go see a doc

it could be emphantiago! (may be spelled wrong)

What's New on Howard Lovy's NanoBot

Nano is chocolate in Silicon's peanut butter
A couple of days ago, I met Zyvex President Tom Cellucci at an Ann Arbor restaurant (Take a note, young entrepreneur wannabes: this high-powered nano honcho enjoys Greek salad and hummus, while this low-powered journalist just sat and chain-drank coffee), and we discussed a range of issues. Among them were the short-term commercialization steps the company is taking along the way to its goal of building a molecular assembler.
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107598714129205144

Drexler: More Empty Arguments
Dear Howard, A recent review of Daniel and Mark Ratner's book, "Nanotechnology and Homeland Security," highlights the current tactics of the denialist camp.
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107668470273012406

Driving under the influence of Feynman
One of my dirty little secrets is that I listen to audiobooks from audible.com (My commute from suburban Detroit to Ann Arbor keeps me in my car about two hours a day). This morning, I "read" (OK, had read to me), Richard Feynman's "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out."
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107641725258447010

More pieces of Feynman
In my previous post, I talked about how the nanotech founding father's words get me through my morning commute. Feynman was big on making science understandable to everyday slobs like me. I've written about this subject before, and I do wish that I had been around during his heyday. But I wonder how I would have handled this interview, relayed by Robert P. Crease in a March 2001 article in Physics Web, Revenge of the Science Writer.
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107660948892697905

Writers who know what I meme
David Pescovitz and Mark Frauenfelder, BoingBoing bloggers, NanoBot advisers and legendary writers, have contributed some excellent work to Small Times in the past couple of days.
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_08_nan...#107670259634351579

Small Tech Business Directory is online
If I can get all commercial on you for a moment, I've been meaning to highlight the great work going on at Small Times.
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107650713335572043

A Game of Risk
Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post writes: "Just when you absorb one type of danger, someone invents a new one – SARS or avian flu or something enigmatic called nanotechnology."
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107644530195891361

InstaMission
Good evening, Mr. Phelps, The Speculist and CRN have joined your IM (InstaMail? InstaAntiModz?) Force.
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107643622299219119

What up with BBC doc?
Small Times London Correspondent Ben Wootliff brought this to my attention. The BBC is airing the above documentary tonight.
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107600652778840366

Big honor for little blog
Thank you, Nanotechnology Now, for naming the NanoBot one of the Best of 2003. They write: "Choice post in 2003 include - but are not limited to - Stairway to Heaven and Apocalypse Nano, The Hulk, Prince Charles and other scary things and 2003: The Year of the Straw NanoMan.
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107591332352837454

Unauthorized uses of 'Nano'
As before, cease and desist orders are being sent to the following perpetrators
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107642808772625836

News in a NanoSecond
From The Guardian: "A Horizon investigation into the dangers of nanotechnology was watched by 2.1 million, 300,000 more than watched The Diana Conspiracy, Channel 4's investigation into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_nan...#107652514558023744

Advertise on the world's biggest nanoblog!
http://www.blogads.com/ipxbsempwzdpn/howardlovysnanobot/advertise



Howard Lovy
---------------------------------------------------------------
Independent commentary at
Howard Lovy's NanoBot
http://nanobot.blogspot.com
E-mail: howard@lovy.com

I reposted Mark Frauenfelder's query to my own weblog. These are the comments thus far:

From: James D. Macdonald,
August 20, 2003 05:08 PM:

He should see a health-care professional, sooner rather than later.

Consider he has cellulitis secondary to an insect or spider bite. He needs broad-spectrum IV antibiotics.

Meanwhile, if he has oral antibiotics, take them. Elevate it (higher than his heart) to minimize swelling, and apply warm, moist compresses.

Watch for swollen lymph nodes, fever, chills, sweats, drowsiness, lethargy, blistering at the site, or red streaks extending from it. Keep track of the size of the lesion. If it isn't getting smaller, he's getting in deeper and deeper trouble.

The entire episode will probably be over in seven to ten days, one way or the other.

==================

From: David Bilek,
August 20, 2003 05:26 PM:
 
If he were in a temperate zone rather than tropical, I'd say he better get on anti-Lyme antibiotics RIGHT NOW. You Do Not Want to develop late-stage Lyme disease. Trust me.

