or dies he’s probably not far behind her. Men need to learn how to compliment and hug each other platonically. It’s 2026 and it’s for their own good ffs. I keep giving my male patients brochures for men’s support groups and I really hope at least some of them are actually going.