Hantavirus

Some lessons from Infectious Disease class are long forgotten.  In some cases, the data I do remember are way outdated. But Hantavirus is one I’ll never forget. It’s still – if left untreated – just as fatal as ever. I guess one reason it sticks with me, besides the severity, is the unusual mode of transmission:  Mouse droppings. So, if you’re seeing a patient with severe upper respiratory symptoms and you ask him/her if they’ve been cleaning out old chicken coops or forgotten corners of a dusty barn – these are favorite places for mice to leave a special “something” behind – and their answer is “yes?” Well, “Hantavirus” is way up there on your list of possible diagnoses.

The reason all this is relevant right now is that today I finally got around to clearing out the back corner of our “wood room.” This is the room where my home office is located. It hadn’t been touched in the nearly 8 years that we’ve lived here. Please don’t ask why. There are just some things you’re better off not knowing. But anyway, that back corner was still stacked with boxes of old unused stuff. And of course on the floor in between all those boxes sat the perfect medium for Hantavirus. We won’t even think about the mice who hunkered down there. But that’s my story and I’m sticking by it. Warts and mouse droppings and all.

Anyway, I started coughing and wheezing from breathing in all the accumulated dust. So I told my wife that if I were to keel over and end up being wheeled unconscious into an ER somewhere, she should tell the Infectious Disease resident on call to “Think Hantavirus.” Not that I’m skeptical of residents on call – but there you have it. My wife was not amused.

 

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Under the rubric of “all’s well that ends well,” I’m still standing. And not only that, but I uncovered some long lost tidbits in the boxes, including this priceless photo array of me and my 5th grade classmates at York Springs Elementary. Can you tell which one is me? C’mon, squint. Hint: Besides Mr. Messersmith – top row, center – only Joe Weigel and I are rocking the necktie look. And in Joe’s case, it’s a bow tie.  There. Who said we don’t make it easy for you, huh?  On the off chance these thumbnails are too small for you, you can see the same photo on my FB page, here. And of course, the same shot of me is featured (and enlarged) on the “About DEW” tab of this site, here.

As promised, most of the names are named in my mom’s looping script from the back side of the photo below. And yes, Mom was just a little OCD. Not that I inherited any of it of course.  🙂