Exactly what "tropical location" is he at? Without that information it's impossible to even guess what that bite could be. Depending on where he is, it could be a Brown Recluse bite. If so, he'll know soon enough when the entire area goes black and necrotic.

Hell, it could be topical anthrax for all we know.

If he hasn't yet seen a doctor, what is he waiting for? The leg to fall off?

==================

From: James D. Macdonald,
August 20, 2003 05:56 PM:

David is right. It's been fifteen years since I lived in the tropics, and that was the Latin American sector. There's all kinds of great stuff in Africa, Asia, wherever it's too darn hot and humid. There's no way to diagnose this over the Internet. You can't rule out spider bites, fungi, viral or bacterial infections, or parasites.

Still, elevation and warm moist heat is the general solution while going to a medic.

Any open wound in the tropics is going to get a bacterial infection sooner or later.

If I had this, I would worry.

And here's a Just For Fun: http://rob.skelly.com/index.htm

I don't care what the pharmacist says. Have it looked at by a doctor who practices medicine in that part of the world. I once ignored a sore not unlike that one, then came down with a walloping case of Lyme Disease -- and that was in the Temperate Zone. If you'd showed me that picture without giving me any further context, I'd have guessed it was a spider bite.

Tropical scrunges and rots come in a wonderful variety of forms. There are all kinds of viral and bacterial infections (some of them spread by insect bites), and recurrent funguses, and a bunch of slow-acting parasitic infestations I don't even want to think about. Get yourself checked out while you're still in the area. Don't wait until you'r back in the States, dealing with a doctor who wouldn't recognize this stuff if he saw it in a fully-labeled four-color photo insert.

Spider Bite...imho, dude

Dude... maybe you have the MSBlast worm!!!

You think we could get 65 signatures and $3000 to run your sore for California governor?!

When you find out what it is let us know!

From what I gather is that you're stuck without access to good medical knowledge; not a good thing. Do you have access to pure 100% tea-tree oil? If you think it's spreading it could be a critter, or a fugus. Get some liquid soap, remove about half of it; add about a bottle cap full of tea-tree oil to the soap--a bit of water shake and stir. Use this in the bath and let it stay on you unitl you feel a tingel. Use full strength Tea tree oil after the bath on hot spots.

Hmmm... could be impetigo, or something more strange and sinister. It could be a message from gopod, a signal that you should return to civilization before you're eaten by a deviant crab. Since you're taking antibiotics and antifungals, I can only add this prescription:

1) From a new bottle of rum, pour one tablespoonful into an airtight container.

2) Carefully grasp the bottle with the remaining rum and

3) Pour the rum into your mouth and down your throat over a period of 3-5 hours.

That should cure anything.

(I'm not sure what you do with the tablespoon of rum, perhaps hair of the dawg?)

That is NOT ringworm. The scab falling off by itself should be enough of a differential diagnosis to tell any medical professional THAT. And I would follow the advice of other posters to NOT take antibiotics until it is tested to see if it a) is bacterial and b) what the proper antibiotic is. Because if it's fungal or a bacterial strain that's resistant to what you're using, you'll just make it worse.

And that does NOT look like something you want to get worse!

just keep pouring peroxide and alcohol on it.. it should go away.. or maybe itll just make it stronger and it will grow to consume you.. good times either way.

unicorns unicorns unicorns unicorns

Edited by author 08-19-2003 05:41 PM
I...gulp...ah...oooowwwwwoooo...hope you're okay.

This reminds me of the Dilbert strip:

Catbert: "We're switching to a cafeteria-style health insurance program. You'll wander around the cafeteria asking, 'Does anyone know what this red sore is?' "

(Great joke, K. Lastima! Oh, woe, is Mark.)

If you're into self-diagnosis, the University of Iowa has an awesome image collection of all manner of skin lesions.
http://tray.dermatology.uiowa.edu/ImageBase.html
I'd say no on the ringworm, too. I'm a mom and have seen lots of cases of it -- sometimes it's a ring and sometimes a circle, reddish, raised, but I've never seen it broken like that. If it's around your mouth-nose, it may be impetigo, which can go from bad to worse very quickly and spreads like crazy. But you should really see a doctor, even if it's not one who specializes in skin ailments, before it turns into something like those pictures.

Hey Mr. Rushkoff, how you is.
write me at weevil@wileywiggins.com