those dang grasshoppers, poison ivy, lou gehrings disease

THOSE DANG GRASSHOPPERS
those dang grasshoppers are back again with a vengeance   guess they are the
off springs of the last crop that came through    if you live around here in the city
you dont realize they are around    some of my plants look like its fall and have no leaves
chickens are working as hard as possible to do their part
just need my guineas-they are grasshopper eating machines

POISON IVY
have seen a lot of contact dermatitis from this over the summer    
some people are just covered with it     can remember a relative who was burning brush and got hit with
the smoke    she was covered worse on the face
if severe enough can be left with scars from the damage to the skin
some of the most uncomfortable cases are the males that go the bathroom after
getting the oil on their hands

if you get exposed to poison ivy and know soon after it happens then you can
wash it off the skin if you get to it in time     be sure and wash the contaminated
clothes in warm soapy water     remember those who handle the clothes can get
the reaction from the oil on the clothes    worse case have seen was a mom who
got it from washing her kids clothes

if you get it take antihistamines such as generic zyrtec or generic claritin once a day
can use generic benadryl but it does make you sleepy
topically can use 1% hydrocortisone cream      
luke warm baths oatmeal baths or aveeno baths can soothe the skin     most patients can do this and get through the healing process
once you wash the oil off the skin then you can not give this to anyone else

severe cases usually benefit from  a course of oral steroids or steroid shot
so be careful        poison sumac and poison oak can also do this

LOU GEHRINGS DISEASE
lou gehrings disease or als or amyotophic lateral sclerosis  is a disease of the nerves that control almost everything      the person is left with inablillity to eat, handle secretions,  breathe, move extremities, etc     basically they are left with an intact brain function with the inability to do anything else
its a terrible disease     some people are now able to use eye movement to communicate with a computer which then speaks for them     when lou gehring was diagnosed he died within 2 years

a recent study just published suggest that repeated  concussions and head trauma in athletes can lead to the development of the disease or a similar disease    the head trauma may activate a proteinlike substance that may activate the disease   this seems to happen only in athletes that are susceptible to it
the incidence of als is higher in athletes than in the general population     it occurs in multiple sports-boxing baseball soccer etc

when they looked at lou gehrings history he had multiple episodes where he was knocked out for
several minutes in his career-maybe more than some football players    

this could be an important study in finding the cause and treatment and prevention of this disease

tomorrow-the wedding journey begins

the orangicgreen doctor