The Tetanus!
Hmmm...sometime early last week I stepped on a teeny tiny gravel sized piece of glass. I noticed it on Monday or Tuesday, and tried to get it out using the ol' baking soda paste method. I managed to get a chunk of it out of my foot, but was sure that there was still glass in there. I wound up trying to dig around for it, but nothing. So, after limping around for a couple of days, sure that there was a chunk of glass still in my foot, and angry at being unable to work out, I dragged myself to Wyckoff Heights Memorial Hospital, in Bushwick on Thursday. Wykoff Heighs is a notoriously awful hospital, and to quote one of my students, Juliana, "They be killin' people over there."
I digress. It was only 5 blocks from my house, so with my newly issued insurance card in hand (I feel like a badass/adult having my own crappy health insurance, haha), I tried to make a podiatry appointment. They didn't have anything until the following Wednesday, which would have meant six more days of limping with what felt like an enormous hunk of glass in my foot. So, I went down to the emergency room and checked myself in.
At some point I used the women's restroom that was in the waiting room. Behind me in line was a haggard old homeless derelict guy who'd wandered in off of the street. Peculiar. Once I made it into the bathroom, I realized that the lock in the stall didn't work, and neither did the lock on the outside door. The bathroom was fucking filthy. There was urine on the floor and there was toilet paper everywhere. I have seen better PUBLIC bathrooms in UNION SQUARE. Keep in mind, this bathroom is in a HOSPITAL and is a fucking health hazard. The entire building was pretty run down/dirty. Egh. I probably caught Hepatitis's A-F while in there.
So I finally make it into the exam room, they look at my foot for like two seconds, and send me out for an x-ray. X-ray dude does his thing, and I limp back to the exam room. Morbidly obese Jewish guy who's been overseeing the residents who are taking care of me (and hasn't gotten up from his rolly chair the *entire* time I've been there), is talking and laughing with the interns at my x-ray when I get back. So unprofessional. I sit for another minute, and when I walk back in they decide that there is no longer any glass in my foot. The baking soda worked! Woo!
Its at this point that they're like, "when was your last tetanus shot?" And I'm like, "10 years ago" So they're like, "Okay, you need another one." I sit contemplating this for like, 2 minutes. As soon as the crack whore nurse tetanus vaccine injector chick walked in the room, I ran out to "go use the bathroom" (actually to check out vaclib.org on my cell phone. thank GOD for the internetz). I'm spiritually/philosophically opposed to vaccinations, but never have I been told I'd possibly die if I didn't get one. So, I did some reading. Here are some interesting facts/quotes:
(from vaclib.org)
-- Tetanus incidence and mortality declined greatly before the widespread use of tetanus vaccine. (In excess of 99%)
-- The bacteria associated with tetanus is present virtually everywhere. However, when the human body does not present the bacteria a proper environment for growth, this constitutes a natural immunity to the tetanus bacteria.
-- The only preventives for tetanus are general good health and wound hygiene.
-- There is NO immunity to dirty wounds. Wound hygiene is essential.
-- Tetanus incidence in the vaccinated is about the same or higher than incidence in the unvaccinated.
-- Tetanus vaccine is not only ineffective but also toxic. It's use causes numerous adverse side effects.
-- The vaccine's "active" ingredient is the poison which is made by the bacteria. Antibodies against poison do not constitute an immunization.
-- And finally, one former VacLib member told us of her experience having
tetanus. She was in her mid-forties and had cut her foot on a heating vent
in the floor. Keep in mind that this wound was deprived of oxygen since she
likely wore shoes and socks on a daily basis. She told us that she was
quite ill for about two months. She recovered completely by detoxifying her
body through colon cleansing, modified fasting and taking high quality
enzymes.
-- I have personally known only one person who had tetanus. She was 26, had
also had a primary schedule and more than one booster, though she didn't
know how many. She was an alcoholic, smoked like a train and lived on
trash-food.
-- In addition, in Russia in the last diphtheria epidemic, most of the deaths
were in immunized homeless alcoholics.
This was most of the stuff that I read in the bathroom. It was essentially the deciding factor for going with my gut instinct and refusing the vaccine. When I left the bathroom, I tried to find an alternate exit from the ER so that I'd be able to just *leave*, but I walked in on some people hurridly getting someone off of a gurney and it freaked me out. I went back the original way and tried to sneak past the exam room, but they caught me on the way out, lol.
The fat guy (he must have been over 300 pounds and was balding in his mid thirties!) was like, why don't you want the vaccination, and I told him that I was against vaccinations. His response? "You're not going to be for or against anything when you get it. You won't SURVIVE it!" Uh, okay dude. I rattled off some statistics that I remembered from the website, and weakly said that I was going to make a phone call (my phone stopped working at some point in the bathroom and people were starting to knock on the door, lol) and come right back.
The residents saw exactly what I was up to, discharged me, and gave me a prescription for some antibiotic (which I didn't take either lolz), and made me sign a refusal of treatment form for refusing the tetanus shot before they let me leave to make said "phone call."
Here I sit, a week later, tetanus free, still munching on delicious fruits and vegetables and whole grains. And meat. Bwahahahaha. And I'm in better health than the fucking asshole who was dispensing his priceless medical advice to me.
My foot feels fine now and I'm going to go do a ton of cardio. 7 hours worth, to make up for last week. (hahah just kidding!!1)
I digress. It was only 5 blocks from my house, so with my newly issued insurance card in hand (I feel like a badass/adult having my own crappy health insurance, haha), I tried to make a podiatry appointment. They didn't have anything until the following Wednesday, which would have meant six more days of limping with what felt like an enormous hunk of glass in my foot. So, I went down to the emergency room and checked myself in.
At some point I used the women's restroom that was in the waiting room. Behind me in line was a haggard old homeless derelict guy who'd wandered in off of the street. Peculiar. Once I made it into the bathroom, I realized that the lock in the stall didn't work, and neither did the lock on the outside door. The bathroom was fucking filthy. There was urine on the floor and there was toilet paper everywhere. I have seen better PUBLIC bathrooms in UNION SQUARE. Keep in mind, this bathroom is in a HOSPITAL and is a fucking health hazard. The entire building was pretty run down/dirty. Egh. I probably caught Hepatitis's A-F while in there.
So I finally make it into the exam room, they look at my foot for like two seconds, and send me out for an x-ray. X-ray dude does his thing, and I limp back to the exam room. Morbidly obese Jewish guy who's been overseeing the residents who are taking care of me (and hasn't gotten up from his rolly chair the *entire* time I've been there), is talking and laughing with the interns at my x-ray when I get back. So unprofessional. I sit for another minute, and when I walk back in they decide that there is no longer any glass in my foot. The baking soda worked! Woo!
Its at this point that they're like, "when was your last tetanus shot?" And I'm like, "10 years ago" So they're like, "Okay, you need another one." I sit contemplating this for like, 2 minutes. As soon as the crack whore nurse tetanus vaccine injector chick walked in the room, I ran out to "go use the bathroom" (actually to check out vaclib.org on my cell phone. thank GOD for the internetz). I'm spiritually/philosophically opposed to vaccinations, but never have I been told I'd possibly die if I didn't get one. So, I did some reading. Here are some interesting facts/quotes:
(from vaclib.org)
-- Tetanus incidence and mortality declined greatly before the widespread use of tetanus vaccine. (In excess of 99%)
-- The bacteria associated with tetanus is present virtually everywhere. However, when the human body does not present the bacteria a proper environment for growth, this constitutes a natural immunity to the tetanus bacteria.
-- The only preventives for tetanus are general good health and wound hygiene.
-- There is NO immunity to dirty wounds. Wound hygiene is essential.
-- Tetanus incidence in the vaccinated is about the same or higher than incidence in the unvaccinated.
-- Tetanus vaccine is not only ineffective but also toxic. It's use causes numerous adverse side effects.
-- The vaccine's "active" ingredient is the poison which is made by the bacteria. Antibodies against poison do not constitute an immunization.
-- And finally, one former VacLib member told us of her experience having
tetanus. She was in her mid-forties and had cut her foot on a heating vent
in the floor. Keep in mind that this wound was deprived of oxygen since she
likely wore shoes and socks on a daily basis. She told us that she was
quite ill for about two months. She recovered completely by detoxifying her
body through colon cleansing, modified fasting and taking high quality
enzymes.
-- I have personally known only one person who had tetanus. She was 26, had
also had a primary schedule and more than one booster, though she didn't
know how many. She was an alcoholic, smoked like a train and lived on
trash-food.
-- In addition, in Russia in the last diphtheria epidemic, most of the deaths
were in immunized homeless alcoholics.
This was most of the stuff that I read in the bathroom. It was essentially the deciding factor for going with my gut instinct and refusing the vaccine. When I left the bathroom, I tried to find an alternate exit from the ER so that I'd be able to just *leave*, but I walked in on some people hurridly getting someone off of a gurney and it freaked me out. I went back the original way and tried to sneak past the exam room, but they caught me on the way out, lol.
The fat guy (he must have been over 300 pounds and was balding in his mid thirties!) was like, why don't you want the vaccination, and I told him that I was against vaccinations. His response? "You're not going to be for or against anything when you get it. You won't SURVIVE it!" Uh, okay dude. I rattled off some statistics that I remembered from the website, and weakly said that I was going to make a phone call (my phone stopped working at some point in the bathroom and people were starting to knock on the door, lol) and come right back.
The residents saw exactly what I was up to, discharged me, and gave me a prescription for some antibiotic (which I didn't take either lolz), and made me sign a refusal of treatment form for refusing the tetanus shot before they let me leave to make said "phone call."
Here I sit, a week later, tetanus free, still munching on delicious fruits and vegetables and whole grains. And meat. Bwahahahaha. And I'm in better health than the fucking asshole who was dispensing his priceless medical advice to me.
My foot feels fine now and I'm going to go do a ton of cardio. 7 hours worth, to make up for last week. (hahah just kidding!!1)